2006-2009: Story Cty. and Ames City officials caused me to remain homeless for 8 years:

by Sondra Wilson. 8/17/2024.

    There are three parts to this story, broken into two articles, followed by a description of the third part. You can also read this section of the lawsuit from my petition. Some people have told me that these instances “happened too long ago” and that it’s too late to take action, however the discovery rule and the doctrine of equitable tolling extend limitations periods in cases wherein evidence of fraud was not discovered until after the fact. I did not discover evidence I was defrauded by a Judge and a pro bono attorney back in 2006 and 2009 until November 2022. Although I filed complaints against them with the Judicial Qualifications Commission and Attorney Disciplinary Board as soon as I found out, neither took disciplinary action. I also found out in 2022, after ordering the docket, that the officer who repeatedly arrested me performed a malicious prosecution via entering false information into the arrest report for the initial incident.

i. I was arrested in Ames for using the women’s restroom in 2006, and still seek justice (2022) – The same Ames Police officer arrested me twice in 2006. The first instance was after he ran my social security number, and my old name and gender came up in the records. I explained to him that I was transgender and that is why my current name and gender did not match my old records. His demeanor toward me changed, and in 2022 I learned he wrote false information into an affidavit he attached to the arrest report in order to wrongly charge me with “interference with official acts”. I plead not guilty to both charges, then just before the trial he arrested me again, this time for “trespassing’ into the women’s restroom. I did not learn that the Judge ordered him to arrest me for this until 2022, at which time I filed the complaint against the Judge. I also learned that a pro bono attorney who acted like he was helping me instead changed my pleas from not guilty to guilty without my knowledge or consent. The attorney also told me that I was unable to sue because this was unprecedented, but that the City of Ames was willing to issue me an apology letter. He told me that the letter would set a precedent so that the next transgender person would be able to sue, however I found out that the the letter was not entered into the case file. No precedent was set. They literally gave me a piece of paper that made me believe this was a win, when in reality the attorney entered into a plea deal I would never have agreed to. The Attorney Disciplinary Board did not take action on my complaint, stating that the attorney had not violated the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct.

ii. In 2009 an Ames Police Officer warned me to leave the state for my safety; I remained homeless for 8 years – while petitioning and street performing around Ames, a woman and I engaged in conversation. She seemed interested in signing, and we talked as we entered into the Culver’s restaurant. My petition was modeled after Prop 2, which I helped petition for in California after seeing the 2008 documentary Earthlings. The petition called for making factory farm cages large enough so that animals can at least turn 360° within their cages. I was kind of a naïve hippie back then, thinking the issue was a no-brainer. Unfortunately the petition elicited very negative reactions from many people, including the man the woman I was talking to was with. As we walked into Culver’s while conversing amicably, the man turned around and began screaming at me. Because my guitar was in hand, I sat down on the table behind me and began playing a song. As I began playing, a Manager came over, grabbed my guitar, and I pulled away, stating, “Animals have no voice in this society. I’m going to give them three minutes, and then I’ll leave.” I strummed a couple more chords, she grabbed the guitar again, and I pulled away and left. A block away I was arrested because apparently the Manager lied and said that I began pushing and kicking her after she asked me to leave. In court, her testimony did not match her statement to the police that day, and her own witness told the truth, that he “saw the whole thing” and that I “never touched her.” Judge Van Marel, however, performed an abuse of discretion and found me guilty, a ruling which directly contradicted not only her witness’s testimony, but also the testimonies of multiple other witnesses who testified. After the trial, a different Ames Police officer warned me that I should leave the state for my safety based on what he was hearing behind the scenes from other government officials. I left Iowa, remaining homeless and afraid to return to my home state until 2018.

