City, county and state officials have cited Ericson Auto for a variety of issues in recent years, including the parking of cars in a residentially zoned area. (Photo from Polk County District Court exhibits)
A Polk County judge has temporarily blocked the state’s efforts to revoke the license of a car dealer convicted of a long series of misdemeanors related to his business.
Court records show that in 2022, Dayton Ericson, the owner of Ericson Auto in Ankeny, was convicted of three counts of fraudulent use of a vehicle registration – charges that Ericson says are tied to the fact that he had placed old, expired dealer plates on some of his vehicles.
In October 2023, those convictions led to the Iowa Department of Transportation sending Ericson a notice that it was revoking his dealership license. Ericson filed an appeal, but the DOT’s decision was upheld by an administrative law judge and then by the director of the agency.
Ericson is now seeking judicial review of that decision. Polk County District Court Judge Christopher Kemp recently issued an order that placed the revocation order on hold at least until a hearing on the matter can be held. Refusing to grant such a stay, Kemp ruled, “would place Ericson at significant risk of catastrophic irreparable injury.”
Ericson said that if the DOT has its way, he’ll be put out of business. “I really feel like I have been treated unfairly and everybody is out to get me,” he said Friday.
Ericson acknowledged he has an extensive history of misdemeanor convictions related to vehicle registrations, storage of cars on his residential property in Des Moines, and parking dealership vehicles on city streets. Many of those cases, he said, stem from disputes with neighboring property owners.
“But I feel like I am being singled out,” he said. “They are all trying to cause me problems by complaining about issues that everybody else seems to get away with – but the city is focusing their enforcement efforts on me.”
In 2014, 2015 and 2017, Ericson was convicted of selling cars at an unlicensed location. His fines ranged from $100 for the first offense to $250 for the second and third offenses.
In 2019, he was convicted of trespassing for allegedly going onto another individual’s property and then pushing a vehicle off the lot and onto his own property. Ericson said he spent a night in jail as a result of that charge.
In 2022, after Ericson was found guilty of repeatedly violating parking restrictions on his Ankeny car lot and ordered to halt the practice, the city sought an order for contempt of court against Ericson for ignoring the order.
The judge in the case ruled that “fines levied up to this point have not proved sufficient to ensure compliance with the court’s order,” and so Ericson was ordered to serve three days in jail and pay a $200 fine – but the jail sentence was suspended with the understanding that Ericson would immediately be jailed should there be any additional violations.
In November 2023, after finding Ericson had continued to violate the court’s orders, the court sentenced Ericson to seven days in jail – although, again, the jail sentence was suspended.
In March of this year, Ericson was again found to have violated the court’s orders. He was then ordered to serve a 14-day jail sentence. Ericson said he has not served that sentence, and it is now being appealed.
In addition to those cases, Ericson was charged in 2023 with violating Polk County zoning ordinances by using his residential property in Des Moines for “outdoor vehicle storage” and for running a dealership out of his house. In March 2023, Ericson was found guilty of both charges, served with a cease-and-desist order, and fined $600.
Ericson appealed, arguing he was merely storing vehicles in his backyard but was not operating his auto dealership out of his house.
A district associate judge disagreed, noting that Ericson had admitted that some of the vehicles stored on this property were listed for sale by Ericson Auto and that he was using his residential property as a “satellite storage facility” for Ericson Auto.
The judge also noted that the cars in Ericson’s yard were marked with advertising on the windows such as one would see at a car dealership.