Pubdate: Thu, 12 May 2005
Source: Des Moines Register (IA)
Section: Crime/Courts
Copyright: 2005 The Des Moines Register.
Contact:  http://desmoinesregister.com/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123
Author: Jeff Eckhoff, Staff Writer
Related:

VIOLENT INCIDENTS ARE PART OF SUSPECT'S HISTORY

Confrontations Are Alleged To Include A Baseball Bat, A Brick, Profanity 
And Disorderly Conduct

Polk County court records show the man alleged to have shot three police 
officers during a drug sting at a south Des Moines hotel has a history of 
violent confrontations - and of bailing other violent people out of jail.

But neither Dennis Joseph Schofield nor a fellow suspect, Lee Michael 
Castillo, have served jail time for illegal narcotics, according to county 
records.

Court documents list a series of arrests for Schofield, 24, that began with 
a September 2003 disorderly conduct charge. Schofield allegedly "directed 
profanity" at some south-side liquor store employees who refused to serve 
him without identification.

The charge ultimately was dismissed.

But "D.J." Schofield was arrested the following month after he took a 
baseball bat into a suburban video arcade to fight two pool players and two 
of Schofield's drunken acquaintances.

Schofield pleaded guilty of going armed with intent. He was sentenced to 
two years' probation and ordered to attend an "assaultive behavior" class.

By the time the class met, Schofield had been arrested again. Court papers 
say that in November 2003 he threatened to hit a man with a brick 
"following a verbal exchange after being escorted out of the Lumberyard," a 
strip club north of Des Moines. Schofield paid a $100 fine.

He later served two days in jail for a probation violation from the the 
baseball bat incident. Documents show Schofield was arrested in February 
2005 for interference with a police investigation after an assault at East 
14th Street and University Avenue. He refused police orders and was sprayed 
with Mace.

Records show Schofield posted bail for three other men arrested on minor 
charges that included trespassing, driving without a license and domestic 
assault between September 2001 and September 2004.

One of the men was Travis Wolfkill, a teenager arrested for loitering at an 
elementary school in 2001 who now serves a life sentence for the murder of 
his grandmother in 2002.

Court records show Castillo was arrested in 1999 for driving without a 
license. A man named Michael Lee Castillo with the same birth date also was 
arrested in 1999, court records show. He allegedly provided vodka and 
whiskey to minors in a Des Moines hotel room.
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