Appeals court upholds conviction of former investment broker who didn’t show for trial

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld a conviction of a former Cedar Rapids investment broker, who swindled investors out of thousands, for skipping out on his trial in an attempt to leave the country.

Alan Lucas, 44, who is serving 25 years in prison for a 2013 conviction of ongoing criminal conduct and first-degree theft, was also found guilty in 2015 of failure to appear when he didn't show up for the second day of trial. He was sentenced on that charge to another five years in prison.

In his appeal, Lucas argues there is insufficient evidence for the conviction, his lawyer was 'constitutionally defective,” and the court abused its discretion to run the two sentences consecutively.

The appeals court in the ruling stated there is no question that Lucas was required to be at his felony trial and he didn't attend the second day. According to testimony, Lucas fled to Wisconsin and his lawyer told the court he didn't know what happened. But Lucas' mother told a judge that her son had purchased a one-way plane ticket to India and was going to leave the country.

The court stated these circumstances support Lucas' failure to appear was 'willful.”

Sixth Judicial District Judge Paul Miller in his 2015 ruling said Lucas 'willfully failed to appear” and the state proved each element of the charge 'beyond a reasonable doubt.” Lucas waived his right to jury trial and consented for Miller to rule based on the minutes of testimony.

Court documents show authorities arrested Lucas in Wisconsin and he fought extradition back to Iowa for several months.

The appeals court also ruled the trial court didn't abuse its discretion for running the failure to appear sentence consecutively with the other conviction. Lucas claimed the court had 'fixed policy” regarding consecutive sentences for failure to appear offenses.

The trial court gave adequate and rational reasons for the sentence, the ruling stated. The trial court judge said Lucas had misused the system in attempting to challenge the results of his trial. Lucas had the right to appeal his ongoing criminal conduct conviction but it doesn't change the fact that he didn't show up for his trial, the court said.

The trial court's reasoning doesn't reveal a fixed policy, the ruling stated. The court didn't take up Lucas' claims of ineffective counsel. Those will be taken up in post-conviction proceedings.

Testimony in the ongoing criminal conduct case showed Lucas purchased Covenant Investment Fund from associate Noah Aulwes in May 2010 and then Aulwes transferred nearly $190,000 from the fund to Lucas, but the 40 investors were not informed of the transaction.

Lucas then took the investors' funds and paid off his personal credit card, rent for his company Asherlee Management, property taxes, and purchased a BMW and other items, according to trial testimony.

Aulwes, 58, of Cedar Rapids, was convicted of securities fraud and other charges in December 2012. He was sentenced to 10 years but was paroled in 2013.

In 2014, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the Iowa Attorney General's Office civil judgment that went against Lucas and awarded more than $1 million to eight businesses Lucas controlled.