A man pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids to distributing heroin to a patient at a Cedar Rapids drug treatment facility who had recently overdosed on heroin.

James Andrew Sullivan from Marion, Iowa, was convicted of one count of distributing heroin within 1,000 feet of a school.

Evidence at an earlier hearing showed that on December 7, 2011, a friend of Sullivan’s overdosed after using heroin and had to be hospitalized. Three days later, Sullivan visited the friend at the inpatient treatment facility in the hospital, and delivered two loaded syringes containing heroin to the friend.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Sullivan remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Sullivan faces a mandatory minimum sentence of one year imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, a $2,000,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and at least 6 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dan Chatham and was investigated by the Ad Hoc Heroin Overdose Task Force which is comprised of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Cedar Rapids Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force consisting of the DEA; the Department of Homeland Security; the Linn County Sheriff's Office; the Cedar Rapids Police Department; the Marion Police Department; the Iowa City Police Department; the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services; and the Iowa National Guard.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR12-00023-LRR.

 

 

Return to Top