Iowa City Man Convicted of Having Sex With Underage Girls Accused of Escaping Custody, Assaulting Officers

An Iowa City man convicted of having sex with two different underage girls last year allegedly threatened to kill himself and then attacked officers who attempted to apprehend him after he briefly escaped Hope House custody Monday morning.

According to a University of Iowa Police report, Brice Cameron Widstrom, 20, was in custody at Hope House Correctional Facility, where he had been sentenced for one year following a conviction for last year.

According to the report, Widstrom was transferred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after he made threats that he was going to commit suicide. At 1:35 a.m. on Monday, after he had already arrived at the hospital, Widstrom allegedly escaped custody of the Hope House officers, and was then confronted by officers near Quadrangle Hall.

Widstrom refused to obey officers to remain calm and stop resisting, according to the UI police account. He then allegedly smashed his MP3 player and refused to submit to handcuffing, kicking one officer and attempting to bite another, before he was returned into custody.

According to Vanessa Miller of the Gazette, Widstrom had been serving the one year in Hope House due to a suspended sentence for two different third-degree sexual abuse convictions. Instead of spending time in jail, Widstrom was expected to spend one year in Hope House and 10 years in total of supervised probation, as well as having to register as a lifetime sex offender.

It has not been determined yet whether this additional assaulting a peace officer charge, a serious misdemeanor, will count as a violation of Widstrom's probation.

The conviction stems from two incidents of reported sex with underage girls that Widstrom was charged with earlier this year. The first incident allegedly occurred on Oct. 23 and 24, according to a criminal complaint, and was reported by a 15-year-old girl at on Oct. 27. 

According to a complaint, the girl had met Widstrom at his apartment in Iowa City, where he gave her vodka and had sex with her despite knowing she was a 15-year-old. When police came looking for her at his residence, she hid under a pile of clothes in the bathtub, according to her account.

The second alleged encounter occurred on Dec. 17, when Widstrom picked up a girl at her residence in North Liberty. According to the criminal complaint, Widstrom and the girl then allegedly smoked real and synthetic marijuana and had sex at his residence despite him knowing she was a 15-year-old.