TOLEDO — After a slight delay due to a juror arriving late at the Tama County Courthouse, testimony in the trial of the former Elberon Public Library director charged with soliciting a group of children to vandalize the facility last May began on Tuesday morning.
Both the prosecution and the defense in the case agree that on May 22, 2024, a group of seven minor participants in an afterschool program led by then-Librarian Bailey Anne Jenkins, 33, “ransacked and destroyed” the facility and caused nearly $18,000 in damages. The point of contention, however, is whether or not the defendant, in her final day on the job, bore criminal responsibility for the events that transpired and encouraged them as an act of retribution related to frustrations over her employment situation.
Although she was originally charged with seven counts of solicitation to commit a felony, Jenkins is standing trial on a single count of that charge, a Class D felony, along with one count of second degree criminal mischief, also a Class D felony. Tama County Attorney Brent Heeren gave the first opening statement, recounting the basic facts of the case and contending that “things really changed” on the afternoon of May 22…