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A Scott County prosecutor is suing an Iowa county, a Division of Criminal Investigations agent and a judge for defamation.
Ryan McCord is suing former Appanoose County Attorney Susan Cole, DCI agent Ryan Kedley, and Des Moines County in a lawsuit that was initially filed in state court and recently transferred to federal court. It is the fourth civil claim or lawsuit that McCord has filed that is connected to his former fiancée.
Cole is no longer the attorney for Appanoose County, having been appointed to the position of district associate judge earlier this year.
In his lawsuit, McCord alleges that in 2020, while he was working as a prosecutor in Des Moines County, his boss at the time, Des Moines County Attorney Lisa Schaeffer, contacted the DCI to conduct a criminal investigation into his conduct. Within two months, the lawsuit claims, McCord was fired and charged with misdemeanor harassment, and Schaeffer had contacted Cole to arrange for her to serve as special prosecutor in the case.
The harassment charge was based on allegations that McCord had used his position as a Des Moines County prosecutor to threaten or extort his ex-fiancée, Nasim Heckenberg.
According to court records, Heckenberg worked as a physician at the Great River Medical Center in Burlington and was in the United States on a visa. McCord was accused of telling Heckenberg, falsely, that he had a pending domestic violence complaint against her at the sheriff’s office and that charges could be filed if they didn’t get back together. “I could file the charges any time in the next two years,” he allegedly told Heckenberg in one social media message.
McCord also was accused of suggesting to Heckenberg that she had committed a felony that could threaten her employment and her immigration status and lead to her deportation.
In his lawsuit, McCord alleges that prior to the harassment charge being filed against him, Kedley intentionally included information in his arrest and search warrant applications that he knew at the time was false and omitted exculpatory evidence.
The lawsuit claims the allegedly false statements made by Kedley were made “with extreme recklessness and malicious intent.”
In September 2022, the harassment charge was dismissed due to a defect in the manner in which it was originally filed.
McCord’s arrest, which resulted in news stories about the case, caused “irreversible damage” to McCord’s professional and personal lives, the lawsuit claims, and rendered him “unemployable for nearly three years as an attorney.” McCord is currently working as a criminal prosecutor in Scott County.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for defamation, invasion of privacy, First Amendment retaliation and false arrest. The defendants in the case have yet to file a response.
Three other lawsuits filed by McCord
Shortly after the criminal charge of harassment was dismissed in 2022, McCord sued his ex-fiancée for defamation, alleging she had falsely reported to law enforcement officials that he had threatened to have her deported if she did not remain in a relationship with him.
In that case, a judge imposed sanctions on McCord for violating a court order, stating that McCord had supplied Heckenberg’s attorney with “a document dump that was disorganized and inappropriate … The court does find that (McCord) inexplicably continues to fail to follow the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure.” The judge also criticized McCord for “maligning” the opposing counsel in the case.
In January 2024, District Court Judge Joshua Schier dismissed McCord’s lawsuit against Heckenberg, stating, “Throughout the course of this proceeding, (McCord) has repeatedly failed to comply with the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure, specifically regarding discovery, and has failed to comply with this court’s orders regarding discovery. As a result, there is very little information available to anyone regarding (his) accusations.”
In November, McCord filed a small-claims lawsuit against his ex-fiancée, seeking $2,600 as payment for rent, moving expenses and storage-unit fees. That case is still pending.
McCord is also suing the Associated Press for its reporting of his arrest in 2020, alleging an AP reporter “embellished” facts or made statements in the article that were not supported by facts. The Associated Press has argued that all of the statements in its report are true or substantially true, and that McCord suffered no injury directly attributable to any false or defamatory statements. A trial-setting conference in that case is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2025.
McCord’s law license is currently in good standing with the State of Iowa, with no record any public disciplinary action. McCord said Thursday the 2020 arrest has caused numerous problems for him and that he has spent the past “four or five years trying to clear my name.”