Iowa’s Northern District sees far more federal trials in 2024

CEDAR RAPIDS — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, had nearly twice as many trials in 2024 and is ranked second for cases filed among the other 25 federal districts of its size.

“We had 18 trials in 2024, which is higher than normal (for this district),” U.S. Attorney Tim Duax of the Northern District told The Gazette in an interview at the U.S. District Courthouse. “I think this shows we are dedicated to holding defendants accountable. We make a lot of pleas because we can’t take all the cases to trial, but we also take cases to trial.”

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This year’s trial total was higher than any of the last five years — except for 2022, which had 20 trials, Duax noted. There were 16 in 2020; 12 in 2021; and 10 in 2023.

“The office also filed 278 cases, which had 332 defendants in 2024. Some cases indict more than one individual. We are (ranked) second for cases filed among the smaller districts,” he said. “There are 25 smaller districts among all of the 94 federal districts.”

Criminal case filings were down by 5 percent in the other 93 districts, but the Northern District was up by 8 percent, Duax said. The office filed about 20 cases a month.

Of those cases filed, about 51 percent were for violent crimes, which included charges for firearms and firearm-related crimes, robberies and assaults, according to the office’s data. Other offenses charged: 21 percent were drug and drug-related; 10 percent were immigration cases; 10 percent were for white-collar charges, such as fraud; and 10 percent were for other federal counts that included child porn and sex exploitation.

Duax said many of the drug offenses involved fentanyl and methamphetamine. The fentanyl crimes have been up over the last several years. But meth cases continue to have a “stable volume.”

Charges for manufacturing meth are rare now, Duax said. Most of the meth is trafficked from Mexico — rather than made here — because drug cartels can produce it cheaper with a higher potency, and distribute larger quantities.

The child porn cases were up about 22 percent in 2024, Duax said. In the district’s branch office, in Sioux City, one prosecutor handles all the child porn and sexual exploitation cases there. But in the Cedar Rapids main office, more than one prosecutor works on those cases. In both the Cedar Rapids and Sioux City offices, there are 29 assistant U.S. attorneys and 24 staff members. The district includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Fort Dodge and Sioux City.

Duax pointed out the fraud cases after 2020 have increased because the office saw more cases involving the federal paycheck protection program that was meant to help small businesses across the nation during pandemic shutdowns.

Some took advantage of the program and filed false claims. One of the prosecutors discovered there was an unusual number of claims filed by owners of barbershops in the district. He compared the owners’ names with a state list of licenses barbers and found several claims were fake, Duax said. There were about 50 to 60 fake barbers who filed claims totaling about $200,000.

Bigger prosecutions in 2024

Duax also highlighted some of the bigger convictions in 2024 in the district:

● Matthew David Keirans, 58, of Hartland, Wis., a former University of Iowa IT systems lead who stole a California man’s identity 35 years ago. According to a plea agreement, Keirans stole the identity of William “Bill” Donald Woods, 55, of California, a homeless man who has been in and out of jail and ended up being committed to a mental hospital because he repeatedly reported that his identity had been stolen. Keirans was convicted in April of one count of a false statement to a credit union and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 32 years in prison. His sentencing is set for Jan. 31.

● Allen Jones, 35, of Western Iowa’s Ute, pleaded in March to kidnapping and was sentenced to 16 years in prison for luring a co-worker into his garage, pointing a shotgun at him and telling him they are “going for a ride.” He told the victim he planned to “shoot up the casino” and use the victim as a human shield.

● Michael Wayne Butikofer, 54, a Clayton County farmer who stole over $5 million in livestock and pandemic benefits was sentenced to over 15 years in prison. He pleaded to one count each of theft of livestock, wire fraud and false bankruptcy declaration.

● Arjune Ahmed, 27, of South Sioux City, Neb., and formerly of Ethiopia, committed five sexual assaults in five years and two of those happened during kidnappings. According to evidence, Ahmed lured women into his car or to meet him and then kidnapped and sexually assaulted them in 2019 and 2020. DNA evidence found in the 2019 and 2020 investigations also linked Ahmed to an unsolved home invasion and sexual assault in 2015, and two more sexual assault victims in 2017 and 2018. He was convicted and sentenced in all those to 40 years in prison.

● James Adam Earwood, 39, of Rutherfordton, N.C., was sentenced in April to over 40 years for distributing heroin and fentanyl, which caused the death of a Dubuque man. According to trial testimony, he mailed a package of heroin and fentanyl from North Carolina to the victim in Dubuque. The victim used the drugs and overdosed but survived in November 2021. A month later, the victim received another package from Earwood and used the drugs but died this time.

Future leader of office

Duax was appointed by the Justice Department as the acting U.S. Attorney for the district in 2022 after Sean Berry, appointed in 2021, retired.

Last February, the White House announced President Joe Biden had nominated Matthew L. Gannon, a former assistant Iowa attorney general, as the next U.S. Attorney for the district. But the Senate never confirmed him.

U.S. Attorneys are presidential appointments, and President-elect Donald Trump is likely to nominate someone else for the role.

Duax said he is hoping to go back to his former role in Sioux City as the branch chief prosecutor of the office. Typically, an incoming president would terminate the serving U.S. attorney appointed by a former president, but Duax isn’t a presidential appointment. After being appointed by the Justice Department, he had to be court-appointed to stay longer term in the role. He has been a prosecutor with the Northern District for 17 years.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com