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Michelle Martinko’s murder ‘haunted’ the Cedar Rapids community for 40 years. Now, her suspected killer is set to go on trial.

Dec. 19, 2018. Like every year, local news stations ran anniversary pieces describing the cold case of Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old woman stabbed to death in Cedar Rapids in 1979. The facts of the case were recounted. A tip line scrolled across the bottom of the screen. The weather report would be next, and Martinko’s story would be

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Linn County will pay $285,000 to a man wrongly arrested because of a photo on Facebook

Linn County announced on Wednesday it is paying $285,000 to settle a federal lawsuit against the county and County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden. Joseph McBride had filed the lawsuit earlier this month, claiming that his rights had been violated when Vander Sanden signed an arrest warrant containing false information that led to McBride being arrested and jailed for two months.

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Man wrongly arrested for robbery because he was Facebook friends with other suspects sues Linn County

On Wednesday, Joseph McBride filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Linn County and Jerry Vander Sanden, the county attorney, violated his rights by having him arrested and jailed last year for a robbery committed in Cedar Rapids in January 2017. McBride spent approximately two months in custody, before all charges against him were dropped.

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