Employers Mutual Casualty Company v. Lacinda Ranee Van Haaften

WATERMAN, Justice.

This appeal presents a question of first impression in Iowa: whether an Alford plea preceding a deferred judgment on a felony theft charge has preclusive effect in a subsequent civil action against the defendant to recover stolen funds. A secretary at Prairie City-Monroe Community School District (PCM), Lacinda Van Haaften, allegedly embezzled from a student activity fund and faced criminal charges. The district court accepted her Alford plea 1 to first-degree theft and en tered a deferred judgment on that charge. PCM’s subrogated insurer, Employers Mutual Casualty Company…