Ames Man Charged With Assault of Homeless, Evaluated for Competency to Stand Trial

The jury trial of an Ames man accused of threatening the lives of two homeless men and a third man in July has been continued indefinitely pending the outcome of a court ordered competency hearing.

Michael Ray Nootz, 56, was charged with first-degree harassment and assault while displaying a weapon last July for allegedly threatening homeless men and one other man in Ames. A jury trial had been scheduled for Nov. 27, but a judge ordered Nootz undergo a mental evaluation last week.

Nootz feared that members of the Freight Train Riders of America gang had a presence in Ames and launched a write-in campaign for Story County Sheriff's Office in late October.

Ames Police took Nootz into custody at a hardware store in Ames Thursday. A competency hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Story County Courthouse in Nevada. Nootz's pre-trial release conditions have also been modified so that he cannot keep guns of any type in his home.

According to initial reports from July, Nootz allegedly threatened two homeless men and a third man and also gave them documents about the Freight Train Gang Riders of America and a section of the Iowa Code saying it was legal to kill stray untagged dogs six months or older and told them to leave the area.

Nootz, an engineer with Union Pacific, has said he was searching for members of a gang that illegally rides train cars and had dogs with them, but didn't find them and didn't threaten the men's lives as they have alleged.

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