An Iowa district judge is dropping her attempt to keep private the records of her 2025 arrest for drunk driving.
Adria Kester, at the time chief judge of the Fort Dodge-based 2nd Judicial District, was charged in November after she was found slumped over the steering wheel of a truck drifting in a highway median in Boone County. She pleaded guilty in December to first-offense operating under the influence.
Kester, a judge since 2013, resigned as chief judge shortly after her arrest. She remains on the bench, suspended with pay, pending an inquiry by the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission, which oversees disciplinary reports against judges.
In May, Kester filed suit in Boone County to block the release of records from her arrest requested by the Des Moines Register. The requested records would include arrest reports, body camera footage and other information related to her arrest.
“The Petitioner’s constitutional privacy interest outweighs the societal need for information,” Kester attorney Matthew Lindholm wrote in the petition.
Kester also requested the court seal the entire docket for her lawsuit, claiming litigation over the challenged documents would inevitably reveal private medical information and records related to a judicial disciplinary matter that are confidential under state law. A judge in June rejected that request as “fundamentally contrary to the bedrock principle of the Iowa courts that court proceedings and dockets are presumed to be open to the public” while withholding judgment on whether the records themselves should be unsealed.
Now, Kester has dropped her lawsuit, with Lindholm saying in a filing Tuesday, July 14, that Kester “is no longer seeking to prevent the release of the sought-after materials.” In a prepared statement, Kester said she has often told defendants in the courtroom that their worst mistakes do not define them, and that she was trying to apply that lesson to her own arrest.
“I cannot ask others to be accountable while trying to decide which parts of my own story people are allowed to see,” she said. “Releasing those records does not mean every question about that night has been answered, including questions I continue to work through with my physicians. It simply means I believe the public should have access to them.”
Boone County Attorney Matthew Speers told the Register the county is aware of the filing and is prepared to comply with the pending record requests once the court formally dismisses Kester’s lawsuit.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa judge drops suit to withhold records, video of her OWI arrest
Reporting by William Morris, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By William Morris, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
