Police had no reason to stop Mayor Matt Bemrich when he was arrested for drunk driving in September, a judge has ruled in a decision that stops prosecutors from using some key evidence against him.

“No evidence secured after the traffic stop will be admissible at trial,” Webster County District Associate Judge Joseph L. Tofilon wrote in a decision released Friday.

That trial is scheduled for January.

Bemrich was arrested at about 9 p.m. Sept. 10 and charged with operating while intoxicated, first offense, and improper use of lanes, according to court records.

According to the criminal complaints filed against him, Bemrich’s 2025 Ford pickup was spotted crossing the center line of a road numerous times. He was also observed making an improper turn, officers wrote in the complaints.

Officers wrote in the complaints that Bemrich smelled of alcohol and admitted to having drinks prior to driving. They wrote that he declined to take one field sobriety test and stopped another one after about 10 seconds.

In a breath test conducted after the traffic stop, his blood alcohol content was found to be .180, according to the criminal complaints. A blood alcohol content of .08 is the level at which a person is considered to be drunk under Iowa law.

Bemrich’s attorney, Stu Cochrane, of Fort Dodge, asked Tofilon to stop the prosecutors from using certain evidence on the grounds that it was not properly obtained. A hearing on that request was held Dec. 8.

The principal evidence presented at the hearing was the testimony of the arresting officer, Keaton Schultz, who was a Fort Dodge police officer at the time but is no longer on the force, and the dashcam video from his patrol vehicle.

During the hearing, Schultz testified that he was sitting in his patrol vehicle on the South Seventh Street side of the Webster County Law Enforcement Center when he saw a white pickup on Seventh Street fail to use its turn signal before turning right onto First Avenue North. He said the vehicle made a wide turn, seemingly crossing the center line of First Avenue North.

He said he followed the vehicle and saw its tires come close to the center line of First Avenue North. He further testified that the truck “made too short of a turn” onto North Ninth Street and drove on or over the center line of that street multiple times.

Schultz testified that no turn signal was used when the truck turned right onto Sixth Avenue North. At that point, Sixth Avenue North is a one way street with both lanes heading eastbound. Schultz testified that the truck went into the left lane rather than the closer right lane of Sixth Avenue North then immediately turned left.

The one minute and 47 seconds of dashcam video was also introduced at the hearing and reviewed by Tofilon.

In his decision, Tofilon wrote that the video supports the testimony that Bemrich did not use his turn signal and made a wide turn onto First Avenue North.

But he wrote that the video does not support the contention that Bemrich drove on the center line of First Avenue North, made a sharp turn onto North Ninth Street or crossed the center line of North Ninth Street.

“The court simply does not see that those things happened based on its review of the video,” he wrote.

Toflin wrote there is an instance farther north on Ninth Street where Bemrich’s vehicle crosses the center line, but he attributes that to the presence of vehicles parked on the right side of the road.

The judge also did not take issue with Bemrich’s turn from Ninth Street onto Sixth Avenue North.

“The court does not think it was unreasonable or suspicious for the defendant to turn into the farther left lane rather than the nearer right lane given he was going to immediately turn left at the next intersection,” he wrote.

“In sum, the court only finds one of the eight observations of the arresting officer to be substantiated and suspicious, that being the wide turn onto First Avenue North,” Tofilon wrote. “This single observation of improper driving did not give rise to a reasonable suspicion that the defendant was intoxicated. A reasonable person would not have believed a driver was intoxicated based on this one event.”

In his decision, Tofilon reflected on the high profile nature of this case.

“The mayor of Fort Dodge cannot be treated differently than one of his townspeople,” he wrote. “He should not be treated more leniently or more harshly based on his station in life. His case must be analyzed as if he were just another citizen driving home on a Wednesday night.”