James Exline had his jury trial come to a conclusion last week, as he was found guilty on two felony counts of sexual abuse. As for Assistant Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn, he says it was an invaluable experience.

Laehn was hired as the assistant county attorney on June 1, 2017. He previously told Raccoon Valley Radio that the Exline trial was certainly something he wasn’t expecting to take on this early in his career. He sat second chair on the prosecution, with the Iowa Deputy Attorney General Denise Timmons as the lead chair.

“To be given the opportunity to make the opening argument and to examine witnesses in a case of this magnitude was a great opportunity for me and a great responsibility that I took very seriously.”

He spoke very highly about working for the Iowa Attorney General’s office and building that relationship. Exline had his jury trial declared a mistrial twice before being convicted by a jury in Bremer County on Wednesday. The first time was in October of 2017 during the jury selection process in Greene County, due to media exposure not allowing for an impartial jury to be selected. The second time was on May 2nd when another mistrial was declared due to a witness exposing the jury in Cerro Gordo County of information about other pending charges, in unrelated cases, in Guthrie County.

Laehn says District Court Judge James Drew granted the State’s request to have the sentence hearing take place at the Greene County Courthouse on August 6th at 10:30am.

“Sentence hearings are public hearings. The media can be there, members of the community can be there, people who are affected by the crime can be present. That’s part of the process of obtaining justice and part of the process of healing for a community.”

Exline faces up to 75-years in prison. To hear more from Laehn about the trial, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.