Lobbyist charged in extortion attempt in Muscatine

A registered lobbyist at the Iowa Legislature has been arrested, accused of threatening to extort $1 million from the conservative Iowans for Tax Relief, authorities said Tuesday.

Mary Katheryn Moravek, 51, of Mechanicsville, Iowa, was charged with extortion, a Class D felony.

The Muscatine County Attorney's Office said Moravek tried to extort money from the group and its chairman, David Stanley.

The office did not indicate what specific threats were being made, and an assistant county attorney declined to be more specific.

Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said, “All I can tell you is somebody did try to extort our organization, and we turned it over to the authorities.”

Alan Ostergren, an assistant Muscatine County attorney, said contact in the incident was first made on Monday.

Stanley then talked with Moravek on the telephone early Tuesday, and she agreed to accept “$30,000 in lieu of making false allegations of wrongful conduct,” according to the county attorney's office. Authorities recorded the call.

Moravek agreed to meet with two Iowans for Tax Relief employees, authorities say. Instead, an undercover sheriff's detective arrested her about 1 p.m.

Moravek was being held on $5,000 bond in the Muscatine County Jail while awaiting an initial appearance before a judge.

Ostergren said that wouldn't happen until Wednesday.

“She was threatening to accuse them of all sorts of things that were false and demanded payment not to make those accusations,” Ostergren said.

Moravek was registered as a lobbyist for the Iowa Commission of Persons with Disabilities during the 2009 legislative session, according to the legislature's Web site.

She also is listed as being a member of the organization's board. Moravek, a Democrat, was first appointed to the commission in 2004 by then-Gov. Tom Vilsack, according to Gov. Chet Culver's office. Culver reappointed her in 2008. There are 33 positions on the board. Troy Price, a spokesman for the governor's office, said this is the first they have heard of the situation.

Ostergren said he didn't think there was any political motive behind the attempt.

“I think it was more personal for her,” he said.

The penalty for a conviction on a charge of extortion is up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine.