Scott Anderson

MANSON — Calhoun County Sheriff Scott Anderson answered to two charges Monday after reportedly dragging a woman down a hallway, pinning her to a bed in his Manson home and holding her by the neck as she gasped for air, according to criminal complaints.

“Get off me,” the woman said as officers responded to reports of a domestic dispute at the Main Street home late Saturday evening.

“Scott, stop,” she cried, gasping for air as officers came on the scene to find Anderson holding her by her neck, refusing to let her go, according to the complaints.

As she tried to get up, he threw her back down onto the bed, the report said.

It took six struggling officers about nine minutes to put handcuffs on the sheriff before dragging him to a patrol car after he resisted arrest and refused to stand up and walk out.

“Scott would not comply with police as they asked him to stop resisting,” the complaint said. “He resisted the entire time by not walking out.”

Manson Police Officer Israel Swanson was head-butted in the process of the arrest, the second head-butting casualty of the evening after Anderson put a hole in a wall at the home.

Anderson, 51, pleaded not guilty to assault on persons of a certain occupation, a serious misdemeanor, over the phone Monday. The other charge, domestic abuse assault, a simple misdemeanor, was continued 180 days. It could be addressed sooner, if requested.

Anderson was released from the Webster County Jail after posting $1,600 bail Sunday. Webster County Magistrate William Habhab issued a no contact order between him and both the victim and the house at 429 Main St., where the sheriff has been living since his divorce from Tracey Layman, of Rockwell City.

Anderson was not represented by an attorney, but said he would complete an application for a court-appointed attorney. The sheriff since 2017 is currently running for re-election against one opponent.

Calhoun County Attorney Tina Meth-Farrington said the charges would be referred to either another county attorney or the Attorney General’s office for prosecution to avoid a conflict of interest.

“He has been asked not to come to work or do anything,” in the meantime, she said, though his powers as sheriff have not been suspended. “It’s just better off for him and certainly better for us.”

The request does not amount to any formal suspension or administrative type of leave. Calhoun County Supervisors will discuss Anderson’s future and potential removal from his position behind closed doors Tuesday morning, citing Chapter 21 of Iowa code, which allows for public officials to discuss “imminent litigation” in their agenda.

Court documents show a petition for relief of domestic abuse was denied to Anderson’s then-wife Tracey Layman in October 2019, six months after Layman filed for divorce.

The court denied the petition on the basis that Layman was “not in imminent danger of assault nor has the defendant committed an act of domestic abuse against her in the recent past,” according to District Judge Adria Kester.

“I’ve been victimized for 30 years,” Layman told The Messenger in an interview March 9 after the Calhoun County Court found Anderson in contempt of terms of their divorce decree, calling the experience riddled with “mind games.”

Following the contempt hearing, Layman’s attorney, Alyssa O’Connor, approached Anderson to sign the necessary paperwork to resolve the contempt of court finding and avoid 10 days in jail. In a phone interview the day after the hearing, Anderson told The Messenger that “I would have slammed her against the wall if I had been in my uniform,” during the interaction.

No physical altercation ensued during the interaction.

Layman, a school bus driver, also failed at attempts to get a restraining order against Anderson and his then-girlfriend Heather Olberding, who is now his wife, after she alleged Heather (Olberding) Anderson twice attempted to drive her off the road while in a school vehicle in May 2019.

Layman said she was told there “wasn’t enough proof” after officers interviewed her and reviewed dashboard camera footage.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for May 1 at the Calhoun County Courthouse in Rockwell City.