No charges in alleged sex bribe by pipeline agent
Lee County Attorney Mike Short said Monday he is declining to file charges in a case involving allegations that a land agent working on behalf of a Texas pipeline company offered illicit sex to a southeast Iowa landowner who opposes the project crossing his property.
"There was not sufficient evidence to bring any type of charge," Short told The Des Moines Register.
The bottom line, Short said, was that landowner Hugh Tweedy, 61, of rural Montrose, set up a meeting Nov. 20, 2014, at Papa's Bar and Grill in Montrose with the intent of embarrassing the pipeline company to prevent the firm from laying pipe across his property.
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"To the extent that there was anybody soliciting, it was Hugh Tweedy who was soliciting" and not the land agent, Short said. "Did either party leave this meeting at Papa's Bar thinking that the action was going to be carried out? No. There were initial discussions only, and talk about the possibility that this could be done, and nobody took any action in furtherance."
Tweedy, who could not be reached for comment Monday, has been an outspoken foe of the proposed Bakken pipeline, which would transport up to 570,000 barrels of oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution center at Patoka, Ill. The pipeline would be operated by Dakota Access LLC, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners.
Tweedy had told reporters in May that he had recorded proof that a pipeline agent offered to take him to St. Louis and pay $1,900 for the services of a "couple" of 19-year-old prostitutes. He said he had talked with the land agent earlier after he saw people on his property doing what looked like a survey.
"He said, 'Calm down, calm down, let's go to town and I'll get you a woman,' " Tweedy said. "I thought this guy obviously thinks I'm a rube. He's offering me a woman."
Short said he believes Tweedy was trying to conduct his own personal sting against the land agent.
"I don't think there was any doubt. He tells the bartender that he is going to be recording in there and he wants to trap the pipeline people, and then goes in and carries out this discussion … Hugh Tweedy had no intention of accepting any prostitutes from these people," the county attorney said.
The Iowa Utilities Board is scheduled to begin public hearings on the pipeline proposal on Nov. 12 and a decision on the project is expected sometime in December or early January.
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