Police: Defendant flips court table as verdict read

CENTERVILLE — Court filings say a defendant launched into a violent outburst that included him flipping a courtroom table as a judge read his verdict in a sexual abuse case last week.

David Duane Boley, 38, now of Urbandale, was charged with first-degree harassment and assault on a police officer from the incident that happened at the Appanoose County Courthouse on Feb. 27.

Judge Greg Milani was reading his verdict against Boley for a felony sexual assault case at about 1 p.m. that day. Police say in court documents that Boley became unruly and flipped a courtroom table he was sitting at and began yelling expletives toward people in the courtroom.

Deputies escorted Boley from the courtroom when they said he attempted to head-butt an officer and made verbal threats about taking the deputy’s life.

Milani found Boley guilty of second-degree sexual abuse, three counts of third-degree sexual abuse, and incest. Boley had waived his right to a jury trial on the charges and opted instead for a bench trial decided by a judge. Sentencing was set for May 1 in the case.

Attorneys for Boley had argued that the state’s case relied “almost entirely” on the testimony of the victim, who prosecutors said was as young as 10 years old and old as 17 years old at the time she was sexually assaulted on a regular basis by Boley.

Boley’s attorneys argued the victim’s testimony wasn’t credible because it was “riddled with inconsistencies, contradictions and statements that defy belief.”

Appanoose County Attorney Susan Cole wrote in her closing argument that the victim “has endured trauma that impacts her ability to recall details of every instance of sexual abuse by” Boley. Cole wrote the victim had little support and thus didn’t report the assaults when they originally occurred.

“The family members [the victim] disclosed [the assaults] to have alienated her,” Cole wrote. “[The victim] testified that when she disclosed the abuse to her mother … her mother advised telling law enforcement was the wrong thing to do.”

The case was one of several felony cases pending against Boley.

One stems from a May 2022 manhunt where police searched for days to find Boley after they said he punched a sheriff’s deputy before disarming him and fleeing. In another case, Boley faces two charges of drug distribution to a minor. And in July, Boley was charged with felony theft in Appanoose County.