Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 718.4 (2026)

Harassment of public officers and employees

✓ current as of July 2026
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Any person who willfully prevents or attempts to prevent any public officer or employee from performing the officer’s or employee’s duty commits a simple misdemeanor. [C79, 81, §718.4]

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Notes of Decisions
Cited in 6 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1988–2024 · leading case: State v. Bower, 725 N.W.2d 435 (Iowa 2006).
State v. Bower, 725 N.W.2d 435 (Iowa 2006). · cites it 60× “” Iowa Code § 718.4 . We have said “ ‘statutes are cloaked with a presumption of constitutionality.”
State v. Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d 728 (Iowa 1988). · cites it 2× “Iowa Code § 718.4 . With the exception of the alternative “who willfully prevents,” in element two, all four of the elements are common to the two offenses.”
State Of Iowa Vs. Bradley Howard Bower (Iowa 2006). · cites it 56× “” Iowa Code § 718.4 . We have said “ ‘statutes are cloaked with a presumption of constitutionality.”
State of Iowa v. Gregory Francis Tennant, 919 N.W.2d 635 (Iowa Ct. App. 2018). · cites it 2× “Even if Tennant had challenged the arrest for the violation of section 321.”
State of Iowa v. Sylvester Lavelle Trotter (Iowa Ct. App. 2024). · cites it 2× “And if I did employee, a simple misdemeanor, in violation of section 718.4; and operating without interlock, a simple misdemeanor, in violation of section 321J.”
State of Iowa v. Santos Rene Torres (Iowa 2023). “§ 718.4; id. § 719.1(1)(b). Torres filed a motion to suppress evidence that he argued was collected in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.