A former Fremont man has sued former Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass, the county itself, the City of Fremont and a host of others over his confinement in a mental health unit following a series of badgering phone calls and texts from Glass.
Nathan Schany, 30, filed the lawsuit alleging that the governmental entities failed to properly supervise Glass and did the county attorney’s bidding as he hounded the man who was dating his estranged wife, Katie Glass.
Glass is awaiting a criminal trial in U.S. District Court in Omaha after a federal grand jury charged him with cyberstalking Schany and Katie Glass. He has denied the charges, and his trial is currently set for September.
The lawsuit mirrors many of the same allegations made by federal prosecutors against Glass.
Schany — a native Iowan who is now back living in his home state — claims in the lawsuit that he abruptly lost his job on the date that the indictment says Glass learned of the relationship. A few days later, in March 2020, Glass badgered Schany with 46 text messages and 10 phone calls. That night into the next morning, Schany drank heavily, took an Adderall pill and told family that he was thinking of killing himself. Schany ended up in a psychiatric ward for six days.
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Glass’ attorney, Clarence Mock, has said the texts were nothing more than the “sarcastic blather” of a man crushed that his marriage was ending.
Andrea McChesney, Schany’s attorney, said the texts were just one example of Glass’ harassing behavior. Glass’ actions — and the county’s refusal to step in and correct Glass — amounted to the deprivation of Schany’s civil rights and infliction of emotional distress, she says.
“The conduct of the defendants was so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and is to be regarded as utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” McChesney wrote in the lawsuit. “As a … result, Schany suffered … physical pain, mental suffering and emotional distress.”
A June 2020 World-Herald story detailed the sordid episode, the bizarre behavior of Glass and the reactions of Schany. After being harassed, hospitalized and losing his job, Schany shoved and struck Glass at a Casey’s gas station in Fremont. He eventually was convicted of misdemeanor assault.
Glass had his own share of problems beyond his interactions with Schany. He has been caught drinking and driving twice, beginning in March 2020.
Glass and wife Katie, in the midst of lengthy divorce proceedings, have two children — and Glass’ most recent DUI came when Glass showed up drunk to pick up his children for visitation. Following that second DUI, which occurred nine months after Schany was harassed, Glass resigned his position. He had been county attorney since 2011.
He has been accused of violating probation at least twice. A recent violation: Glass was accused of drinking at a Council Bluffs casino. Despite that episode, prosecutors agreed to allow him to remain on probation, pending his federal criminal case.
The lawsuit, which seeks money for damages inflicted, contends Glass “attempted to improperly influence or use members of law enforcement to harass and intimidate and to place under surveillance with the intent to harass and intimidate Schany.”
The indictment alleged that Glass improperly accessed a national criminal database reserved for law enforcement officers to dig up dirt on Schany. It also alleged that Glass told supervisors in both the Fremont Police Department and the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office that “it would be of benefit” to Glass if either his estranged wife, Katie, or Schany could be arrested for drunken driving. Glass mentioned his belief that Schany was a day drinker. (Glass himself was one, according to law enforcement sources.)
A Fremont police shift supervisor passed on the couple’s vehicle descriptions and license plate numbers to officers, according to the indictment. On April 4, 2020, Glass, then still county attorney, texted family members about what officers had observed.
Fremont Police Chief Jeffrey Elliott has told The World-Herald that Glass asked a supervisor of a multi-agency drug task force to open a narcotics investigation into Schany. An investigation “was not opened,” Elliott told the newspaper. “Absolutely not.”
One attorney for the defendants has filed a motion asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that Dodge County has no record of Schany filing a tort claim with the county. Such a filing is a requirement in order to proceed with a lawsuit.
McChesney said she sent Dodge County a notice of such a claim and, after the county didn’t act on it, also sent the county a withdrawal of the claim. Both are allowed under state law.
“How in the world would they know we were filing a lawsuit unless they had been served with a claim or with a withdrawal of a claim?” McChesney said. “Their argument doesn’t add up.”