Eastern Iowan Sentenced to Federal Prison for Derecho and COVID-19 Pandemic Benefits Fraud

An Eastern Iowa woman who stole over $25,000 in federal benefits intended for victims of the August 2020 derecho and the COVID-19 pandemic was sentenced on June 27, 2025, to over a year in federal prison.  Denisha Clarice Morrison, age 28, from Marion, Iowa, received the prison term after January 10, 2025, guilty pleas to one count of theft of government funds and one count of wire fraud.

On August 10, 2020, a severe storm, commonly referred to as a derecho, struck multiple counties in the Northern District of Iowa, as well as other parts of the States of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.  The derecho caused long-duration power outages across the Northern District of Iowa and extensive damage in Cedar Rapids in particular.  In response to the derecho, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) declared Disaster No. 4557 for the State of Iowa on August 17, 2020.  Victims of the disaster who resided in the Iowa counties approved for assistance could apply to the FEMA for disaster relief assistance to help meet repair and replacement expenses not covered by insurance.  The derecho occurred less than six months after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. 

In a plea agreement, Morrison admitted that, in October 2020, she received over $7,000 in FEMA benefits after falsely claiming she was living in an apartment on the west side of Cedar Rapids when the derecho hit and had suffered damage to her residence and personal property.  In truth, Morrison was not living there and suffered no damage from the derecho.

Morrison also admitted that, in June 2021, she filed a fraudulent application for Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan moneys.  At that time, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and its participating lenders offered low-interest, forgivable loans to small businesses who were suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic.  Morrison falsely claimed to be the owner of a cleaning business and, as a result, received $20,000 in fraudulent PPP moneys.

While her federal case was pending, Morrison committed a theft in Waterloo and violated the terms of her pretrial release on multiple occasions by testing positive for an illegal substance, failing to find full-time employment, and violating location monitoring requirements while in home detention.  Morrison has an extensive criminal history that includes a dozen other convictions in state court, including multiple theft and forgery convictions, carrying weapons, and assault causing bodily injury.

Morrison was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  Morrison was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment.  She was ordered to make $27,191.45 in restitution to FEMA and the SBA.  She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Morrison is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until she can be transported to a federal prison.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General.  

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

The case file numbers are 24-CR-55 and 25-CR-2001.

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