iii. In November 2022 I discovered extrinsic fraud which occurred behind the scenes back in 2006 and 2009. There were a couple events which led to me pulling the dockets (case records) for both these old cases. The first instance was while my boyfriend and I were apartment searching in spring 2022. One of the property owners refused to rent to me because of several charges on my criminal record. I swore up and down I didn’t know what several of the charges were about, including an “interfering with official acts” charge from 2006. I honestly didn’t know, and was confused why this was on my record. The second instance happened after I was barred from the property of a nonprofit, Reliable Street Inc. in March 2022. I told the story of the 2006 and 2009 instances prior to performing Night of the Stock Market Crash at the final open mic I attended, just before I was barred from the property. After the businesses wrote numerous false statements about me into the public record in retaliation for me filing a civil rights complaint against  them, including heinous accusations of stalking, harassment, racism, and making anti-LGBT+ statements, it became apparent that the President of Reliable Street, who was at the open mic, intended to lean into the false assault charge I got back in 2009 if I came forward. I pulled the dockets in 2022 following these two instances, and learned about the plea deal the attorney signed me into in 2006, and that Judge Van Marel, pursuant to Iowa Code. Jud. Cond. 51:2.11, had been required to recuse himself in 2009. I was not told about his role during the restroom incident by the pro bono attorney back in 2009, and I found out that the attorney filed a motion to recuse in that case. That was one thing the attorney did right, but it does not excuse the fact that he entered into a plea bargain without my knowledge or consent (which I wouldn’t have given), deceived me, and misgendered me throughout his filings.

Within my lawsuit against the State, remedies I requested from the court, in relation to to these injustices, are as follows:

• • • Eliminate all criminal charges on my public record for the 2006 and 2009 cases – These are having a defamatory effect on me, and were unjustly put onto my record. I never had a fair trial for any of these cases. SMSM062530, SMSM062317, and SMSM066553.
    • Amend the Rules of Professional Conduct – Provide clients a “right to review” any and all paperwork an attorney submits on their behalf. Require that clients review and authorize any and all paperwork prior to it being filed. This would have prevented the pro bono attorney in my case from changing my pleas without my knowledge or consent. Amending the rules will prevent others from being harmed in the same manner that I was.
    • Pass the Justice Accessibility Act –

• • • • Simplify the overly-complex Iowa Court Rules – reduce the 309 Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure, 63 Rules of Evidence, and 89 Rules of Criminal Procedure into user-friendly DIY step-by-step instructions average Citizens can understand and easily access. Include court forms and templates for petitions and motions where appropriate. Hyperlink legal terms to their respective definitions.
      • Post federal and state Supreme Court rulings online, organized by topic – Currently the State of Iowa posts lists of archived rulings on their website, however these are organized by the date they were issued – not by topic.1 To find court rulings, you generally have to search for them using WestLaw; access costs about $130/mo. As a student who lives in Ames, I have to drive all the way to Des Moines to the capitol building to use it, and even then you are restricted to about 10-15 case rulings before the computer cuts you off and won’t allow you to continue searching and emailing rulings to yourself. Why have we allowed our judicial system to become privatized!? It would take very little effort on the part of the state to make OUR case rulings more handily available to the public.
      • Teach at least the basics of jurisprudence (the science of the application of law aka “the basics of law”) in high school – Students should graduate high school knowing the difference between criminal and civil law. and basic step-by-step what to do if your rights are violated – including by an officer or government official. Schools ought teach about COLOR OF LAW CRIMES (when a government official (or body) uses the “color” (appearance) of law (e.g. unconstitutional ordinance or policy) to violate someone’s right. Students should know the basics of contract law including how to form an effective contract. They should also know what to do if a judge or administrator makes an unjust determination – not just “how to appeal the decision” (because let’s face it, appealing a case is often ineffective), but also how to file a complaint against a judge with the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission. As someone who has had my life severely harmed by a corrupt judge in Ames, Iowa, I believe this is extremely important. We should know how to interact with our own government. I didn’t learn about what an Ombudsman or the Judicial Qualifications Commission – the ICRC – we just don’t learn enough about how our state government is structured in schools, and not teaching leaves individuals and the general public vulnerable to local and state corruption.
      • Award damages to Citizens who are found “not guilty” in criminal cases – a Citizen should not have to file a claim or civil suit after being found not guilty in order to be reimbursed for their time and emotional pain and suffering. People who are falsely charged with a crime are put into a stressful situation, facing jail time, fines, and/or the social stigma of permanent charges to their criminal record. Their names are run in the newspaper’s arrest report, which can also hold a social stigma. When a Citizen is found not guilty, the State ought to provide a standard reimbursement for the time that was taken away from that person’s life, emotional distress they endured, and assumed harm to their reputation.

To Donate:

     There is still a long road ahead, not only with regard to legal filings and preparing for trial, but also in continuing to develop this webpage and related articles, and performing outreach to hopefully find more (accurate) media coverage. If you would like to donate toward my continued efforts, it would be greatly appreciated. This is an overtime job with no pay, but it is obviously very important and bigger than myself.

Venmo = @Sondra-Wilson-777

Paypal = [email protected]

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