Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 13
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 13, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there may be some patchy fog before 8 a.m. on Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids area, but besides that it will be sunny with a high near 72 degrees.
A dead man who was found last week on the University of Iowa campus has been identified as Gabriel Moliter, 44, of Iowa City, according to university police.
Emergency responders were called to the north patio of the Stanley Hydraulic Laboratory, on Riverside Drive, at 7:15 a.m. Sept. six on a report of an unconscious and possibly deceased male, according to UI police. When they arrived, responders confirmed the death.
Based on a preliminary investigation and help from the Johnson County Medical Examiner, officials don’t believe foul play was involved in the death, a news release states. The release does not say what Moliter’s cause of death was.
Moliter was not a student or employee at the university, authorities said last week.
A magistrate concluded Tuesday, following last month’s non jury trial, that a North Liberty teen driving a sport utility vehicle on May 22 failed to yield to a jogger who he struck in a marked crosswalk on Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in Iowa City.
Sixth Judicial District Magistrate Mark Neary ruled Jonathan J.F. McCaffery, 16, at the time, “did not comply with the common law requirements under the circumstances.” McCaffery approached the pedestrian crosswalk at a little over the speed limit, according to what McCaffery told a police officer. At the scene, McCaffery said he was driving at “full speed.”
McCaffery is the son of University of Iowa head basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
Neary, in the ruling, said there is no evidence, according to police, that the teen was speeding, driving in a reckless manner, that he was distracted while driving or using his cellphone, or that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Three witnesses said McCaffery didn’t slow down until the vehicle hit Corey Hite, 45, of Cedar Rapids. Witnesses also testified that another motorist had waved Hite into the intersection before McCaffery’s vehicle arrived.
Hite, an Iowa National Guard soldier, later died from his injuries.
Under Iowa law, there is an enhancement for this misdemeanor when it results in a death, which includes a $1,000 fine, a driver's license suspension of up to 180 days or both, according to police.
The NCAA has denied Iowa defensive lineman Noah Shannon’s appeal of his yearlong suspension for sports wagering, Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday.
The failed appeal essentially marks the end of college football for Shannon, a sixth-year senior and two-year starter on the defensive line.
Ferentz previously said Shannon placed a bet on a different University of Iowa sports team. The NCAA’s updated sports gambling guidelines suggest an athlete who does so “will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports.”
“I don’t agree with or understand, quite frankly, the decision, especially when it comes to the severity of the punishment,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “The panel that heard the appeal had an opportunity to really do something, make a decision that to me would reflect reason and also reflect the changing environment, and they failed to do so.”
