Iowa City sex offender arrested weeks after sentencing

Less than two weeks after being sentenced to lifetime probation, five years of supervised probation and one year in Johnson County's Hope House, convicted sex offender Brice Cameron Widstrom is back in the Johnson County Jail.

Widstrom, 20, of Iowa City, was taken from the Hope House in Coralville to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics early Monday because he was making suicidal threats, according to a UI police complaint. He then tried to escape custody and refused to obey officer orders to remain calm and stop resisting, according to the complaint.

Widstrom is accused of smashing his MP3 player and refusing handcuffs by kicking one officer and trying to bite another, police reported.

He is back behind bars on a $7,500 cash-only bond and a Hope House hold. He faces one new charge of assault on peace officers.

On May 24, Widstrom was sentenced on two felony counts of third-degree sex abuse after having sex with two different 15-year-old girls, one in October and another in December.

He was sentenced to two prison sentences of up to 10 years, but those terms were suspended and replaced by two five-year supervised probation terms. As a condition of the probation, Widstrom was assigned to live in the Hope House for up to a year.

After completing that sentence, Widstrom was to be committed to the custody of the Iowa Department of Corrections for the rest of his life and obligated to resister as a lifetime sex offender.

Subsequent violations of his probation could land him in prison, but it's unknown at this time how Widstrom's arrest Monday will affect his felony cases.

Widstrom initially was arrested in January on suspicion of the felony sex offenses after one victim went to Mercy Hospital in Iowa City on Oct. 27 and reported being assaulted on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24, according to police. The 15-year-old girl told investigators that Widstrom got her drunk on vodka in his Iowa City apartment and had sex with her despite her young age.

When police came to his apartment looking for the teen, officers said Widstrom hid her in his bathtub by covering her with clothing.

On Dec. 17, another 15-year-old girl told police that she left her North Liberty home and got into a car with Widstrom, who picked her up along the street, according to a police report.  Widstrom is accused of taking the teen to his Iowa City apartment, smoking marijuana and synthetic drugs and having unprotected sex with the teen, according to a criminal complaint.