Hunter
06/12/21
An area transient whose name has come up multiple times over the years for public drunkenness, criminal mischief and assault has been arrested again after allegedly assaulting a UIHC staffer.
Police say 53-year-old Gary Leon Duffel II was at the facility Friday afternoon, and health care providers were looking for treatments and other possibilities for him. It was ultimately decided that Duffel would be discharged.
A staffer approached Duffel, who was napping on a hallway bed. When he woke up, he punched the woman in her right lower arm, causing a red mark.
Authorities took Duffel into custody and charged him with Assault on Persons in Certain Occupations Causing Bodily Injury, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by a sentence of up to two years if convicted.
Duffel, who currently lists his address as Christ the King Lutheran Church on Mormon Trek Boulevard in Iowa City, has a lengthy and colorful criminal history over the years.
That history includes reports that he stole a $137 stone turtle statue from Phil’s Building Supplies on Hollywood Boulevard, cut down the flag outside the Iowa City VFW hall, urinated on the front porch of then-Iowa City City Councilor Mike Wright, took his clothes off and yelled about his then-recent release from the Henry County Correctional Facility, toppled the Irving Weber statue at the corner of Iowa Avenue and Linn Street, and stole a keg off a beer truck parked at the Benton Street Delimart.