Only in America! Sheriff collected hefty jail fees from inmates and used the funds for ice cream and cotton candy at gun range party, lawsuit says

An Iowa woman filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday against a local sheriff over his aggressive policies to get “blood out of a turnip” by allegedly forcing low-income individuals to pay exorbitant jail fees that were then used to fund a gun range stocked with cotton candy and ice cream.

Leticia Roberts served a total of nine days in county jail in 2022 for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. After Roberts was released, she received an invoice for $730 for the time she was detained at the Black Hawk County Jail.

Roberts is a single mom of three who says the $730 bill is a massive debt for her that she still struggles to pay more than two years later.

The ACLU of Iowa filed a class-action lawsuit on Roberts’ behalf in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. The filing names Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson and Black Hawk County as defendants.

“As a regular citizen, and being involved within the community, it makes me upset because a sheriff’s office is supposed to uphold the law, not bend it,” Roberts said in a statement. “As a mom, it makes me upset because that is money that could be going towards feeding my children. But instead it was put towards things such as cotton candy and ice cream machines for ‘fun.’”

Under Iowa law, county sheriffs have the right to collect “jail fees” from released inmates through the process of a civil “reimbursement claim.” Tony Thompson, the elected sheriff of Black Hawk County, Iowa, developed a jail fee system for the county whereby inmates must repay the county $25 for booking fees and $70 per day of incarceration for “room and board charges.” The fees are collected periodically after inmates sign a confession of judgment form on their release. Inmates are required to sign the confession of judgment forms in order to have their possessions returned as they exit the jail, and the forms are neither notarized nor signed in the presence of counsel.

According to the lawsuit, the system results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in income to the county each year, all “without any process whatsoever and without a judge reviewing the claims,” and even without individuals consulting with their attorneys.

Iowa state law dictates that 60% of the funds collected for jail fees are to be used for courthouse and jail infrastructure or medical expenses. However, the remaining 40% is distributed by a county Board of Supervisors. The lawsuit alleges that in Black Hawk County, at Thompson’s urging, the funds were used for recreation at a shooting range, including “a cotton candy machine, an ice cream machine and laser tag.”

Read more at Law & Crime

https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/blood-out-of-a-turnip-sheriff-collected-hefty-jail-fees-from-inmates-and-used-the-funds-for-ice-cream-and-cotton-candy-at-gun-range-party-lawsuit-says/?

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