Ian A. Roberts, the former Des Moines schools superintendent who pleaded guilty to two federal criminal offenses, should spend 37 months — roughly three years — in prison, the U.S. attorney says in a sentencing recommendation.
Roberts, once a rising star in education, pleaded guilty in January to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen to land the job as the Des Moines Public Schools superintendent in 2023 and to unlawful possession of four firearms as an illegal alien.
Roberts “betrayed the public’s trust” and should receive the maximum sentence allowed, wrote U.S. Attorney David Waterman in a sentencing memorandum to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on Friday, May 22.
A presentence investigation report shows Roberts should serve between 30 and 37 months.
Waterman said Roberts shouldn’t receive less than 30 months, because he will be deported to Guyana after his sentence. “Imposing a lesser sentence based on post-sentence immigration consequences fails to capture the sentencing aim of deterring future criminal conduct,” the U.S. attorney wrote.
The maximum sentence under law for the offenses is 20 years in jail and $500,000 in fines, according to the sentencing recommendation.
The U.S. attorney wrote that Roberts worked for “more than 15 years as an education professional,” cultivating “a public image grounded in integrity, leadership and authenticity.
“Yet behind that public image,” Roberts, “engaged in conduct that undermined those values,” Waterman wrote. For more than 15 years, Roberts “deliberately obtained employment without work authorization at school after school, within state after state.” All the while, knowing “he was not a citizen.”
The U.S. attorney said Roberts only legally worked in America for 18 months of his 15-year career.
In January, Roberts’ attorney Alfredo Parrish told the court that the team had discussed with Roberts several potential defenses, including an “advice of counsel” defense based on information Roberts had received from an immigration attorney who represented him in the Texas case. Jackeline Gonzaelz, a Texas immigration attorney who previously represented Roberts, informed Roberts of “the closure of your immigration case,” Gonzalez wrote in the letter, dated March 27, 2025. Roberts, at that time, believed that he was allowed to live and work in the United States.
Parrish also noted possible Second Amendment defenses, including that Roberts had safety concerns due to his past work as a police officer in Guyana and threats he’d received while working in Des Moines.
“He wanted to accept responsibility, and that’s what he did,” in accepting the plea, Parrish said. “He wanted to accept responsibility so he could move on.”
In the sentencing recommendation, Waterman said Roberts hid in his vehicle a copy of a May 2025 order directing him to leave the U.S. and return to Guyana. Roberts even “obtained a counterfeit social security card … bearing his once validly assigned number and used it during the I-9 employment process for at least the Des Moines Public Schools.”
And Roberts owned four firearms: One was discovered the day he was arrested, underneath his driver’s seat, loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition. Law enforcement also found an extended firearm magazine containing 29 rounds with a 33-round capacity, a wallet with $3,000 in cash, his Guyana passport, a counterfeit Social Security card and an expired employment authorization card.
A search of Roberts’ home revealed a loaded and chambered pistol with 16 rounds of ammunition; a loaded and chambered rifle with four rounds of ammunition; and a shotgun and 32 rounds of assorted shotgun shells.
His supply of roughly 300 rounds of ammunition in his home and vehicle makes his offense aggravated, Waterman wrote.
The U.S. attorney wrote that Roberts also used “others to purchase firearms he could not legally purchase.”
Roberts’ “reputation in the community is both mitigating and aggravating,” Waterman wrote, adding that while Roberts will highlight his professional work to help students, teachers and education professionals, “he placed his self-interest above the law and the duty he owed the public he served.”
Roberts’ “conduct demonstrates a longstanding and deliberate pattern spanning more than 15 years. A time-served sentence (approximately 8 months) would not reflect the seriousness of his conduct,” the U.S. attorney wrote.
Roberts is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on May 29.
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ian Roberts should serve 3 years in prison, U.S. attorney recommends
Reporting by Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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