News : A colorful celebration as Blumer retires from County Attorney's Office

Mary Ann Blumer's favorite color...

Deb Fleming, left, and Jo Kuennen will replace Mary Ann Blumer at County Attorney's Office.

Purple was optional at Thursday’s retirement party for Mary Ann Blumer.

Blumer retired at the end of the year as the office manager in the Benton County Attorney’s Office. Dozens of people who worked with Blumer over the years – including area law enforcement officers, former colleagues and even people from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office – went up stairs to the jury room to join her celebration.

Blumer’s love of the color purple is well-known to her friends. A Christmas tree with all purple ornaments is on display in the office. The invitation posted on the courthouse door was in purple, as were the decorations in the jury room.

Blumer’s two part-time colleagues, Deb Fleming and Jo Kuennen, have become full-time administrative assistants, and will share her duties.

As friends and colleagues came and left, Blumer shared some memories of her 22 total years in the County Attorney’s Office. She said she does not know how many cases she helped process during those more than two decades.

One of Blumer’s most memorable cases, for her, was the James Bentley child abuse trial. Because of the high publicity the Bentley cases – Bentley’s brother, Roger, was convicted of killing the girl James had been accused of molesting – the case was moved to Osceola in Clarke County in Central Iowa.

Blumer spent about a week in Osceola, working with County Attorney Dave Thompson during the case. In addition to the distance – Osceola is along I-35, about halfway between Des Moines and the Iowa-Missouri border, Blumer also remembers several other things about that week.

She remembers seeing herself on TV, in the courtroom during the trial.

“But all they ever showed was the back of my head,” she recalls.

Blumer also recalls the way Clarke County Clerk of Court Julia Cottrell worked with the Benton County personnel.

“They treated us like gold,” she said. Blumer recalls discussing the long-distance phone calls she was making from Clarke County; she told Cottrell to keep track of the ones she was making, and send the bill to her office.

“But she said, ‘Oh, just use the phone,’” Blumer recalled.

Blumer also recalls how she lost her new friend; Cottrell and her husband went for a walk on Halloween 2008, and were struck and killed by a neighbor who had been drinking.

Cases, colleagues and associates

The staff of the County Attorney’s Office works with a variety of lawyers and law enforcement officers while processing the thousands of cases that come though the office each year. Over the years, Blumer has worked with officers and lawyers from countless counties, and federal officers and prosecutors, as well as the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

“People think that because we are a small county, we have a small caseload, but that’s not the case,” she said.

Changes in the job over the last 22 years include doing more work on behalf of victims. Much of the victim advocacy work takes place in county attorney’s offices, Blumer said.