Iowa City man charged with setting up fake accounts under UI police detective’s name

IOWA CITY — An Iowa City man was charged Monday with harassment and identity theft for using a University of Iowa police detective’s name to set up an email and social media accounts in retaliation for the detective testifying at campus protesters’ trials.

Daniel Stephen Kauble, 29, was charged with third-degree harassment, a simple misdemeanor, and tampering with a witness or juror and identity theft, both aggravated misdemeanors.

A criminal complaint stated Kauble was “sympathetic with the views and activities of protesters” arrested on the university campus in April and October 2023.

According to the complaint, Kauble set up the email and X (formerly Twitter) accounts under Detective Ian Mallory’s name the same day, Feb. 8, 2024, a jury found two protesters guilty of disorderly conduct.

Elizabeth Jorgensen, 28, and Isadora Kippes, 26, were found guilty of disorderly conduct on Feb. 8, 2024. The jury could not reach agreement on the other two charges — fifth-degree criminal mischief — that the two faced. The prosecution agreed to dismiss those charges and recommended deferred judgments for their disorderly conduct convictions.

Kauble used the X account to “repeatedly” post messages intended to “disparage, annoy, harass, and engender public contempt for Ian Mallory,” according to the complaint.

The complaint also stated the use of these fake accounts were intended to “harass” Mallory and in retaliation for his testimony at trial. Kauble also wanted to “disparage, annoy, harass and engender public contempt for the victim.”

Mallory had no knowledge of the accounts set up in his name and didn’t consent to them, the criminal complaint stated.

On Feb. 9, Kauble sent a message to one of the protesters Mallory had arrested, who had a trial in March 2024, in which he stated he hoped the posts made Mallory “hella mad.”

Mallory testified in March in the trial of Tara Dutcher, a transgender musician and community activist, charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with officers during a protest at the University of Iowa last October. Dutcher was acquitted on both charges.

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