Exhibits from the trial in which Christopher Prichard was convicted of murdering his estranged wife, Angela Prichard: a photo of the victim and a note she wrote shortly before her death, saying, “I think Chris is capable of anything. He told my sister he didn’t care if he went to jail. He put guns all over upstairs in three different rooms.” (Exhibits from Iowa District Court files)
Lawyers for the family of a woman slain by her estranged husband say the City of Bellevue deliberately concealed information about police officers’ alleged relationship with the killer.
Last year, the family of the Angela Marie Prichard, who was shot and killed by her estranged husband, Christopher Prichard, in October 2022, sued the City of Bellevue. They claimed the city’s police repeatedly failed to enforce a no-contact order and arrest warrant for Christopher Prichard in the weeks leading up to her death.
The lawsuit claimed the killing was the result of a “state-created danger” caused by the malfeasance, reckless or intentional behavior of the Bellevue Police Department. It accused city police officers of “showing favoritism toward Christopher Prichard,” and alleged that his relationship with the police “enabled and fostered” his ability to murder his estranged wife.
Northern District of Iowa, C.J. Williams. (Photo courtesy of U.S. District Court)
In October, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, C.J. Williams, dismissed the family’s lawsuit, writing that he was “skeptical that more aggressive conduct by the officers would have changed anything.”
The judge said the position of Angela Prichard’s family seemed to be that “had the officers arrested Christopher more often, it would have prevented Angela’s murder. Arguably, one could equally speculate that it was the officers’ arrest of Christopher for violating the no-contact order that angered him enough to kill Angela.”
The judge went on to state an arrest might only have given Angela Prichard six more days of life.
“Even if officers had arrested him sooner for violations or to serve his sentence, it would have, at best, been a temporary fix,” Judge Williams wrote. “For his violation, Christopher was sentenced to six days in jail. If he wanted to murder Angela, he needed only wait those six days.”
David ’Brien, the Cedar Rapids attorney for Angela Prichard’s family, is now attempting to refile the lawsuit using additional information gleaned through court proceedings after the city moved to have the case dismissed.
In court filings, O’Brien says the city’s “repeated and intentional violations of Iowa law and federal civil procedure” are responsible for the information coming to light only recently. The information had been “intentionally concealed” by the city, he claims.
In court briefs, O’Brien references what he characterizes as “repeated lies and obfuscations” by the city police and says officers “made a number of false statements about their relationship with Christopher Prichard” in the city’s initial responses to written inquiries in the case. He also claims the city violated state public record laws by failing to disclose documents only recently obtained through litigation.
Among the alleged examples:
— Two officers denied using the services of Mississippi Ridge Kennel, owned by the Prichards, and denied receiving those services on a reduced-fee basis. O’Brien alleges he has “uncovered receipts” from the kennel showing both officers used the kennel and both received favorable pricing.
In fact, O’Brien alleges, one of the officers picked up her dog at the kennel the night before Angela Prichard was murdered there. “It is hard to believe that anyone would forget being at the scene of a murder the night before the murder occurred,” O’Brien says in one court filing.
— One officer allegedly indicated in pretrial filings that he was not concerned that Christopher Prichard was going to hurt his wife. O’Brien says he now has that same officer “on video tape stating these exact words to Angela Prichard: ‘That’s my biggest fear. That’s my department’s biggest fear is he’s going to try to hurt you and then hurt himself.”
— One officer allegedly told Christopher Prichard before taking him to jail on a mandatory-arrest warrant, “So you know, this is out of my control … I’m just telling you my hands are crossed on this.” When Prichard protested, the officer replied, “I don’t make the stipulations, dude!” Prichard then told the officer exceptions to the mandatory-arrest requirement are made for women suspected of domestic violence, to which the officer replied, “Well, I kind of would agree with you, almost, on that … Like I said, my hands are crossed on this.” The officer then led Prichard, who wasn’t handcuffed, to a patrol car, saying, “You can ride up front.” The officer then let Prichard call his attorney from the car, saying, “I am allowing you to do that. I don’t normally do that.”
— On Sept. 29, 2022, then-Jackson County Attorney Sara Davenport wrote an email to the police advising them that Christopher Prichard had until 2 p.m. the next day to report to jail. “If he does not report I will be requesting a warrant,” she wrote. “I wanted all of you to be aware as I’m afraid he might try to do something tonight.” The next day, she wrote to the police, “Prichard did not show for (jail) and a warrant has been issued!” Eight days later, Angela Prichard was murdered.
In court filings, O’Brien claims the city’s “intentional withholding of critical information violates Iowa’s public records law,” and argues that dismissing the lawsuit before the newly disclosed information can be properly evaluated would “reward” the city for its misconduct. The court, he says, should allow him to file a newly amended lawsuit against the city.
“If the defendants had not acted as protectors of Christopher Prichard, showing him favoritism, then he would have been in jail at the time he murdered Angela Prichard,” O’Brien’s proposed, amended lawsuit claims.
City: No duty to protect individual citizens
Attorneys for the City of Bellevue have argued Iowa’s law enforcement personnel do not owe a “particularized duty” to protect individuals from harm and instead owe a general duty to the public, and that the plaintiffs should not be allowed to link Christopher Prichard’s repeated violations of the no-contact order with Angela Prichard’s subsequent murder.
“The court must avoid plaintiffs’ efforts to conflate these events and keep its focus solely on the hours immediately leading up to Ms. Prichard’s death,” the city’s attorneys argued in its motion to dismiss the case, noting there was no evidence that Angela Prichard contacted the police immediately before she was killed — and so there was nothing to “suggest that Mr. Prichard had an immediate plan to murder Ms. Prichard.”
As alleged in the original lawsuit, Christopher Prichard sent threatening text messages to Angela Prichard on Aug. 23, 2022, stating, “It is going to get real f—ing ugly.” Angela Prichard notified the police, who took no action in the matter, the lawsuit alleges.
On Aug. 28, 2022, the lawsuit alleges, Christopher Prichard told Angela Prichard he intended to “destroy” her business, which led to another complaint to the city police that resulted in no enforcement action.
On Sept. 1, 2022, a temporary restraining order was issued to shield Angela Prichard from any further contact from her estranged husband. Over the next 13 days, Angela Prichard reported at least nine alleged violations of the order, including one that was documented with text messages, but the police took no action, the lawsuit alleges.
Court records show that on Sept. 15, 2022, Christopher Prichard spent one night in jail for violating the order, then failed to show up for a series of court hearings, then failed to turn himself in to serve a six-day jail sentence. As a result, a warrant was issued for his arrest. The lawsuit alleges that police “flat-out refused to enforce the warrant and arrest Christopher Prichard.”
On the morning of Oct. 8, 2022, Christopher Prichard, armed with a shotgun, entered the Mississippi Ridge Kennels where Angela Prichard worked, and killed her. He was later convicted of murder in the first degree.