(Sioux City)– A Hartley man has pled guilty to illegally possessing a firearm.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 34-year-old Joe Ripka had previously been convicted of failure to affix a drug tax stamp in Emmet county in October of 2017, prohibiting him from possessing a firearm. Evidence presented at a plea hearing showed that on December 22, 2021, Ripka was pulled over while driving a vehicle with no license plates and that he showed signs of impairment. A K-9 was deployed and officers found a handgun in the driver’s side door. They also later found a pack of cigarettes wedged between the seats which contained 1 gram of methamphetamine.
Ripka remains in the custody of a U.S. Marshal pending sentencing.
