Judge revokes probation for man with 67 no-contact violations

CEDAR RAPIDS - A judge revoked probation and handed down a 10-year prison sentence for a Cedar Rapids man who assaulted, stalked and harassed a woman and also violated a no-contact order for the victim 67 times.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Mary Chicchelly revoked probation Monday for Steven M. Meyers, 36, and sentenced him to five years in prison for his convictions on first-degree harassment, stalking and assault causing bodily injury. She also found him in contempt for violating a no-contact order for the 44-year-old victim 67 times, giving him another five-year sentence, which she ran consecutively to the other sentence for a total of 10 years in prison.

Chicchelly, during the hearing, said the sheer number of violations and that he repeatedly sent messages in a 'menacing way” warranted the prison time.

Meyers started sending threatening text messages to the woman two days before he was sentenced in March, according to court records. A no-contact order until March 2023 was issued at the sentencing hearing, but he continued sending threatening and disparaging messages by text or phone, sometimes up to 20 messages a day, from May through July 9.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said the prosecutors take the position that each message or call, even if made in one day, can be counted as separate violations and judges typically agree, depending the case.

'We've been having more repeated violators,” Slaughter said. 'But this case is less typical - this many violations. Some victims say ‘How can a piece of paper (no-contact order) protect me?' but it's a prosecutor's job to protect and file charges when there are violations.”

Meyers would also disguise some messages by sending them through an app that allows a person to assume another identity, or he would create a new identity through an online game.

The messages Meyers sent included threats to 'kill her” and 'beat her face,” and he would also threaten the woman's friends, Slaughter said.

Meyers was charged with assault causing bodily injury because he shot pepper spray in the woman's face and the face of another person she was with at the time, Slaughter said. He also faces a pending charge of fourth-degree criminal mischief from April 2, and a second-degree harassment charge from June 21.

In the April incident, the woman told police Meyers was waiting outside her home with a baseball bat and bashed in her truck while she was inside of it, according to criminal complaint.

Court records show a previous harassment conviction against this same victim in 2016, and he also was sentenced to two days in jail for violating a no-contact order in that case.

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