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State of Iowa
v.
Jill Tjernagel
Appellee
State of Iowa
Appellant
Jill Tjernagel
Attorney for the Appellee
Sheryl Soich, Assistant Attorney General
Attorney for the Appellant
Brandon Brown, Robert P. Montgomery, and Gina Messamer
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Hamilton County, James A. McGlynn, Judge. REVERSED AND REMANDED. Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Mullins, J., and Mahan, S.J. Opinion by Mullins, J. (5 pages)
Jill Tjernagel appeals the district court’s denial of her motion to dismiss a criminal prosecution following a reversal of her conviction and remand for a new trial, contending the district court had authority and jurisdiction to consider the motion to dismiss and the court therefore erred in declining to entertain the merits of the motion. The State agrees the court erred in declining to entertain the merits of the motion but argues the error was harmless because Tjernagel’s motion would have failed on the merits. The State requests that we consider the merits of the dismissal motion for the first time on appeal, affirm the denial of the motion, and remand the case for a new trial. OPINION HOLDS: We decline to consider the merits of the motion to dismiss for the first time on appeal. We therefore reverse the district court’s denial of Tjernagel’s motion to dismiss and remand the matter to the district court for consideration of the motion on the merits. We decline Tjernagel’s request that we instruct the district court to allow a subpoena on the prosecutors from her first trial for the purpose of developing a factual record.
