(UPDATED) Attorneys say county attorney needs to explain comments made during Huisentruit hearing earlier this week

MASON CITY — Attorneys for the private investigator looking to get a search warrant unsealed in the Jodi Huisentruit disappearance case now want County Attorney Carlyle Dalen to explain his comments made in court earlier this week that a special unit that’s part of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office is helping in the investigation.

According to a motion filed in Cerro Gordo County District Court on Wednesday, attorneys Nellie O’Mara and Jesse Marzen say that investigator Steve Ridge the day after this week’s hearing contacted the director of the recently-formed Iowa Cold Case Unit Steven Ponsetto about the agency’s involvement in the investigation, and that Ponsetto confirmed to Ridge that they were not involved nor had any agency requested their involvement in the investigation.

During Monday’s hearing to unseal the warrant dealing with GPS data on cars connected to John Vansice, Dalen told the court the state’s Cold Case Unit was part of the investigation.   “You have the MCPD working on this, you have the DCI, you have the FBI, and now you even have the Cold Case Unit down at the Attorney General’s Office that are working on this. Every single law enforcement agency is telling me that providing this information in that affidavit is detrimental to their investigation of this case, that it will hinder their investigation.”

O’Mara and Marzen in their motion say it’s proper for the court to reopen the record and receive evidence of what they say are Dalen’s misrepresentations.

Dalen in a response to the motion filed on Thursday says Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown, who now is with the Cold Case Unit, has been providing assistance in the case, and that Ponsetto was unaware of his assistance since the county has not yet made a case referral to their office.

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has not responded to our request for further explanation.

At last check of court records, no further proceedings have been scheduled. Senior District Judge James Drew said after Monday’s hearing he would take up to 30 days before making a ruling on whether or not to unseal the warrant

This story was originally published at 10:30 AM on Thursday March 6th and updated at 5:25 AM on Friday March 7th with information about Dalen’s response