Police: Arrested Coralville Inmate Tampered with Interview Equipment, Disrupted Recording of Criticial Confession

A Coralville man being charged with felonies after being accused of stealing more than $11,000 in sunglasses from a sunglass kiosk in the Coral Ridge Mall is facing a new round of charges for potentially disrupting multiple criminal investigations after allegedly tampering with a police interview camera.

According to Coralville Police complaints, on May 8 David Alexander Rose, 35, of Coralville was being charged with first-degree theft and third-degree burglary, a Class C and Class D felony respectively, for the theft of sunglasses from Sunglass Hut in Coral Ridge. As he was waiting to be transported to jail, Rose allegedly sabotaged a Coralville PD interview room camera by disconnecting the microphone and covering the lens. Rose was allegedly seen and heard doing this, according to the complaint.

On May 13 and May 14, a series of interviews with suspects of criminal offenses were conducted by the Coralville Police who at the time were unaware that the camera was non-operational. Video evidence of interviews with a suspect in a theft, two burglary suspects, and a man who reportedly confessed to sexually abusing a young girl was lost as a result. 

For this, Rose was charged with four counts of obstructing prosecution, an aggravated misdemeanor. 

Lee Hermiston of the Gazette spoke with Coralville Police Lt. Shane Kron about the effect Rose's tampering could have on each of the cases.

“We still have interviews, we still have a confession, we just don’t have video tape of it,” he said. “Only a judge or jury can decide how big of an impact that has on a case.”

Police said because of Rose’s actions, the interviews were lost. Rose’s interview with police was not affected.