by Clark Kauffman Iowa Capital Dispatch
Attorney Beau Bergmann and the Bergmann Law Firm are suing Henry County, Henry County District Court, Henry County Attorney Darin Stater, and Mt. Pleasant Chief of Police Lyle Murray in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
The lawsuit claims Bergmann and his law firm maintained a lawyer trust account for depositing client funds at Wayland State Bank in Mt. Pleasant. According to the lawsuit, in August 2023, Murray and Stater initiated a search warrant application for account information at Wayland State Bank. The warrant application allegedly sought access to financial statements for accounts controlled by Bergmann or the law firm.
As part of the warrant application, Murray allegedly provided the court with an affidavit stating that Bergmann had illegally taken $20,000 from a mentally incapacitated person and would not return the money. Additional references were made to $9,500 paid to Bergmann by a different client.
Murray’s affidavit, according to the lawsuit, alleged that “Bergmann either stole or fraudulently obtained money from the two victims.” The affidavit allegedly cites “two suspicious checking accounts,” without offering any explanation as to why the accounts were deemed suspicious.
Despite the fact that funds held in such accounts are not the property of the attorney who maintains the account, but are instead the property of the clients, Stater and Murray sought access to financial statements pertaining to the account, according to the lawsuit.
Based upon Murray’s affidavit, District Associate Judge Jonathan Stensvaag then approved the warrant application and signed a search warrant in the case, the lawsuit alleges.
Bergmann now claims the court was aware, or should have been aware, there was probable cause that a criminal offense had been committed.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for alleged civil rights violations related to the improper issuance of search warrants and invasion of privacy.
The defendants in the case have yet to file a response to the lawsuit.
Lawsuit follows case alleging elder abuse
Civil court records indicate the search warrant pertaining to the mentally incapacitated individual are tied to a dispute that arose in May 2023, when attorney Steven E. Ort filed a court petition against Bergmann seeking relief from elder abuse.
In that case, Ort, who was representing the incapacitated individual’s conservator and guardian, alleged Bergmann had accepted $20,000 from the individual after that person’s financial matters were placed in the hands of the conservator, and that Bergmann then refused to return the money to the conservator.
Full Article & Source:
Lawyer involved in 2023 elder-abuse case sues county, chief of police
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