Articles Tagged: Linn County Attorney’s Office

It’s among the proposals from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office ahead of the Iowa legislative session that starts later this month.

Iowa House Republicans say they want to act proactively in 2026 with a “tough on crime” package aimed at repeat offenders, bail reform and sentencing — even as recent data show Iowa crime trending downward.

Data on sex abuse cases that were lingering in the system shows significant improvement with some of the oldest cases being resolved or nearly resolved since changes were made to the way they’re tracked. There has been a 55 percent increase in cases being resolved over last year.

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said this year, in preparing for the next legislative session, his office has set priorities for changes they’d like to see. He hopes to work with legislators to address the state’s groping laws, invasion of privacy crimes, and rules about examination of public records.

A woman said a Cedar Rapids man, who should have been a “role model and protector” was instead, the person who repeatedly sexually abused her over a two year period when she was 14 and 15 years old. He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on Tuesday.

A Linn County jury convicted Luke Truesdell of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.

No charges will be filed against four Cedar Rapids police officers after an officer-involved shooting in August, according to a report from the Linn County Attorney’s Office which ruled the shooting justified.

All three brothers charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2024 death of another brother, who was tied to a mattress for days and died of “starvation and dehydration,” will be tried together in February 2026.

Marion police investigators testified Friday about how traffic cameras and cellphone data helped them piece together what happened to Melody Hoffman, who was kidnapped and killed in February 2024.

Prosecutor, during his opening, says Dakota Van Patten and McKinley Louisma couldn’t have beaten, tortured and killed a 20-year-old Marion woman without the other.

Iowa students are beginning their second school year under a new Iowa law that defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10 percent of days in a grading period. During the first year of the law, the majority of charges for truancy were dismissed in Linn and Johnson counties as families made an effort to improve their child’s school attendance.

A Linn County jury deliberated over two hours before convicting an 18-year-old of sexually abusing three children over the course of two years. The three girls, who are sisters, testified he threatened to kill them and another of their siblings if they disclosed the abuse.

A Cedar Rapids man was convicted Tuesday for sexually abusing a teen 19 years ago. Sex abuse cases have no statute of limitations in Iowa. The woman, as a 30-year-old, reported the repeated abuse to police in 2022.

Two of the men convicted in the fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley in 2018 sat in a Linn County courtroom two weeks ago and spoke to Bagley’s heartbroken parents and siblings, who have been searching for answers about how — and why — their loved one was killed more than six years ago.

A Cedar Rapids man, already convicted in the fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley in 2018, testified in court Friday that Bagley and Andrew Shaw were friends until Bagley started robbing, extorting him. Shaw is on trial for first-degree murder and other charges related to Bagley’s murder.