COUNCIL BLUFFS — Why bother filing charges against a Shelby, Iowa, man — already serving a 110-year prison sentence in Nebraska for two sexual assaults — in connection with assaults in Pottawattamie County?
"We have four other victims who deserve justice on their cases as well," Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said Tuesday.
So while Todd A. Mills is serving what could be a life sentence for his actions in Nebraska, Wilber said, the four Iowa cases must go forward.
Wilber noted that cases can be overturned or thrown out on appeal. "I know nothing about the Nebraska case, but in the future if something happens, I don't want to have blown the statute of limitations over here," he said.
Wilber called the attacks that reportedly occurred in rural Council Bluffs "brutal."
He filed trial information against Mills on Monday, charging him with four counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of first-degree sexual abuse and three counts of second-degree sexual abuse.
Mills, 46, was arrested in Omaha in August 2010 in the rapes of two prostitutes at gunpoint.
In September, Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka sentenced Mills to 110 to 140 years in prison for the assaults. The sentence means Mills won't be eligible for parole until he is 100 years old.
However, investigators believe Mills also is tied to a series of sexual assaults in Council Bluffs between 2008 and 2010. In the cases in which he has been charged, four women reported being abducted in Omaha and then driven to Council Bluffs before being assaulted:
A 38-year-old woman said she was abducted in December 2008 near 42nd and Leavenworth Streets; a 48-year-old woman said she was taken from 24th and Laird Streets on June 10, 2010; 33-year-old woman said she was abducted from 29th Street and Park Avenue on May 14, 2010; and a 44-year-old woman said she was taken from 24th and Binney Streets on Aug. 1, 2009.
All four said they were left on River Road, near Interstate 29 north of Council Bluffs, after being sexually assaulted.
Even if Mills were to be convicted in the Iowa cases, Wilber said, in all likelihood he would be returned to Nebraska to finish his 110-year sentence before serving any time in an Iowa prison.
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