Iowa County Attorneys Association bills focus on protecting victims, witnesses

The Iowa County Attorneys Association has two priority bills and supports another one in the Iowa Legislature that would protect domestic violence victims, witnesses in criminal cases and victims of other serious crimes.

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, a member of the association’s legislative committee, said all three are important bills needed to close loopholes to protect victims of crime and increase penalties. He noted that two of the bills were proposed by Linn County prosecutors.

All three bills have passed the Iowa House but await consideration in the Iowa Senate.

One of the priority bills, House File 2098 and companion bill, Senate File 2174, would create a new offense of assault if a person who commits an assault, including domestic abuse assault, already has a protective order against them from the same victim, Maybanks said.

The charge would be Class D felony, which carries a five-year prison sentence. Under the current law, a violation of a protective order is punishable as contempt of court, or a simple misdemeanor.

In 2023, eight defendants out of 40 Linn County cases committed another assault while under a no-contact or protective order, said Anastasia Basquin, community outreach specialist and chief liaison with the Linn County Attorney’s Office.

That 2023 figure is higher than usual, she said, and typically hovers around 10 percent of cases where a defendant commits a second assault with a no-contact order already in place.

An example of someone charged with assault involving a no-contact order is a Cedar Rapids man, Jimmy Prophete, 42, who initially was accused of assaulting his girlfriend last March.

A judge ordered him to not contact the girlfriend, who lived with him. But about a month later, after she was his ex-girlfriend, Prophete was charged again — this time with attempting to kill the woman. Prophete is accused of pinning her on the floor, stabbing her with a knife and hitting her in the head and neck with the claw side of a hammer. His trial is set for March 19 in Linn County District Court.

The other priority bill is tampering with a witness, House File 2250 and Senate File 2348. The measure would add protections for a juror, witness and “reporting party” who assists law enforcement or a public safety agency.

Maybanks said the current tampering law doesn’t allow this charge unless a witness had already testified at trial or another judicial hearing.

The enhanced bill states that tampering — bribery, threats, forcible detaining or restraining, harassment or assault — is a violation if it’s committed against a potential witness, juror and a reporting party.

An amended version of bill also states that a person convicted of tampering faces a penalty of one degree higher than the underlying offense, not to exceed a Class C felony — or up to 10 years in prison.

The third bill supported by the association was a priority bill last year that never made it to the debate floor. It was proposed by Maybanks based on a Cedar Rapids case.

The bill, now House File 2191 and Senate File 2164, would stop the practice of offenders applying credit given for good behavior toward shortening their mandatory minimum sentences.

Maybanks learned in 2023 that earned or good time credits could reduce mandatory minimums for repeat and violent offenders like Nathan Brocks, 41, of Cedar Rapids, who was sentenced to 40 years with a mandatory 20 years to serve before being eligible for parole.

His estranged wife, who he was convicted of assaulting for three hours in 2019, found out he was going to be released after serving about nine years in prison — 11 years less than the mandatory minimum — because of the credits he’d earned for good behavior.

She contacted Maybanks, and Maybanks reached out to Sen. Charlie McClintock, R-Alburnett, a member of the Justice System Appropriations Subcommittee, to talk to him about the importance of “truth in sentencing.”

Maybanks still supports the bill and believes if a sentence requires a mandatory minimum, then offenders should serve that time.

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