Former Hawkeye Roy Marble loses youth post after arrest

Former University of Iowa Basketball star Roy Marble has been terminated from his position as program director for the Mayor's Youth Empowerment Program, Monday after the program directors learned of his arrest last week.

Marble, 42, was charged Aug. 24 with possession of marijuana and having an open can of beer in his car after he was pulled over for speeding.

Roger Lusala, executive director of the program, said the board of directors for the program was just informed of the new charges and made immediate action to fire Marble.

“The program is about giving second chances,” he said. “But unfortunately in this case the person we thought was going to turn it around didn't.”

According to Cedar County Sheriff's department complaints, Marble was stopped at 8:20 p.m., for going 84 mph in a 55 mph zone, and passing in a no passing zone. The complaint said a can of open Budweiser was seen in the back seat and marijuana blunts were visible on the floor board and ash tray.

Marble gave consent to the police to search his vehicle, and a bag of marijuana was found under the driver seat.

Beside the above charges, Marble was charged with driving while barred, driving while revoked, possession of drug paraphernalia, and operating a vehicle without an ignition interlock device required for drunken driving test failure.

Lusala said the Mayor's Youth Empowerment Program has an extensive background search through the state of Iowa, and although he was aware of the previous convictions, he said he thought hiring someone who could teach kids based on personal experience would help.

“We needed somebody who's been there, who's made mistakes, who could show others” change was possible, he said.

He said the program first began contact with Marble when he was working with Kirkwood Community College's Skills to Employment Program - which provided jobs to 14- to 21-year-olds.

Lusala said he met with Marble on two occasions earlier this week where Marble could have mentioned the charges, but never did.

And if Lusala had known of the recent incident, he said the job offer would have been revoked.