Johnson County attorney candidate sued over debts

IOWA CITY - Two financial institutions have gone to court in recent months to collect debts totaling nearly $10,400 owed by John Zimmerman, a candidate for Johnson County attorney.

Capital One Bank and Pilot Grove Savings Bank have filed three lawsuits against Zimmerman in Johnson County District Court after the county attorney hopeful failed to pay them money they say he owed, according to court documents.

Zimmerman said Monday the situation results from financial pressures that come from a midlife career change that sent him back to school. The 46-year-old graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in December.

Zimmerman, of Iowa City, is challenging incumbent Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness in the June 3 Democratic primary. He said voters should not be concerned about his ability to handle the finances of a taxpayer-funded office with an annual budget approaching $3 million.

'They should be confident that I will be a very careful trustee of public resources,” he said.

Capital One Bank, based in Virginia, filed a petition against Zimmerman in March over $5,478 it says is owed from a credit card account.

Pilot Grove Savings Bank, based in southeast Iowa, filed in small claims court last month for $3,788 from a loan and in February for $1,126 in overdraft charges from Zimmerman's account with the bank before the institution closed it last summer.

Two days after the claim was filed for the overdraft fees, the bank said the judgment had been paid off, according to court records.

'Other than being in grad school, I've never fallen behind on things before,” Zimmerman said. 'But when you're in school, you have expenses without income.”

Court records show the banks spent months trying to collect from Zimmerman before going to court.

Pilot Grove Savings Bank in court papers characterized the $3,738 debt as a charged-off loan, which is a term meaning the payment is so late creditors believe they are unlikely to be paid.

Zimmerman said reaching agreements on the two outstanding loans were already on his to-do list this week before The Gazette contacted him Monday morning. After the initial conversation, he called back to say he had worked out repayment plans for those obligations.

Patrick Bauer, who teaches debtor-creditor law at the University of Iowa, said it varies from institution to institution, but many creditors try 'private persuasion” before going to court.

Acknowledging law school can be tough on one's finances, he said he wasn't sure the legal actions against Zimmerman should be a red flag for voters.

'To me, the question would be, has he acted honorably, has he done what he was able to do under the circumstances?” he said.

Bauer said he voted for Lyness last election and expects to again but that didn't influence his statements on Zimmerman's situation.

Zimmerman's major campaign issues include not prosecuting people for possession of marijuana for personal use or for public intoxication and to end what he calls racially motivated charges. He said he believes so strongly in those that he is forgoing immediate financial relief by running for public office rather than getting a job in private practice.

'Right now I rent one room in a house, and I eat a lot of ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I'm not able to do a lot of things that I'd be able to do if I had a good income,” he said. 'But those are financial sacrifices that seemed to me to be worth making to try to make a difference in the local criminal justice system.”

Lyness also currently finds herself a defendant in the court system. She is being sued for a 2012 accident allegedly involving her vehicle and one owned by the company that provides transportation to Iowa City Community School District students.

She did not immediately return a message Monday.

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