Iowa Supreme Court reverses guilty verdict

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| Monday, January 10, 2005 12:27 AM CST | () comments

Thomas Geyer

The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a guilty verdict against a Davenport man for trying to lure an 8-year-old girl into his car because the state law, as written, violates a person's right to free speech.

But it appears to be a minor victory for Ryan Patrick Quinn, 31, who was convicted Sept. 11, 2003, of attempting to entice a minor, an aggravated misdemeanor under Iowa law.

Scott County Associate Judge Douglas McDonald used an inference in the law that five of the seven justices ruled unconstitutional because they said it abridges the First Amendment right to free speech.

But instead of giving Quinn a new trial, the ruling allows McDonald the chance to find the man guilty based on other evidence and enforce the original sentence of two years on unsupervised probation, Scott County Attorney Bill Davis said.

"A portion of the statute says that if you try to entice a child to your car, the trier of fact may conclude that you wanted to do it for sexual purposes," he said. "The court found that to be unconstitutional."

That was the portion of the law McDonald used to convict Quinn.

It is possible someone simply could be asking the child for directions, which is protected speech, Davis said.

"What the justices are telling the Legislature with this ruling is that they just need to clean up the wording in the law," he added.

"If Quinn was hoping for a new trial and a complete victory on this, he failed," Davis said. "This is a lawyer's victory. The justices gave the trial judge discretion by saying that they found sufficient evidence to convict without the inference.

"Quinn does not get a new trial and he can be found guilty without the inference that was found unconstitutional," he added. "There are other circumstances you can use to prove what this guy intended. But that he spoke to the child should not be one of them. Quinn's sentence will stick."

Quinn was convicted of attempting to entice an 8-year-old Walcott girl into his car the afternoon of April 22, 2003, according to court records.

The child was riding her bicycle when she saw a brown car drive by. The driver said "Hi" to her and turned the car around and pulled into a driveway, blocking the child's path.

According to court documents, the driver said, �Come over here' and gestured with his index finger. The child screamed and her father came outside, after which police arrived.

During an interview with Walcott police officer Kevin Takacs, Quinn said the little girl was smiling and looked to be having a good time, but as soon as he made eye contact, she became scared and "the look on her face was like she could read my mind like she knew what I wanted to do to her later," according to court documents.

Quinn told Takacs he would go out, drive around at random and make some kind of eye contact with a girl. That was enough stimulation for him to go home, take a shower and masturbate.

McDonald found Quinn guilty after a bench trial.

In his summary, McDonald said the deciding factor "in this case is the uncontroverted statement given to officer Kevin Takacs by the defendant describing the victim's smiling face that quickly changed as if she knew what he �wanted to do to her later.' To the court in this case it can be inferred that he had in mind taking her in furtherance of his sexual attraction to young girls."

In their ruling, the justices said "a fact finder could reasonably infer from all of this evidence" that Quinn was attempting to entice away the child "for the purposes of performing an illegal act upon her."

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at

(563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.