WEST LIBERTY – The former West Liberty School District guidance counselor accused of sexually abusing a student faces 13 additional charges related to the investigation.
According to a press release from the West Liberty Police Department, Emily Erin Resendiz, 27, of West Liberty, was charged with nine counts of second-degree sex abuse; one count of sex abuse – continuous sexual abuse of a child; one count of lascivious conduct with a minor, one count of contempt – violation of a no-contact order; and one count of witness tampering.
Second-degree sexual abuse and continuous sex abuse of a child are Class B felonies punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Lascivious conduct with a minor is a serious misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison. Witness tampering is an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison. Violating a no-contact order is a simple misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail.
Her initial appearance hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. May 31.
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Earlier this year she was charged with criminal trespass; violating a no-contact order; sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist or school employee; and two counts of second-degree sexual abuse. A pretrial conference for those cases is scheduled for Aug. 19 and a jury trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 29.
The new witness tampering charge comes from a witness who reported seeing a boy exiting Resendiz’s house through a window. The witness also claims Resendiz handed him two personal items before the subject left the area. The boy was determined to be the victim in the earlier sex abuse and witness tampering case.
On Jan. 24, West Liberty Police received a report Resendiz allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a student. They discovered evidence that suggested Resendiz sexually abused the boy at least twice while she was a guidance counselor at the middle school. According to a booking sheet, the victim had photos on his phone of Resendiz kissing him. The new charges stem from additional instances of Resendiz allegedly sexually abusing the boy.
According to the press release, the police department reviewed evidence obtained from search warrants and other sources and more evidence had been discovered in the case. Based on the evidence, Resendiz, who had been free awaiting trial, was arrested.
The charges of violating a no-contact order and trespassing stem from a Feb. 22 incident. According to police, an eye-witness saw Resendiz at 12:25 p.m. in her vehicle at West Liberty High School, where a juvenile got into her vehicle and drove off. The juvenile was an immediate family member of a subject with a no-contact order against Resendiz.
Resendiz was previously arrested on Feb. 6 on charges of witness tampering, contempt of court and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The West Liberty Police Department is still actively seeking information on this investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police department at (319) 627-2223.
How the avian influenza has impacted Iowa
How the avian influenza has impacted Iowa
One human and more than 37 million birds—comprised mostly of poultry across 172 commercial flocks and 119 backyard flocks in 34 states—have been been affected in the current avian influenza outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in April 2022 that a Colorado man was the first reported U.S. citizen to have contracted the H5N1 virus during the current outbreak. The patient was an inmate at a state correctional facility whose pre-release employment program involved the depopulation, or killing, of poultry at a commercial farm in Montrose County. His only symptom was fatigue, and he has since made a complete recovery.
Stacker compiled statistics on the avian influenza in Iowa using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The data is current as of May 9. According to the USDA, the affected count captures the total number of birds on the premises where the H5N1 virus was detected. Although it is possible that not every bird was carrying the virus, all birds within an affected population are culled to prevent further spread.
Impact from state to state varies based largely on the number of commercial operations within each state. In Ohio, just one backyard flock and 20 birds were affected. In neighboring Pennsylvania, close to 4 million birds have been destroyed. Worse still, Iowa, which had the highest number of chickens of any U.S. state in 2021 with 60 million heads, has been the most severely impacted in terms of quantity, losing a little more than 13 million birds since the virus was first reported in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana in February 2022.
The impact of the outbreak is being felt by many Americans at the grocery store. According to the USDA’s Food Price Outlook for April 2022, poultry prices are predicted to increase between 7.5% and 8.5%, and egg prices are predicted to increase between 6% and 7% due, in part, to decreased production at some of the country’s biggest commercial flocks.
Read on to learn more about how the current avian influenza outbreak is affecting wild and commercial birds in your state.
- Number of birds affected in Iowa: 13.4 million
--- #1 most birds affected among all states
--- 35.6% of all birds affected nationwide
Counties with the most birds affected in Iowa
#1. Buena Vista: 5.5 million birds affected (41.0% of all cases in Iowa)
#2. Osceola: 5.0 million (37.5%)
#3. Guthrie: 1.5 million (10.9%)
#4. Taylor: 915,900 (6.8%)
#5. Franklin: 250,200 (1.9%)
#6. Cherokee: 88,000 (0.7%)
#7. Hardin: 46,000 (0.3%)
#8. Sac: 37,200 (0.3%)
#9. Hamilton: 33,900 (0.3%)
#10. Bremer: 29,250 (0.2%)
#11. Humboldt: 15,000 (0.1%)
#12. Pottawattamie: 40 (0.0%)
#13. Kossuth: 6 (0.0%)
#14. Warren: 5 (0.0%)
States with the most birds affected
#1. Iowa: 13.4 million
#2. Nebraska: 4.9 million
#3. Pennsylvania: 3.9 million
#4. Wisconsin: 3.0 million
#5. Minnesota: 2.9 million
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