Cedar Rapids Woman Who Lied to the Grand Jury Sentenced to Federal Prison

A woman who lied to a federal grand jury about her boyfriend’s drug use was sentenced to federal prison on September 16, 2020.

Paula Lynn Cole, age 31, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 2, 2020 guilty plea to one count of making a false declaration before a grand jury.

In a plea agreement, Cole admitted that she testified before a federal grand jury in September 2018 regarding an investigation of her boyfriend for a firearms charge.  During her grand jury testimony, Cole testified that she did not know whether her boyfriend was a marijuana user and that there was nothing that ever indicated to her that he used marijuana.  Cole admitted in her plea agreement that her grand jury testimony was false and that she knew that her boyfriend was a marijuana user because she had previously seen him use marijuana.

Cole was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Cole was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, four months of which will be served in prison, and four months of which will be served in home detention.  She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Cole was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Cedar Rapids Police Department, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dan Chatham. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 19-CR‑00107‑CJW‑MAR.

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