‘This Has Been a Nightmare’: Iowa County Lists ‘Easter Bunny’ as Prosecutor in Hundreds of Cases

The “Easter Bunny” was listed as the prosecutor in hundreds of criminal cases in one Iowa county, thanks to a clerical error which is reflected on the state’s court records website.

While it has been nearly a week since Easter passed, the holiday’s secular representative entered the legal realm in Polk County, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. The outlet reported,

On April 4, the online docket sheets for hundreds of Polk County cases – primarily misdemeanors and drunken-driving cases – were revised to indicate the prosecution of those cases had been transferred from one particular assistant county attorney, Kailey Gray, to another “prosecutor” in the county attorney’s office by the name of “Easter Santa Bunny.”

And that’s where the cases remained as of Thursday morning.

The outlet reported Gray had taken over cases relinquished by a colleague in the district attorney’s office. Meanwhile, many of her old cases were “transferred” to the mythical character until an official transfer could be completed.

Assistant county attorney Bret Lucas explained to the Dispatch the “Easter Bunny” was used as a placeholder by the state’s judicial branch to avoid confusion over which assistant attorney was handling the cases previously assigned to Gray.

“So they were all aware of that, and it sounds like they must still be in the middle of that transfer process,” Gray said.

None of the cases in which the Easter Bunny was said to have been a prosecutor were intended to become public.

Stacy Curtis with the Polk County Clerk of Court’s Office told the Dispatch measures were taken to ensure the public never saw central Iowa’s justice system made a mockery of. Those efforts failed embarrassingly, Curtis admitted.

“This has been a nightmare for me,” Curtis stated. “We moved everything from Kaylie to the Easter Bunny, and those should have all been cleaned up so you wouldn’t be able to see that.”

As of Friday evening, the matter had been cleared up, at least temporarily.

Prior to the change, one case in Polk County falsely asserted Santa Claus had been sentenced to 999 years in prison for burglary, kidnapping and assaulting a cop.

Santa was cited in numerous cases, as were Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the Des Moines Register reported.