116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Trish Mehaffey
Reporter covering state and federal courts, and whatever legal issues come my way. I also provide live coverage of criminal trials on Twitter @tmehaffey and welcome comments and questions from readers during the trials. Outside of work I love movies, tennis and my Kansas State Wildcats! Go Cats! Stay informed with the Public Safety newsletter.
Latest Articles by Trish Mehaffey
Crime & Courts Oct. 13, 2023 5:00 am756d ago
A former Waterloo nurse pleaded to stealing meds from about 50 women in labor for her own drug use. As part of the plea, she forfeited her nursing license.
Crime & Courts Oct. 11, 2023 5:05 pm757d ago
Iowa Court of Appeals denies new trial and upholds conviction of Cristhian Rivera, who fatally stabbed Mollie Tibbetts while she was out jogging in 2018.
Crime & Courts Oct. 8, 2023 10:12 am760d ago
An Iowa City man, on pretrial release, is accused of cutting off his GPS monitor and trying to flee to Chicago on a bus. Police found him before he could leave. He now faces two more felony charges.
Crime & Courts Oct. 6, 2023 6:16 pm762d ago
A Halloween display at the front entrance of the Anamosa State Penitentiary was removed Friday after The Gazette reached out to the Iowa Department of Corrections for comment about it.
Iowa Ideas Oct. 6, 2023 5:30 am763d ago
Iowa faces challenges with growing its population, creating job opportunities for immigrants and expanding high-speed broadband into rural areas.
Crime & Courts Oct. 5, 2023 6:11 pm763d ago
Kiana McCune recounts hearing gunshots outside her apartment the day her 15-year-old son, Michael McCune, was fatally shot in a “targeted” attack on Feb. 18. in Cedar Rapids. She told a judge, during one of the teen’s juvenile adjudication hearing, that she “died that day with my son.”
Crime & Courts Oct. 5, 2023 5:55 pm763d ago
An Ohio man wanted in a fatal shooting that happened in an Ohio newspaper’s parking lot was arrested Thursday in Cedar Rapids.
Crime & Courts Oct. 4, 2023 8:36 am764d ago
An Illinois man was sentenced to 25 years for a fatal crash that killed a 23-year-old Cedar Rapids man. His driver’s license was also revoked for six years. Tyler S. Lee also is charged in Illinois with murder for a 2017 fatal shooting in Winnebago County.
Crime & Courts Oct. 4, 2023 10:22 am764d ago
Story County prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss a misdemeanor charge for an Iowa State football player because they missed indictment deadline.
Crime & Courts Oct. 3, 2023 6:00 am766d ago
The man, who held a knife to a woman’s neck, choked her and tried to smother her with a pillow as he sexually assaulted her, pleaded to third-degree sex abuse and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Crime & Courts Sep. 29, 2023 6:29 pm769d ago
A national parent’s advocacy group can go forward with it’s claim that the Linn Mar Community School District’s transgender policy to “respect” student’s gender identity violates freedom of speech. The policy is too vague, the court ruled.
Crime & Courts Sep. 29, 2023 4:47 pm769d ago
An Illinois man will plead guilty next week to one of his charges from a 2021 fatal crash on I-380. He was intoxicated and crashed his pickup truck into an SUV, killing 23-year-old David Nguyen of Cedar Rapids, according to court documents.
Crime & Courts Sep. 29, 2023 1:58 pm769d ago
A Storm Lake man accused of kidnapping his wife by gunpoint and planning to take her to Chicago last December was convicted Sept. 26 for assaulting another inmate in the Johnson County Jail in July. His trial for kidnapping is set for Oct. 24.
Crime & Courts Sep. 25, 2023 7:23 am774d ago
One of the teens accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Michael Alexander McCune in Cedar Rapids in February is asking a judge to move his first-degree murder and a theft case to juvenile court, but his previous juvenile court officer said it wasn’t in the “best interest” of the teen or the community.
Crime & Courts Sep. 22, 2023 1:19 pm776d ago
A Cedar Rapids woman, charged with trying to kill a man by slashing his throat on Sunday, had threatened to kill him earlier this year when she broke into his home, records show.

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