Lang
10/27/24
A transient with a lengthy criminal history has been arrested again after he allegedly threatened the staff of an Iowa City treatment center with an ax.
Iowa City Police say 55-year-old Gary Leon Duffel II entered the Guidelink Center on Southgate Avenue just after 9:00 Wednesday night asking to use their services. When he was told there were no available services for what he needed, Duffel allegedly told Guidelink staff members they didn’t want to make him use his ax. Duffel had an ax in his cart, which was visible at the time of the reported threat.
Duffel pleaded guilty to a Disorderly Conduct charge on Thursday and was fined $105.
Duffel has numerous previous arrests over the years, including for cutting down the flag outside the Iowa City VFW hall, urinating on the front porch of then-Iowa City City Councilor Mike Wright, taking his clothes off inside The Nickelodeon in Coralville while yelling about his release from the Henry County Correctional Facility, toppling and breaking the Irving Weber statue at the corner of Iowa Avenue and Linn Street, and stealing a keg off a beer truck parked at the former Benton Street Delimart. In June of 2022 Duffel was sentenced to five years in prison in a plea deal regarding an attempted sexual assault case in Coralville.
Duffel faces another Disorderly Conduct charge from earlier this month when he allegedly swung a metal pole at a bystander outside the North Dubuque Street Casey’s.