Iowa lawyer, already suspended, cited for sex allegations against woman

Yahoo

12-03-2025

(Main photo by simpson33 via iStock / Getty Images Plus; seal courtesy State of Iowa)
A central Iowa lawyer, with his license already suspended for misconduct, has been publicly reprimanded for telling a woman's friends and associates she was a 'swinger' while detailing for them her alleged sexual activities.
The Iowa Attorney Disciplinary Board alleges that attorney David Leitner of Johnston violated the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct by sending out a letter in which he levied the accusations against a woman who had dated one of his clients for about a year.
After the woman ended the relationship, Leitner allegedly sent a letter, on his law office letterhead, to the woman and 13 other individuals, some of whom were the woman's friends, relatives or acquaintances.
The letter began, 'As you well know, (the woman) was in a relationship with (Leitner's client). Recently it has come to our attention that (she) has been spreading mistruths about my client and false allegations, therefore we are going to set the record straight one time, in the hope this ceases or we will all be subject to litigation very soon.'
According to the board, the letter went on to allege the woman was a 'swinger' and it provided details related to the woman's alleged 'sexual exploits and infidelity.' The letter also alleged the woman attempted to engage Leitner's client in a sex act in May 2023 and that she had a consensual sexual encounter with the client in July 2023.
Less than a week after sending the letter, Leitner filed two civil lawsuits against the woman on behalf of his client, alleging defamation.
In deciding to publicly reprimand Leitner, the board said that regardless of the truth of his letter, Leitner's decision to send it to the woman's associates violated the Iowa Rule of Professional Conduct for lawyers.
In its decision, the board stated that Leitner's 'claimed reason of sending the letter 'to advise the defamer just to stop doing it as well as to notify those persons with whom she has been known to have contact' was disingenuous. Your intended purpose could have been accomplished without including details of (the woman's) sex life … The clear purpose of sending this letter to complainant, her family, her friends, and her acquaintances was to embarrass and harass her.'
The board stated that in light of the fact that Leitner was already serving a two-year license suspension that was imposed early last year, a public reprimand was the appropriate sanction.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Leitner for comment. But in response to the board's written notice of reprimand, Leitner sent an email to the director of the Attorney Disciplinary Board in which he likened the board to England's notorious Star Chamber of the 1600s, which was known for its lack of due process and secretive court proceedings.
'While it is clear that you do not have all relevant information,' Leitner wrote, 'considering how I was treated by your star chamber last time, I have elected not to bother protesting.'
Leitner's email appears to reference his 2022-24 disciplinary proceedings. In that case, Leitner was accused of dishonest behavior and attempting to 'swindle' taxpayers.
As part of that case, the Grievance Commission of the Iowa Supreme Court recommended that Leitner's license be revoked, in part for the potentially 'criminal' act of helping a client hide assets from the federal government and to what the commission called Leitner's 'long pattern of deliberate misconduct and dishonesty.'
Leitner contested the commission's recommendation that his license be revoked, arguing that the disciplinary board's actions were 'abusive.' The board countered that while Leitner stood accused of wrongdoing in four separate cases, his conduct in just one of those cases warranted a license revocation on its own.
Leitner, the board alleged, had helped defraud the federal government by hiding a client's assets and taking 'active steps to keep the government from ever finding out the money existed.' Leitner, the board says, 'effectively swindled the federal government out of money that it rightfully should have possessed.'
The case in question involved Leitner's representation of Iowa seed dealer Marvin Mitchell and the creation of a limited liability company called Foodprairie. In 2007, Mitchell was convicted of bankruptcy fraud and sentenced to 18 months in prison after it was found that he had hidden assets from creditors by creating various business entities just before he declared bankruptcy.
In 2013, while still owing at least $70,000 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and with federal liens against his properties, Mitchell allegedly hired Leitner to create Foodprairie and had Leitner declare himself to be the managing member of the corporation. Mitchell was selling seed at that time and allegedly routed his income from the business to Foodprairie, where he could access the money while concealing it from the federal government.
The creation of a company to hide assets 'could be criminal and certainly fraudulent, dishonest (and) deceitful,' the disciplinary board said. 'The whole point of Leitner's Foodprairie scheme was to deprive the federal government of the funds to which it had rights.'
In February 2024, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a two-year suspension, rather than a revocation, of Leitner's license was the appropriate sanction.
Leitner is a 1979 graduate of the University of Iowa Law School. He began practicing law in Iowa later that year.