Marshalltown resident and businessman Jake Rowley has made a name for himself through his local charitable efforts and disaster relief work around the country, but he has also had a slew of run-ins with the law over the last few years. After he was recently arrested and charged with burglary and harassment on April 24, Rowley reached out to the T-R to share his side of the story.

First, he disputed the narrative that he only does good work to cover up his wrongdoings and said it is instead because he has “blessed by the Lord” and is financially capable of giving back — noting that he doesn’t own a boat, a motorcycle or anything else along those lines.

“Everybody has a hobby. My hobby is helping people,” he said.

As for his legal troubles, Rowley acknowledged his struggle with alcoholism and said he is still working to overcome it. The night of the incident, he admitted to drinking earlier in the day but said he had sobered up after taking a nap. When he was sent a picture of his pregnant significant other at a party with a red Solo cup in her hand, he called her and became concerned that she had consumed alcohol.

“I did go to the house. I did go on the front porch of the house. I did knock very aggressively. I did not enter the home the way that it says it in the police report. I did not enter the home in any way,” Rowley said. “I was threatened by multiple males inside of the home. I was threatened with the fact of being jumped. That was the word used, and as a frustrated male, I said ‘Well, which one of you first? Because it might take two or three of you.’ I did not threaten to kill anybody at all. I never said those words, but I did offer to defend myself. And so I did do that, and that was possibly a mistake on my side, but I think that anybody in the same situation would probably do the same.”

The Iowa Code, he added, does not require anything to be stolen for a burglary charge to be filed, and Rowley reiterated that he never took anything or even entered the 1st Avenue residence in question.

“The police report goes based off of what the people at the house (claimed), but I had almost zero chance to explain myself. I left the property before the police arrived. I called the police myself. I was one of the 911 calls. There were probably about three or four 911 calls, but I was one of the 911 calls. I requested police assistance,” he said. “The Marshalltown Police Department reached out to me on my phone. I answered their phone call. They asked to speak to me, so I went to them willingly. I’m not trying to hide. I’m going to have another warrant (for my arrest) on Monday morning for probation revocation.”

Rowley planned to enter the courthouse on Monday morning and turn himself on the warrant related to and hoped a reasonable bond would be issued. Last Thursday, he paid a $15,000 cash bond, and a preliminary hearing is set for May 2 at 9:30 a.m.

For now, he continues to work his way through substance abuse treatment and hopes that he can get more involved in the recovery community going forward.

“My goals are to step in and be able to help addicts because I know that I do have a very powerful reach across the nation, not only for funding but also for donations and things like that,” Rowley said.

Despite some “hard phone calls” with major donors after the recent arrest, he remains optimistic that he will be able to continue his charitable and disaster relief efforts.

“Even in the middle of all of this, yesterday I called the district manager at Theisen’s again, and I just got another $50,000 in authorization to buy more toys from Theisen’s.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.