A Waterloo man who was convicted of strangling another man to death in 2007 is asking for a new trial because a crime lab analyst made racist comments on social media years later, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. 51 year old Gene Campbell Jr. was convicted of killing 60 year old Jim “Sugar Bear” Hendrix in his apartment in Waterloo in November of 2007. Part of the evidence that convicted Campbell was a blood stain on his left shoe. Hendrix was determined to be the major contributor. The DNA analyst in the case, Amy Pollpeter, was fired from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation after she commented on Facebook regarding Black Lives Matter supporters in 2016. In the post Pollpeter said, “BLACKS have effectively created a MORE RACIST environment rather than working to be equal.” She goes on to say she no longer feels safe around Black people and that, “The hatred that blacks are experiencing – they have brought on themselves by their actions.” Pollpeter says she did not feel that way about Black people in 2007. A defendant in a sexual abuse case in Linn County in 2007 brought a similar challenge to Pollpeter’s work, but that was dismissed. A Black Hawk County District Court judge will rule in the case at a later date. If she allows the case to move forward, a bench trial will be held in November.
