Judge Places Club Dancer On Probation

SCHMITZ, SWEENEY, KUHSE, BERENDES, JANSSEN, ELDERKIN

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 2/16/2013 at 09:57:09

Omaha World Herald, October 4, 1969

Judge Places Club Dancer On Probation

Maquoketa, Iowa (AP)

Three Dubuque residents were sentenced to prison Friday in the slaying of Bellevue, Ia., police chief, Earl Berendes, who was beaten with a shovel while investigating a break-in at a garage in Bellevue. Sentenced to 75 years each in Jackson County District Court were Richard Schmitz, 27, and William Sweeney, 22, both of Dubuque. Allene Kuhse, 19, a Dubuque go-go dancer received a suspended three-year sentence and was placed on probation.

Both Schmitz and Sweeney originally had been charged with first-degree murder. The charge was later reduced to second-degree murder and they both pleaded guilty. Miss Kuhse pleaded guilty to conspiracy. She had entered an innocent plea earlier to a charge of first-degree murder. The charge was dropped Friday afternoon.

Before passing sentence on Schmitz, Judge Arthur Janssen denied a request from Assistant Attorney General David Elderkin to enter the case. The judge said the case against Schmitz would be prejudiced if Elderkin were to assist "as an unassociated prosecuting attorney." "Please don't interrupt," Janssen said when Elderkin asked that his plea be heard. Elderkin was sent to Maquoketa to represent Attorney General Richard Turner who had told the Iowa Supreme Court on September 5th, that Judge Janssen acted illegally in permitting the two men to plead guilty to the reduced charge. He urged the court to undertake a full review of the case. Turner contended the please resulted the pleas resulted from "a deal, a bargain" between the defendants and Jackson County Attorney Ralph Kauffman, and that the judge participated in the deal.

In handing down the suspended sentence, Janssen told Miss Kuhse, "I never considered you to be a criminal. You just hung around withe the wrong kind of people." He suggested she change her profession as a go-go girl even "though according to your itinerary, you must be a pretty good one."

In answer to a request by Sweeney's attorney that the sentence be reduced, the judge answered, "If there is to be any mercy for Sweeney it will have to come from the state parole board."

Berendes was killed April 17 in the Achen Chevy-Olds garage where he apparently had surprised burglars. The shovel used in the beating was found near his body.