MAY 13, 2021
Mollie Tibbetts case: Meet the key players in Bahena Rivera trial (desmoinesregister.com)
[...]
Mollie Tibbetts
She was born in San Francisco and moved to Iowa with her mother and siblings after her parents separated when she was in the second grade. Teachers and classmates
remembered her as kind, dedicated and empathetic even at a young age.
Tibbetts was
described by family and friends as "everyone's counselor," with an “infectious laugh and beautiful smile,” who also had a silly and stubborn side. She journaled and
wrote poetry.
[...]
Mollie Tibbetts' family
Mollie Tibbetts was close with her family, even after her parents separated. She lived with her two brothers and mother in Iowa from a young age, moving away from California — but she remained close with her father. When Rob Tibbetts got remarried, Mollie was his "best man" in the ceremony.
Her two brothers, Jake and Scott Tibbetts, played leading roles in the community search for her and in honoring her memory afterward.
[...]
Cristhian Bahena Rivera
Prosecutors say Cristhian Bahena Rivera, now 26, is an immigrant from El Guayabillo, a town of about 400 people, in Guerrero, Mexico. Rivera’s Facebook page said he attended “Preparatoria 35,” a college in Guerrero.
He, however, has many relatives in the Poweshiek County area.
He spent the four years before Tibbetts' death working as a farmhand at Yarrabee Farms in rural Poweshiek County. He gained employment there through a former girlfriend and worked on day-to-day operations with the cows.
[...]
Chad and Jennifer Frese, Bahena Rivera's attorneys
Bahena Rivera is represented by the husband-wife team of Chad and Jennifer Frese of Marshaltown.
Both Freses are former prosecutors who now do criminal defense work, among other types of law.
They declined to comment to the Des Moines Register leading up to the trial, citing trial preparations, but in 2019, Chad Frese told the Register he's known members of Bahena Rivera's family for more than two decades, representing some in court and meeting others at church or around the community.
[...]
Bart Klaver and Scott Brown, the prosecutors
The case is being prosecuted by Poweshiek County Attorney Bart Klaver and Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown.
Klaver is a former assistant county attorney
who was appointed Poweshiek County attorney in March 2018, a few months before Tibbetts disappeared.
Brown, the assistant attorney general, is a trial specialist who assists local prosecutors in bringing challenging or complex criminal cases. ...
Joel D. Yates, the judge
Because of the pretrial publicity, the trial was moved several times, eventually landing at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport. Judge Joel D. Yates will preside.
[...]
Bar Association records show Yates received high marks from attorneys for punctuality and for treating people equally without regard to race or gender. His lowest marks came in courtesy and patience, where he received a score of 3.89 out of 5; and temperament and demeanor, where he received a 3.91.
Des Moines attorney Alfredo Parrish, who has tried a number of high-profile cases around the state, had high praise for Yates, saying he "is probably one of the best judges, in my opinion, in Iowa."
[...]
