Attorney seeks release of records in Buena Vista County meth case

A Spirit Lake attorney is asking a Buena Vista County judge to open up investigative records in the Marathon meth case, pressing for body-camera audits, GPS tracking logs and confidential-informant files tied to Tyler Speidel’s arrest. The filing shifts the focus from the drug charges themselves to what the sheriff’s office and county attorney shared, and what they kept out of public view.

Ned Bjornstad asked Judge Carl Petersen to order the Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Office and the Buena Vista County Attorney’s Office to turn over materials connected to the search of Speidel’s residence on Agora Street in Marathon. The records request reaches beyond basic police reports and seeks body-camera audits, GPS and electronic tracking records that may have been generated while investigators monitored Speidel, along with files tied to a confidential informant who allegedly bought narcotics from him.

Bjornstad also wants records showing whether the informant was promised leniency, whether the informant was compensated, and what the person’s probation history was. In the filing, those materials are tied to discovery in the criminal case and to earlier public-records requests under Iowa Code Chapter 22. The dispute raises a familiar question in small-county drug prosecutions: how much of the investigative record should remain shielded when the case hinges on surveillance, informants and controlled buys.

Speidel, who was 33 at the time of his arrest, was taken into custody Sept. 4, 2024, after a warrant was filed Aug. 16, 2024. He was charged with 11 felonies, including five counts of failure to affix a drug tax stamp and six controlled-substance violations. Court reporting from the earlier case said the sheriff’s office alleged Speidel regularly sold methamphetamine from homes on North and South Agora Street, and that controlled purchases were made there in January and May 2024.

The outcome of Bjornstad’s motion could determine how much of that investigative backbone becomes part of the public record in Buena Vista County. If Petersen orders disclosure, the records could show how the case was built, what role the confidential informant played and whether law enforcement fully documented the monitoring that led to the charges.

Buena Vista County Sheriff Kory Elston, who has led the office since 2014 and has been with the department since 2000, remains central to the case. Iowa Courts Online says public case information is available to anyone with internet access, and district court public documents can be viewed at a courthouse public access terminal, including at the Buena Vista County Courthouse.