MASON CITY – A Mason City police officer has received a written warning for an accident that essentially wrecked three vehicles.
Mason City Chief of Police Jeff Brinkley tells NIT that the crash investigation has been completed by the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Office involving Officer Steve Klemas.
“Officer Klemas received a written warning from a deputy for failure to maintain control,” Chief Brinkley says.
“Our review of the incident is underway and internal,” he said Friday. “The results will not be public, since it is a personnel matter.”
According to a report from the Cerro Gordo county sheriff’s office, on February 18th 2016 at around 8:42 PM, officer Klemas was traveling eastbound in the 400 hundred block of East State Street in Mason City, Iowa when the driver of was lost in his train of thought and struck two vehicles which were both legally parked facing eastbound on East State Street. The vehicles involved in the collision were a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu owned by Justin Mejia of Hampton, Iowa and a 2003 Ford Focus owned by Jon Backlin of Mason City, Iowa. Upon officer Klemas’ striking a vehicle, it was moved from the roadway up on to the snowbank, and the second vehicle was also moved from its parking spot as a result of being struck. All three vehciles sustained disabling damage and were towed from the scene.
There have been some citizens who have questioned the outcome of the case.
“Are you going to print anything on the cop that wrecked 3 cars and gets no ticket?” one man asked NIT. “You or I would have at least failure to control vehicle! How can they give any civialian a ticket after this?”
Another man wrote in, saying “I’m on a rage this cop that hit this car,” he said. He was in the middle of writing a statement for a social media rant page.