Gazette Daily News Briefing, February 9
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, February 9.
Would you care for some wintry mix? There is snow and sleet and rain in the forecast for the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday, and the amount of any of the three will likely depend on just a small shift in temperature. In any case, most of the precipitation should fall before noon on Thursday, with it mostly shifting to entirely rain after 11 a.m. The predicted high temperature is 37 degrees.
The Iowa Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned the second-degree murder conviction of a Marion man for fatally stabbing Chris Bagley in 2018, ruling the judge abused his discretion in asking the jury to continue deliberations when jurors revealed, in a note, “open hostility toward a lone holdout juror.”
The court ruled that 6th Judicial District Judge Christopher Bruns shouldn’t have given a supplemental instruction after receiving notes from the jury in the murder trial of Drew Blahnik, who since changed his name to Johnny Blahnik Church. The trial judge had urged jurors, who deliberated for three days, to reach a unanimous verdict despite the conflict.
First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said the office will ask the Iowa Attorney General’s Office for further review by the Iowa Supreme Court. If the office agrees, then it will go to the higher court, asking it to overturn the appeals court ruling.
If the court denies or upholds the appeals ruling, then the Linn County Attorney’s Office will retry Blahnik Church for Bagley’s murder.
Authorities have identified the man killed in a two-vehicle collision on Tuesday while also charging the other driver with drunken driving.
Dylan Vascik, 46, of Springville, was killed Tuesday in a crash after a suspected drunken driver lost control of his vehicle and collided with Vascik’s vehicle on Springville Road north of Springville.Vascik was pronounced dead at the scene.
Zachary Twachtmann, 31, of Anamosa, has been charged with homicide by vehicle and operating under the influence. According to a criminal complaint, after police responded to the accident, he smelled strongly of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests administered by law enforcement. A warrant was issued to take his blood, but the complaint doesn’t say what his blood alcohol content was.
Cash awards for pain, suffering and other non-economic complications from medical malpractice lawsuits would be capped at $2 million for hospitals and $1 million for doctors under a measure that soon will be state law.
Republican state lawmakers approved the proposal Wednesday, and Gov. Kim Reynolds has signaled she will sign it into law.
The proposal will cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases; it does not cap economic or punitive damages.
Supporters of the caps argue they are needed so hospitals and other health care centers can avoid fiscal chaos caused by high-dollar jury awards and insurance.
Opponents say the caps limit the ability of victims and their families to fully obtain justice. And they argue large verdicts are not a problem in Iowa, as very few medical malpractice lawsuits go to trial in the state.
