Felony domestic with strangulation charge brought against Clear Lake man

MASON CITY – One young woman calls him a nightmare.  He allegedly strangled another.

Caught in a bar by police, nonchalantly chatting with a protected party who earlier accused him of domestic abuse, and already battling a harassment charge, a Clear Lake man has taken his troubles to a new level with an arrest for felony domestic assault involving strangulation.

Mason City police told NIT that on Sunday, March 23, 2014, a domestic assault was reported in Mason City allegedly involving 24-year-old Daniel Lee Franken. The assault allegedly took place at a Mason City home owned by parents of the accuser, on 21st Street SE. Investigators determined that probable cause existed in verifying the assault, and police began searching for Franken.

Mason City police, along with Cerro Gordo deputies, traveled to Clear Lake that day in search of Franken, and caught up with him after 11:00 PM at his parent’s house at 14485 Grouse Avenue in Clear Lake. Franken was taken into custody and brought to the Cerro Gordo County Jail where he was booked and held on a felony charge of domestic assault involving strangulation, obstruction of emergency communications, and violation of a no-contact order.

In January, a Clear Lake woman filed a petition in court for relief from domestic abuse and became a protected party from Daniel Franken. Within days, Franken was charged with violating the no-contact order. He has no been accused of violating the order three times; the first two charges were dismissed by courts.

In addition, Franken was charged with third degree harassment by Clear Lake police in October of last year, involving a female victim from Clear Lake.  Franken pled not guilty and was set for trial in November.  However, Franken’s lawyers have managed to postpone his trial four times, and no trial date is set at this time.

According to a female who Franken is accused of harassing, “red flags” began to appear not long after meeting him.

When asked about the circumstances behind the harassment, the woman told NIT, “He had a really bad temper and started getting really aggressive and controlling with me. Controlling to the fact that he would physically lay on the floor of my room so I couldn’t be alone and couldn’t move him. He’d pick locks to any door that I tried to shut myself in for safety, bathroom, my bedroom even to my walk in closet I use to have to hide and shut myself in there to try to keep him away while I could call the police. Drinking was also another huge factor to the problems. He is a functioning alcoholic and had threatened to “end it for the both of us” one night while driving intoxicated from the bar “Eleven” in Mason City. He would go through my phone, go through my computer, show up at my house unexpectedly before and after the no contact order was in place. Would send up to 30 texts before I could read one. It has been a seriously scary thing to have gone through. I’m still afraid constantly, I never know what he will do next.”

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