DES MOINES, Iowa– The trial for a woman accused of driving intoxicated on a restricted license and without insurance, with two young children in the car, before a deadly collision with a motorcyclist last summer, has been delayed.
Crystal Ivie, 33, is charged with several misdemeanors, including Driving While Barred, Operating While Intoxicated (OWI), two counts of Child Endangerment, along with traffic citations for having no insurance in an accident, failure to obey a stop sign and yield resulting in death, and having an open container in the vehicle.
Police say she pulled out in front of Matthew “Rex” Ringgenberg, 40, near the Des Moines intersection of Southwest 9th Street and Luster Lane around 6:30 p.m. on June 4, 2025. Court records state two young children, aged five and seven years old, were in the car, an open bottle of McCormick vodka was found in her purse, and a container for drugs was found in her back pocket. She allegedly told officers she had been drinking earlier, but could not remember how much.
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Investigators believe Ringgenberg may have been speeding and that Ivie’s line of sight may have been, at least partially, blocked by a line of trees that have since been removed by the city. She has not been criminally charged in connection with Ringgenberg’s death. His family has pushed for enhanced charges.
A bench trial, or non-jury trial, had been scheduled at Ivie’s request for May 26 in Dallas County after the case was moved from Polk County. However, court records show that prosecutors and the defense jointly requested the delay due to multiple scheduling conflicts.
A key state witness who is set to testify is unavailable during the original May trial date, and the defense counsel was also expected to be unavailable because of a planned surgery, states the filing. Prosecutors also noted another significant witness, an investigator, had a prior out-of-state commitment during the next available non-jury trial week in June.
The new trial date has been moved to August 17, with a final pretrial conference on August 6…