Donald Lyle Clark

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Charge:	Child/Minor Sex Abuse (incl. molestation)
Sentence:	"25 years with 17-1/2 year min., $11,000 costs & $67,000 restitution"
Years Imprisoned:	6.5
Year Crime:	2004
Year Convicted:	2010
Year Cleared:	2016
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Iowa
County or Region of Crime:	Johnson
City of Crime:	Iowa City
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Donald Lyle Clark was wrongly convicted on February 10, 2010 of secon-degree sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy in Iowa City, Iowa in 2004. Donald Clark was a school counselor at Helen Lemme Elementary School, where the boy was a student. Clark's defense was the incident's didn't happen. After his conviction by a jury Clark was sentenced to 25 years in prison with a minium of 17-1/2 years before being eligible for parole, payment of more than $11,000 in court fees, and $67,000 restitution to the boy. After his release Clark would have to register as a sex offender. On November 9, 2011 the Iowa Court of Appeal affirmed Clark's conviction. Then on June 8, 2012 the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed Clark's conviction. Clark filed a post-conviction petition asserting his trial lawyer John Robertson, who died in 2013, provided ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to visit or take pictures of Clark's office where the assaults allegedly occured that would have shown how busy the hallway was outside Clark's office and how easy it was to see into his office from the hallway window and that the incidents couldn't have occurred as testified to by the boy. He also asserted his lawyer was ineffective for failing to call character witnesses to testify on his behalf. His petition also included the new evidence that in his deposition in a civil lawsuit the boy recanted his trial testimony, admitting that he lied in his testimony during Clark's criminal prosecution, and that he knew he was lying under oath at the time about the nature and frequency of the alleged sexual contacts allegedly initiated by Clark. In May 2015 Iowa Sixth Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland granted Clark's petition. On July 7, 2016 the Johnson County District Attorney Office's motion to dismiss the charges against Clark in the interests of justice, was granted. Clark was released from custody and a no contact order between Clark and the child was cancelled. At the time of his release Clark had paid over $11,000 in fees and more than $2,000 in restitution. Clark will have to initiate proceedings to recover the more than $13,000 he had wrongly paid. After Clark's release, his post-conviction lawyer, Clemens Erdahl told The Des Moines Register, "One lesson for criminal defense attorneys from this case is it’s a good idea to always go to the scene of the crime. But this is a case in which the judge points out that it was even more important than usual, and the attorney had an investigator available to do it as well, so there wasn’t any good excuse.""
Conviction Caused By:	Perjury by alleged victim and ineffective assistance of counsel.
Innocence Proved By:	In May 2015 Iowa Sixth Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland granted Clark's petition. In July the Johnson County District Attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Clark in the interests of justice.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	41
Age When Released:	47
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"School counselor freed after sex conviction is tossed, By Stephen Gruber-Miller, The Des Moines Register, August 25, 2016"
Information Location 1:	http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/08/24/sex-abuse-conviction-overturned-former-guidance-counselor/89210318
Information Source 2:	"State v. Clark, 814 NW 2d 551 (Iowa Supreme Court 2012) (Affirming conviction)"
Information Location 2:	"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7024916945187679601&q=donald+clark+No.%E2%80%8210%E2%80%930511&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48"
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Donald Lyle Clark

Charge:

Child/Minor Sex Abuse (incl. molestation)

Sentence:

"25 years with 17-1/2 year min., $11,000 costs & $67,000 restitution"

Years Imprisoned:

6.5

Year Crime:

2004

Year Convicted:

2010

Year Cleared:

2016

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Iowa

County or Region of Crime:

Johnson

City of Crime:

Iowa City

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Perjury by alleged victim and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Innocence Proved By:

In May 2015 Iowa Sixth Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland granted Clark's petition. In July the Johnson County District Attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Clark in the interests of justice.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

41

Age When Released:

47

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"School counselor freed after sex conviction is tossed, By Stephen Gruber-Miller, The Des Moines Register, August 25, 2016"

Information Location 1:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/08/24/sex-abuse-conviction-overturned-former-guidance-counselor/89210318

Information Source 2:

"State v. Clark, 814 NW 2d 551 (Iowa Supreme Court 2012) (Affirming conviction)"

Information Location 2:

"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7024916945187679601&q=donald+clark+No.%E2%80%8210%E2%80%930511&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48"

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