Jury to resume deliberations in Wheeler trial Friday

A nine-woman, three-man jury was slated to resume deliberations Friday in the criminal trial of former Iowa Film Office manager Thomas Dean Wheeler.

The Polk County panel spent a full day Thursday reviewing evidence and pondering the nine felony counts of misconduct in office, first-degree fraudulent practices, and conspiracy that prosecutors brought against him in the wake of the ill-fated state film-tax credit fiasco. Wheeler, 42, of Indianola, pleaded not guilty to all nine counts.

Rival attorneys spent more than two weeks at trial presenting evidence in the case.

Prosecutors have portrayed Wheeler as “an inside man” who helped crooked filmmakers fleece the Iowa treasury for millions of dollars by knowingly altering and substituting public documents, and approving false and inflated expenses submitted to his office – items that included two luxury vehicles that were taken to California for personal use.

Wheeler's defense team have described him as a low-level manager with no expertise in the movie industry who was put in charge of an ill-conceived but lucrative new state tax incentive program created by the Legislature to attract filmmakers that “spiraled into a giant mess” due to inadequate staffing, training, direction, oversight and clearly defined program perimeters. They say Wheeler did not gain anything financially in the tax-credit fiasco but prosecutors contend he was motivated by a new-found sense of importance in helping unscrupulous movie producers scam state taxpayers.

The state film tax-credit program -- operated within the state Department of Economic Development – provided a 25 percent tax credit for production expenditures made in Iowa and a 25 percent tax credit for investors for projects that spent at least $100,000 in Iowa until September 2009 when former Gov. Chet Culver suspended the program amid growing concerns about lax oversight, mismanagement and financial irregularities. After the scandal broke, six people lost their jobs within the economic development agency, including Wheeler.

Jurors deliberated for about two hours on Wednesday and for about six hours on Thursday without reaching a verdict.