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 Jul. 21, 2025 8:14 am108d ago
An investigation revealed a history of domestic abuse by an Iowa City man charged earlier this year with fatally assaulting the mother of his toddler.
Crime & Courts Jul. 18, 2025 7:28 am111d ago
The trial for Logan Kimpton, accused of helping his roommate and another man kidnap, torture and strangle a Marion woman in 2024, has been reset.
Crime & Courts Jul. 17, 2025 2:43 pm111d ago
A former western Iowa nurse was sentenced to over 3 years in federal prison for bank fraud, stealing drugs from nursing home patients and illegally possessing firearms.
Crime & Courts Jul. 16, 2025 5:42 pm112d ago
A Cedar Rapids man, who was armed and attempted to hold a pregnant woman at his Marion repair business last year, was convicted in for firearms and faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Crime & Courts Jul. 17, 2025 8:02 am112d ago
During a hearing Wednesday, Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith said if another Hawkeye Waste employee is harmed — like employee Matthew Reuwsaat, 61, a skid loader operator who was crushed by the equipment last year — that employee wouldn’t be covered by worker’s compensation insurance for a workplace accident.
Crime & Courts Jul. 14, 2025 4:25 pm114d ago
A Linn County jury deliberated three hours before finding a Traer woman guilty of first-degree murder. The prosecution said she planned with her “lover“ — a much younger Shellsburg man — to kill her husband and start a new life with his $500,000 life insurance policy. She was the sole beneficiary.
Crime & Courts Jul. 14, 2025 4:28 pm114d ago
Matthew Schleier will claim insanity at trial, and the prosecution will have an independent psychological evaluation performed in August and needs more time to prepare.
Crime & Courts Jul. 11, 2025 7:15 am118d ago
Karina Cooper, accused of fatally shooting her husband in 2021, testified the majority of her affair with Huston Danker was “online” and she didn’t think he was serious about killing her husband. After the murder, she said she didn’t tell police becuase she was scared of Danker.
Crime & Courts Jul. 10, 2025 8:26 am119d ago
Police found drugs, money and a firearm in his car during a traffic stop in 2024.
Crime & Courts Jul. 10, 2025 8:16 am119d ago
Ali Younes, accused of robbing and assaulting a woman in 2022 on the University of Iowa campus, initially told police a man he couldn’t identify assaulted the woman. He only came upon the woman after she was unconscious, he said, and stole her diamond earrings.
Crime & Courts Jul. 8, 2025 6:52 pm120d ago
An Iowa City woman who was assaulted and robbed on the UI campus in 2022, testified during the first day of her attacker’s bench trial in Johnson County. She sensed someone was following her and when he started strangling her, she feared for her life.
Crime & Courts Jul. 8, 2025 7:14 am121d ago
Several friends testified Monday they witnessed a Traer woman, on trial for killing her husband, be verbally abusive to her husband. Some also said they knew she was having an affair with a Shellsburg man, who is accused of conspiring with her to kill her husband.
Crime & Courts Jul. 4, 2025 7:29 am125d ago
A forensic examiner testified Thursday about texts and Snapchats messages that indicate an affair between a Traer woman and her lover — and possibly implicate both of them in the fatal shooting of her husband in 2021.
Crime & Courts Sep. 4, 2025 11:11 am63d ago
The trial for a Traer woman, accused of fatally shooting her husband in the face in 2021, started Wednesday in Linn County. A prosecutor, in his opening, said Karina Cooper carried out a “deliberate and calculated” plan with her lover to kill her husband.
Crime & Courts Jul. 1, 2025 1:43 pm128d ago
A Cedar Rapids man who was distributing fentanyl was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison. Officers recovered 227 pills containing the drug during a traffic stop.

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