9-30-2013 Iowa:
Sex offender William Cubbage allegedly told a state investigator that he had sexual contact with an elderly nursing home resident before the August incident that led to a criminal investigation.
The evidence of other sexual assaults surfaced during a court hearing Monday in Rockwell City. The Iowa attorney general’s office argued that Cubbage, 83, poses a threat to others and must be confined, at least for now, in a locked unit, rather than in a nursing home. After the 15-minute hearing, Judge Gary McMinimee ruled that the state had met its burden in showing probable cause to believe Cubbage is a sexually violent predator. McMinimee agreed to the state’s request that Cubbage be confined to the Newton Correctional Facility pending a trial on whether he should be re-committed to the state-sun Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders in Cherokee.
Cubbage lived in that unit from 2002 and 2010, then was released to the Pomeroy Care Center in November 2010. On Aug. 21, an 8-year-old girl who was visiting the nursing home told authorities she saw a man in the room of an elderly woman with his hands between the woman’s legs. The woman was allegedly calling out, “No, no, no!”
According to the state inspectors who subsequently fined the home $10,000, the child’s allegation was supported by physical injuries sustained by the woman and by statements from workers at the home. The alleged victim told authorities, “That man keeps coming into my room and doing things.”
Calhoun County Attorney Cynthia Voorde has said she plans to file charges in the case very soon.
Cubbage was attentive and jocular during Monday’s court proceedings. When asked by an assistant attorney general whether he’d rather be sent to the Newton facility or to the civil commitment unit pending the trial, he chuckled and said, “It doesn’t make any difference. I’ve been to both of ’em. I’ll go to Newton.”
Cubbage did not testify during the hearing and declined to speak to a reporter.
During the hearing, the attorney general’s office presented the judge with a report from the state’s
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The report summarized investigator Troy Wolff’s Aug. 29 interview with Cubbage at the Pomeroy Care, eight days after the alleged assault.
Wolff wrote that during the interview, Cubbage “made numerous attempts to avoid questions and acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about.” To gauge Cubbage’s awareness, Wolff asked Cubbage about his past. Although Cubbage claimed to have no recollection of his four past convictions for sex crimes, he did recall having lived in Muscatine and having worked as a truck driver.
Wolff concluded Cubbage had the ability to recall past events accurately when he chose to do so.
When asked about the Aug. 21 incident, Cubbage reportedly told Wolff that he and the alleged victim “were just in there talking.” When questioned further, however, Cubbage allegedly admitted touching the woman. When asked if he did anything else to her, Cubbage allegedly replied, “No, sexual, no. I just felt it, that’s all.”
Asked if the woman had consented, Cubbage allegedly replied, “She didn’t reject anything.” And when asked if he had been in the woman’s room before Aug. 21, he allegedly said, “I’ve been there before,” adding, “I just touch it.”
Cubbage’s attorney, Mike Adams, participated in the hearing via telephone and objected to the state’s effort to have Wolff’s report admitted as evidence. Adams noted that Cubbage has been diagnosed with dementia, making anything he said during the interview “inherently” unreliable.
“My contention is that he is not a competent witness to give accurate information,” Adams said.
Judge McMinimee admitted the interview summary as evidence, but later indicated that he assigned the document “minimal weight” in determining there was probable cause to believe Cubbage is a sexual predator. The trial to determine whether Cubbage should be committed to the sex-offender unit on a long-term basis is scheduled for Jan. 4, 2012.
Several workers at the Pomeroy Care Center have told state inspectors it was obvious to them when Cubbage entered the facility that he posed a risk to other residents and to the children that a local school sent to the facility to visit with seniors and participate in a day-care program. The workers described incidents in which Cubbage and another sex offender who lives in the home, John Steinkamp, accosted other residents or chased after children in the facility.
After the Aug. 21 incident, the home placed an alarm on the door to the room Cubbage shared with Steinkamp. On Friday, Cubbage was taken from the home and transported to the civil commitment unit in Cherokee pending Monday’s hearing.
..Source.. by Clark Kauffman
