MASON CITY – Judge Rustin Davenport gave a newly-convicted sex offender from Northwood a suspended 25-year prison sentence in 2023, and while “serving time” in the notorious Beje Clark halfway house, the offender raped a child in Mason City, landing him 27 years in prison courtesy of a different judge.
Records show Isaac Joseph Adams (pictured at top), now 18-years-old, was accused in Worth county of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary, and second-degree sexual abuse after a November 30, 2021 incident, when he was 15-years-old. Judge Rustin Davenport accepted a plea deal after what appears to be lengthy court proceedings and dropped all the charges except the sex assault charge. On December 19, 2023, Davenport sentenced Adams to 25 years in prison and suspended the sentence, gave him 5 years of probation, and made him Mason City’s problem by sending him to the Beje Clark residential holding pen for a 180 day stay.
Then, only weeks later, on March 11, 2024, Mason City police charged Adams with third-degree sexual abuse of a child, second offense, after a March 4, 2024 crime. This time, justice moved faster. In connection to a plea deal, Adams pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse, a class B felony. On July 29, 2024, he was sentenced by Judge Norman Blake to 25 years in prison. At the same time, Adams also pleaded guilty to violating the Iowa sex offender registry, a Class C felony, and was sentenced by Judge Blake to 2 years in prison for that crime.
Adams remains in the Cerro Gordo county jail, awaiting transport to prison.
Judge Rustin Davenport has a notorious record for leniency on sex predators. NIT reported in 2021 that he let a child molester off with probation. Prior to that case, in 2018, Davenport let a local child molester go free, prompting a community uproar and calls for his ouster.
Judge Rustin Davenport will be on the ballot for the November 5, 2024 election for the District 2A court to retain his seat on the bench.