Sen. Chris Cournoyer, right, took the oath of office to serve as Iowa’s lieutenant governor on December 16, 2024, at the Iowa Capitol, headed by Iowa Chief Justice Susan Christensen, left.
Although an Iowa Senate committee dismissed his ethics complaint against the state’s new lieutenant governor, the Scott County sheriff says he will continue to pursue the case.
On December 16, Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane filed a sworn ethics complaint against Chris Cournoyer, a former Iowa state senator from LeClaire, with the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee. Cournoyer is accused in the complaint of harassing a citizen, disclosing sensitive information, unlawfully using confidential information to advance her own or another person’s interests, and getting confidential information improperly or illegally.
Senate Ethics Committee Chair Tom Shipley recently informed the Quad-City Times that the committee rejected Lane’s complaint because it was drafted on the same day Cournoyer was appointed lieutenant governor, leaving the committee with nothing to examine.
“I’m not going to drop this; I’m not going to let this go,” Lane stated on Tuesday.
Aside from the specific difficulties he has with Cournoyer’s behavior, Lane expressed concern that a sheriff’s power to discipline personnel may be jeopardized if Statehouse legislators align themselves with those workers and then pursue retaliatory legislation.
Lane’s ethical complaint focuses on Cournoyer’s alleged participation in handling material related to the discharge of Josh Wall, a Scott County sergeant who acknowledged to conducting an unlawful investigation into Lane’s wife, Jennifer McAndrew. McAndrew oversees probationers for the Iowa Department of Corrections.
Wall appealed his removal from the sheriff’s office, prompting a hearing before the Scott County Civil Service Commission earlier this year. According to Lane, Wall testified that he believed McAndrew was breaching the rights of a sex offender by monitoring the man’s actions after his probation had expired. Although the inquiry lasted several weeks and concluded in July 2023, Wall allegedly testified that he did not release a report on his findings until March 2024.
Lane claims Wall confirmed that the 2023 probe into McAndrew was unknown to others in the agency and that he had information about it on a flash drive stored at his house.
Cournoyer accused of sharing information
According to Lane’s sworn complaint, Wall also testified that after completing his report, he gave a copy to Cournoyer, a Scott County resident, to forward to Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office, but did not give Cournoyer permission to share the information with anyone else.
Lane claims that at the Civil Service Commission hearing, Cournoyer obtained Wall’s investigative report, made copies of it, and then circulated the information to others before delivering it to Bird’s office.
The Scott County Civil Service Commission upheld Wall’s termination, concluding that Wall failed to follow established processes for investigating, reporting, and documenting any concerns he may have had. The commission found that Wall did not only fail to notify the sheriff of his conduct, but also the county attorney, attorney general, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
During the 2024 legislative session, Cournoyer introduced Senate File 2014, later renamed Senate File 2277, which stated that if a county sheriff intends to conduct a disciplinary or criminal investigation of an employee who is also an immediate family member, the investigation must be turned over to the attorney general or the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Despite being passed by a committee, the bill did not move.
According to Lane’s lawsuit, he was approached by an Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter during the legislative session who informed him that Cournoyer had stated that the bill was designed to address a problem within the Scott County Sheriff’s Office. Lane added that he informed the reporter he had no idea what the issue was and that Cournoyer had not addressed the bill with him.
In May 2024, the Quad-City Times published a letter signed by Cournoyer. Lane claims in his complaint that Cournoyer’s letter was intended to endorse Chris Laye, his Republican primary opponent for Scott County sheriff. Cournoyer wrote in her letter that Scott County residents “deserve someone who enforces the law (and) who doesn’t think he or his family members are above it.”
According to Lane, Cournoyer was “heavily involved” in Laye’s campaign, while Wall functioned as its manager and accountant.
Iowa Law Enforcement Academy subpoena
Lane claims in his complaint that an inquiry revealed his wife had not broken any laws, despite Wall’s report calling for federal and state criminal charges to be filed against her. He requests a probe to discover whether Senate File 2077 was introduced as part of a scheme by Wall and Cournoyer to force the DCI to conduct its own investigation against McAndrew.
While the bill’s language refers to investigations into employees of sheriff’s offices rather than DOC personnel like McAndrew, Lane believes Cournoyer meant to broaden the scope of the measure to include inquiries into family members of county sheriffs regardless of employment.
Lane stated on Tuesday that because the Senate Ethics Committee denied his request for a probe, he is considering submitting a formal complaint with the Office of Ombudsman, which has the jurisdiction to investigate the behavior of certain public officials.
He said he called the attorney general’s office, but was told Monday that because the office does not handle legislative ethics charges, it is unclear what other options Lane may have in pursuing the case.
Lane stated that the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy has subpoenaed documents relevant to the case in order to determine whether Wall’s certification as a police officer is a problem that should be addressed.
Jen Green, the communications director for Gov. Kim Reynolds, and Mason Mauro, her deputy communications director, did not respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Mauro told the Quad-City Times earlier this month that Lane’s allegation was without substance and “doesn’t even make sense.” He stated that Cournoyer “acted appropriately when provided information by a whistleblower.”
Civil lawsuit claims retaliation
Tara Chase, a former sex offender registry expert with the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, filed a lawsuit against the county in March, alleging wrongful termination and violations of Iowa whistleblower law.
Chase states in her lawsuit that in August 2022, she met with one of McAndrew’s clients, a sex offender. Chase claims that during their encounter, she asked the man if he was still on probation or parole, and he responded that he believed he had been dismissed from probation in April 2022 but was still being monitored by McAndrew.
Chase claims she then verified that McAndrew was “continuing to improperly supervise” the individual, which included keeping a global-positioning ankle band on him.
The lawsuit claims that a year later, Chase accused Lane of inappropriately monitoring her emails and was subsequently informed that the office’s internal affairs section was investigating her for sending work-related information to a personal email account she could access from home. She claims she was sacked in August 2023 in reprisal for accusations she filed about Lane and his wife.
The county has denied any misconduct, pointing out that Josh Wall, the sergeant who was ultimately fired for his secret investigation of McAndrew, was Chase’s direct supervisor during the time in question.