Jury selection begins in Lindaman retrial; judge denies double jeopardy argument

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Jury selection began Monday in the retrial of Douglas Lindaman of Charles City.

Also Monday, the judge in the case denied Lindaman’s request that the trial be called off because of constitutional provisions against double jeopardy.

Lindaman, 62, is beginning his third trial on a felony charge of sexual abuse in the third degree.

The first trial, in 2016, ended in a conviction but was overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court. The second, in February, ended in a mistrial when witnesses mentioned information that was not to be brought up before the jury.

Lindaman argued in a motion at a hearing held in Mason City last Friday that his case should not be able to be retried again because “the malfeasance by the state has been repetitive and it’s been outrageous,” referring to actions he attributed to Floyd County Attorney Rachel Ginbey, who originally brought charges against Lindaman and who has been the prosecutor at each trial.

The Iowa and the U.S. constitutions prohibit a person from being tried more than once on the same charges — called double jeopardy — but that does not usually apply in a mistrial, unless the prosecution or some third party purposefully acts to cause the mistrial.

Lindaman said the county attorney did not do enough to prevent witnesses at the previous trial from mentioning information that the court had ruled off-limits, had made errors in filing the original charges and had done other acts that proved a pattern of harassment and attempts to prejudice the jury.

District Court Judge Gregg Rosenbladt, in his ruling filed Monday, wrote, “The Court finds that in this case, the State did not intentionally provoke a mistrial through misconduct.”

He said that other matters raised by Lindaman had already been ruled on previously and had not been found to be misconduct by the prosecution.

The trial this week is being held in Mason City on a change of venue because of pretrial publicity in Floyd County. The original trial was held in Floyd County, but the second trial — the one that resulted in a mistrial — was held in Hampton, in Franklin County.

Lindaman had argued last Friday that Mason City was closer to Charles City than Hampton had been, and he urged the judge to move the trial to Clarion, in Wright County, but Rosenbladt ruled last Friday to keep the trial in Cerro Gordo County.

Rosenbladt said Monday morning that jury selection is likely to last through Tuesday morning or possibly longer.

Prospective jurors were given a written questionnaire with more than 50 questions on it that Lindaman devised to “speed up jury selection and the identification of jurors with explicit and implicit bias” about sexual orientation. Lindaman has identified himself as gay.

The court is also doing more individual questioning of potential jurors at this trial to select a jury.

Jury selection is taking place at the Cerro Gordo County courthouse, but once a jury is empaneled the trial will be moved to a courtroom at the Cerro Gordo County Law Enforcement Center in west Mason City, because another trial is scheduled to begin in the courthouse courtroom.

Both Lindaman and Ginbey have said the trial is likely to last until Friday or longer.

Lindaman was charged in 2015 with third-degree sexual abuse for allegedly sexually touching a 17-year-old boy in 2011, after hiring the boy as a farmhand. The charge is a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Lindaman argued at his first trial that he touched the boy “therapeutically” to help him get over a “blocked physiological disorder” and that the touch was not sexual and therefore not criminal.

He has also accused the family of the alleged victim of trying to extort money from him.