Le Mars, Iowa — A Cherokee woman who is charged with four felonies after authorities say she tried to kill herself and her passenger in a September, 2015 crash in Plymouth County has filed a motion for a Change of Venue.
Online court record say attorneys for Melissa Ebert filed the motion to have her trial moved out of Plymouth County on Wednesday of this week. Plymouth County Attorneys then filed a motion to resist the change of venue on Thursday, according to court records. A hearing on the motions has been scheduled for April 10th, at 1:30 pm in Plymouth County District Court in Le Mars.
Ebert had originally entered an Alford Plea to multiple charges, including attempted murder, back in December. A defendant entering an Alford Plea doesn’t plead guilty to the charges, but admits that the prosecution has sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction if the case goes to court. She withdrew her Alford plea and pled not guilty on January 23rd. Ebert had been scheduled for a pretrial conference this past Monday, but that has been continued until April 10th, according to online court records, and her original trial date of April 4th has also been postponed until June 6th.
According to Plymouth County authorities, the crash happened on September 9th, 2015, when an SUV driven by Melissa Ebert of Cherokee collided head-on with a car driven by Dustin Boll of Le Mars. Ebert and her passenger, Damian Johnson of Cherokee, along with Boll, were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City with serious injuries.
According to officials, the investigation concluded that Ebert knowingly, willfully, and intentionally drove her SUV into the path of Boll’s car.
