Arraignment set for suspects in Bailey slaying
County attorney and sheriff's office expect heavy workload and expense
By NICK NARIGON
Three suspects in the slaying of Curtis Casper Bailey, 33, Marengo, will be arraigned in Iowa County District Court Thursday, Aug. 13, at 9 a.m.
According to court documents, Bailey was killed in his home by blunt force trauma to the back of his skull at approximately 1:30 a.m. Sunday, July 19.
Denise Leone Frei, 43, Marengo, Jacob Scott Hilgendorf, 19, Belle Plaine, and Jessica Anne Dayton, 19, Belle Plaine, are facing charges of first degree murder in connection with Bailey’s slaying.
The three allegedly willfully, deliberately and with pre-meditation killed Bailey at 220 W. Main St., Marengo, the home he shared with Frei.
Bailey and Frei are the co-owners of Bailey’s Lincoln Café, Belle Plaine.
Iowa County Attorney Tim McMeen said he is limited to what he can say about the Bailey case. He said he expects the three defendants to plead not guilty at the arraignment.
McMeen said he cannot reveal much about the upcoming Tonch Weldon murder trial either.
Weldon is accused of shooting Amy Gephert in his rural Marengo home Sunday, June 7. Weldon’s first class murder trail starts Tuesday, Oct. 14.
“We have four defendants with obviously the most serious charge one can face. It’s a handful,” McMeen said. “It is certainly something we will deal with.”
McMeen said he does not know how much money the trials will cost Iowa County taxpayers, or if the Iowa State Attorney’s Office will become involved.
“Those are things we will assess as things proceed,” McMeen said.
Iowa County Sheriff Robert Rotter said at one time it was believed Weldon’s trial could cost the county as much as $100,000 because Weldon was being guarded at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Now that Weldon is at the Iowa Classification and Medical Center, Oakdale, housing him won’t cost as much, Rotter said.
However, with three more defendants, Rotter said $100,000 might be a bargain.
“I don’t know if we can put a number on it yet. We will deal with it as it comes,” he said. “We have 40 percent of our work force dedicated to the Bailey investigation, plus Weldon’s case on top of that. We will have to pay overtime just have cars out on patrol.”
Rotter also said he is also limited to what he can say about either case.
“We need to be careful to make sure all off the defendants get a fair trial,” he said.
EXTRA JAILER
Frei, Hilgendorf and Dayton are all inmates at the Iowa County Jail. Rotter said the jailers have had no problems with any off the three.
Because each suspect is charged with first-degree murder, they must be segregated from each other, and they must be checked on every 15 minutes.
This arrangement has proven difficult, and Rotter said he will make a request to the Iowa County Board of Supervisors to hire a seventh jailer.
“Because of the security concerns involved with housing three accused murderers we can’t do what is required of us without another jailer,” he said.
The three inmates require personal checks every 15 minutes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Meanwhile, the jail, which had 27 inmates as of Monday, Aug. 3, must continue to operate as before. Jailers must take prisoners to court, feed prisoners, pass out medications, maintain the jail facilities, etc., Rotter said.
Jailers are working overtime to meet the requirements and 911 dispatchers have been filling in for some of the jailers’ duties, Rotter said. In the last two-week pay period, he said the sheriff’s office paid $4,500 in overtime.
“That is just dealing with these latest prisoners,” Rotter said. “We have people working 60 hour weeks. We had people cancel their time off. We are stuck with having class A accused felons for an undetermined amount of time. Pushing off vacation only makes things worse.”
Rotter said scheduling jailers to work shifts has been a challenge, and even hiring a seventh jailer won’t alleviate all of the problems. Ideally, he said they would have eight or nine jailers.
“It was a challenge when we were guarding Tonch in the hospital,” Rotter said. “Now to have three here, it’s not something any sheriff’s office can anticipate.”
Deputies used up comp time while guarding Weldon at UIHC, and four deputies are now working 14 hours a day investigating the Bailey case. Because the deputies are using comp time, they might have to be asked to stay home, Rotter said.
“How do you do that when you have two murder investigations?” he said. “Sheriff’s offices in rural Iowa are not set up to handle four murder trials,” he said.
The starting wage for a jailer is $14.61 an hour, or $30,400 annually, Rotter said. He said the sheriff’s office has generated more revenue this year than budgeted.
“We might as well bite the bullet and use the revenue to run the jail as safely as possible,” he said.
When Weldon was being held at the university hospital, Rotter began working to booster the county’s reserve deputy program. The fact the county has a larger reserve force will prove as a benefit to handling the increased workload, he said.
“The reserve program has grown and I hope to use the reserve force just on the day-to-day operations of the sheriff’s office,” he said.
ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS
Rotter said he is meeting with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, the Marengo Police Department and the Iowa County Attorney’s Office every two to three days to go over the investigation. He said he turned over lot of material to the DCI office last week, and it may take some time before they release any information about the investigation.
The trials for each defendant could drag out, since two murder trials cannot take place at the same time in Iowa County, Rotter said. In addition, attorneys might request a change of venue, he said.
“We have to be really conscious, are we tainting a possible juror out there? There is only such a small jury pool to draw from when there are possibly three trials coming up,” he said. “I don’t know if you can get three juries seated.”
UPDATED August 5, 2009 10:02 AM