Police: Driver used SUV to strike black youth before hitting Latina teen, raging at gas station
By Danielle Gehr, Des Moines Register, December 24, 2019
Twice within an hour on the afternoon of Dec. 9, police say a Des Moines woman intentionally struck young pedestrians with her SUV: a 12-year-old boy in Des Moines and a 14-year-old girl in Clive.
Authorities say the woman, Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, last week admitted she targeted the teenage girl because she was Latino. Police said she had made no admissions as of Monday about her alleged role or motive in the hit-and-run of the boy, who is black.
She was charged with attempted murder in the Clive case on Friday, and a separate charge of attempted murder in the Des Moines case on Monday.
Franklin is also charged in a disturbance that occurred at a West Des Moines Conoco convenience store about an hour after the girl was hit. She faces a hate crime charge in that case, which also includes charges of assault, operating under the influence, theft and public intoxication, court records show.
Franklin is accused of hitting the child in Des Moines with her 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee at 3:54 p.m. on Dec. 9 as he walked on a sidewalk within an apartment complex property in the 6000 block of Creston Avenue. Witnesses told police the SUV accelerated prior to striking the young male.
The boy suffered minor injuries to his leg, according to a criminal complaint. Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines police said police received video surveillance from the apartment complex that connects the hit-and-run to Franklin’s SUV.
About 30 minutes later, Clive police say Franklin drove her SUV off the roadway and struck 14-year-old Natalia Miranda as the girl walked on a sidewalk along Indian Hills Drive.
Clive Police Chief Michael Venema on Friday said Franklin told police that she targeted Miranda because the girl “is Mexican.”
In an email to the Register on Monday evening, Parizek said that in looking at the Clive hit-and-run and the West Des Moines gas station disturbance, “the hate-filled motivation is apparent.”
“The collective voice of metro law enforcement, and the communities we serve, is sending the message that if you commit biased-based crimes, we will charge you with the most serious offense applicable, with the most severe consequences,” Parizek said. “In this case, that charge is attempted murder.”
Miranda suffered several injuries but returned to school less than a week after being struck. She told KCCI after the crash that she remembers the vehicle coming toward her, but doesn’t recall being hit.
“I was in the hospital and I tried moving, and I couldn’t get out of my bed,” Miranda, who was badly bruised and suffered a concussion, told the TV station. “Sitting up was the worst pain I’ve ever felt.”
About an hour after Miranda was hit, West Des Moines police were called to a Conoco gas station where Franklin allegedly stole merchandise and referred to employees and customers by racial and ethnic slurs.
Kevin Reed, 53, told the Des Moines Register on Friday that he was checking out at the gas station when he saw Franklin throwing potato chips, destroying merchandise and referring to people by racial and ethnic slurs.
West Des Moines police on Sunday said Franklin would face a felony hate crime charge — assault in violation of individual rights — for the Conoco incident, on top of other related charges.
Latino organizations including the League of United Latin American Citizens have called for Franklin to be charged with a hate crime in the Miranda hit-and-run, though authorities have not taken that step. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also issued a statement urging hate crime charges in that case.
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said a hate crime charge isn’t off the table in the Clive incident, but he doesn’t believe it would give the community the justice they are demanding.
Sarcone said a hate crime charge enhances specific other charges, such as arson, assault, criminal mischief and trespassing, but wouldn’t apply to the attempted murder charge. Hypothetically, he said, if Franklin were to be charged with both attempted murder and a hate crime, it would leave the possibility for the jury to compromise and drop the attempted murder charge.
Source: Des Moines Register.com/
‘Shocked would be an understatement’: Woman admits to hitting 14-year-old because of race
By Danielle Gehr and Philip Joens, Des Moines Register, December 22, 2019
The Clive police chief said hate crime charges are being considered after a woman admitted she hit a 14-year-old girl with her car because the girl is Hispanic.
Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, is charged with attempted murder for allegedly running down a 14-year-old on Dec. 9 as the girl walked to Indian Hills Junior High School, Clive police say. The Des Moines woman is being held at the Polk County Jail.
At a news conference Friday morning, Clive Police Chief Michael Venema said this action has “no place in our community.”
“Shocked would be an understatement,” Venema said. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 35 years, and I get very used to people being a little bit callous or maybe leaving the scene of an accident and not caring about someone who’s been hurt if they did so unintentionally.
“I was very shocked to hear that this was an intentional act.”
Franklin is accused of driving her 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee off the roadway in the 9200 block of Indian Hills Drive at Indian Hills Junior High School onto a sidewalk where the victim was walking at about 5 p.m. Dec. 9, according to a criminal complaint. There is no evidence the act was premediated at this time, Venema said.
Lisa Remy, superintendent of West Des Mines Community Schools, said the student returned to school a week after the accident and was given proper accommodations to catch up for the time lost.
Venema said they are looking into hate crime charges as they continue to investigate.
Franklin was arrested Dec. 9 in West Des Moines after an incident unrelated to the hit-and-run the same day.
At about 5:15 p.m. officers responded to a Conoco station in the 100 block of First Street, according to West Des Moines Police Sgt. Dan Wade. Franklin is accused of calling an employee and customers a racial slur and throwing items at the employee, according to a criminal complaint. The items struck the employee but no injuries were reported.
Franklin is charged with assault, operating under the influence, theft and public intoxication from the West Des Moines incident. Hate charges are also being considered in this case, Wade said.
During the investigation into the hit-and-run, police used witness accounts and surveillance video from the area to develop a suspect vehicle profile that matched a vehicle belonging to Franklin.
Franklin admitted to police Thursday that she hit the girl because the victim was “a Mexican.” Franklin had been in custody since the West Des Moines arrest.
Venema said the Conoco incident will be included when they present findings of the investigation to prosecutors.
He said the police department extended support to the family who was shocked to learn the incident was targeted.
“We spent a great deal of time with our victim’s parents last night and made sure that they understood that their family had a support network in place,” the chief said.
Franklin was charged Dec. 7 with possession of marijuana. West Des Moines police officers found her with a small bag with marijuana during an incident in which she refused to leave the Sheraton Hotel.
In February 2018, Franklin was charged with harassment and domestic abuse assault after she bit her boyfriend and threw something that struck him in the back of the neck, according to a criminal complaint. During the confrontation, Franklin picked up a butcher’s knife and repeatedly said she would kill her boyfriend, the complaint said.
Her boyfriend told police she was off her medicine, but Franklin told police that she was not in any mental state that needed medication.
Source: Des Moines Register via MSN
