Iowa court officials, sheriffs warn residents of jury scam

Court officials and the Linn County Sheriff's office are warning area residents of a recent scam where a person claiming to be a 'lieutenant” is attempting to collect money from individuals by telling they must pay a fine for missing jury duty.

Carroll Edmondson, 6th Judicial District court administrator, said he had a report of the jury scam last week from Polk County court officials and then Johnson County clerks said three people had reported the same thing Monday.

'A clerk reported this (Monday) afternoon a person came down to the courthouse and said they received a call saying they missed jury duty and needed to pay a fine,” Edmondson said. They were told to come to meet this person at the courthouse tomorrow. Luckily, they came in today to ask before they paid. They seem to be targeting the elderly.”

A clerk in Polk County said a bank official told her an elderly man withdrew over $1,000 from his savings to put on a 'green card” for the 'lieutenant” because he missed jury duty.

Edmondson said different court districts would handle things differently, but none of the districts would call people, telling them they owed a fine. If a resident didn't show up for jury duty they would receive a summons in the mail or if the court was short of jurors, a jury manager may call up the missing person and ask them to report.

Most counties would just send a notice to a resident informing them they failed to report and reassign them to a new jury, Edmondson said. The new notice may have a reminder that failure to show up could result in contempt of court but they wouldn't be required to pay money for failure to appear.

Sheriff Brian Gardner said area law enforcement agencies also had been receiving calls Monday about being called by 'Lieutenant Greg Allen” who was trying to collect money for missed jury duty to avoid arrest. Gardner said there is no person by that name who works for the sheriff's office.

'Additionally, the sheriff's office never contacts individuals by phone and threatens to arrest them unless they purchase money orders to pay for their fines,” Gardner said.

Gardner advised anybody receiving this kind of call to hang up and don't provide him with your financial information.