Trish Mehaffey

A Dubuque County man was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for distributing child porn. He was nabbed after sending three videos to an undercover law enforcement officer.

U.S. marshals from the southern and northern districts of Iowa and the central district of Illinois teamed up in May and with law enforcement agencies and the Iowa Department of Corrections to conduct a five-week fugitive operation, which resulted in 52 arrests.

A Marion woman was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for falsely claiming her residence had damage from the derecho, and receiving small business loan funds for a business that did not exist.

An Iowa City man, who was previously convicted for enticing a minor, was sentenced to 10 years for enticing minors and sexually abusing one girl under the age of 13. The judge ran the recent sentence consecutively to his previous five-year sentence.

The case of the abduction of Jodi Huisentruit, a 27-year-old Mason City news anchor in 1995, remains unsolved 30 years later, but her family, friends and co-workers are still hopeful that police investigators will uncover what happened to her.

An Iowa City man, who fled to Jordan to avoid prosecution for attempted murder and other charges in May 2023, waived his right to a jury trial Friday and will have a bench — non-jury — trial on July 8 in Johnson County District Court.

An Oxford man was sentenced to 13 years for soliciting a girl he believed was 15-years-old for sex and receiving child pornography. An undercover officer was posing as a minor online and nabbed the man when he showed up to meet the girl for sex.

Federal jury convicts Cedar Rapids man for selling heroin/fentanyl mix to Marion couple who died from overdoses in 2023. He faces 40 years and possibly up to life in federal prison.

An Iowa City man, who committed a series of robberies in Cedar Rapids and Robins, now faces up to 60 years in federal prison. He laundered the stolen money by depositing them in different accounts in Maryland.

A judge denied a motion to dismiss for a Marion man, who was charged and convicted in fatal crash of a Coggon mother in 2013, and now faces a new charge because the mother’s daughter, also injured in the crash, just died from those injuries last year.

Mother of Brittany Hopkins, who was beaten to death by a Cedar Rapids man in February, said her daughter was a “bright and vibrant” woman, despite her mental and physical disabilities. She was loving mother to her three children and was looking forward to the birth of her son, who also died as a result of Hopkins’ murder.

The trial of a former Marion man accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a child between 2018 and 2021 has been bumped for the 11th time. This case is one of numerous Linn County sexual abuse cases that have been lingering in the system for more than a year.

A Marion man, who was convicted of vehicular homicide in the death of a Coggon mother and also caused permanent injuries to her toddler in 2013, asked a judge Monday to dismiss a new vehicular homicide charge filed after the child died last year.

A Cedar Rapids man is honoring his mother, a court clerk who died last year, by establishing a nonprofit to create a children’s library in the Linn County Courthouse. His mom noticed many parents have to take their children with them to the courthouse when handling legal matters, and providing books could help distract them.

Madeline Overman, a critical care nurse and organ donor coordinator, said there may be some people who don’t think of organ donation as something positive when their loved one has died or is dying, but the people who make that “selfless gift” find hope in helping others live on.