A federal lawsuit filed by former Jefferson County Ambulance interim director Judy Heisel against Jefferson County officials and the county’s contract medical director has been settled for $55,000, the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve on Monday, August 3rd, 2026.
The mediation that produced the settlement took place Wednesday, July 29th in Des Moines, and all parties had already signed off on the settlement agreement before the board formally approved it at Monday’s meeting.
The Settlement
County Attorney Chauncey Moulding presented the settlement to the board at Monday’s meeting. “Last week we had a mediation with the council, the doctor’s council, and our council, and we have reached a resolution to these claims,” Moulding said. “The long and short of it is that her various claims — originally there were six, it was pared down to three — and through our ICAP council, they’ve evaluated the case and reached a settlement with her lawyer in the amount of $55,000 to settle all claims.”
Of the $55,000 total, Heisel will personally receive $2,500 in back wages. An additional $34,166.67 will be paid to her via Form 1099, with $18,333.33 going to her attorneys at Carney and Appleby Law Firm. The county’s insurance carrier, ICAP, is paying the bulk of the settlement, with Jefferson County responsible for a roughly $3,000 deductible.
Heisel is represented by Michael Carroll and Danielle Anderson of Carney and Appleby Law Firm. Jefferson County, Moulding, Sandquist, Dimmitt, and Drish are represented by Holly Corkery and Madison Huntzinger of Lynch Dallas Legal. Dr. Amanda Moreno is separately represented by Brian Marty and Trevor Schweinefus.
Moulding acknowledged that settling was not a popular outcome but argued it was the right one. “I understand it’s a bitter pill to swallow and that nobody likes to pay these things,” he said. “When ICAP reaches a settlement number with the plaintiff’s counsel and they recommend that we accept it, we obviously don’t have to accept it. The county is free to litigate on its own. ICAP will still have our back. But if any judgment amounts for higher than the settlement number — in this case $55,000 — all that would be borne by Jefferson County.” He added: “I think this is not a great case for the plaintiff. I think there are a lot of issues with it. However, when you factor in the cost of litigation and the finality of this settlement, we’ve reached a good number here. Frankly, it’s an excellent number.”
Supervisor Joe Ledger said he agreed with the approach. “After talking with you, I believe this is the best way to go,” he said. The motion passed unanimously.
The settlement includes a full release of all claims by Heisel against Jefferson County and all named defendants, including Dr. Moreno. As part of the agreement, Heisel cannot reapply for employment with Jefferson County. All parties deny any liability, and the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by any party.
Dr. Moreno’s Legal Fees
Following the settlement vote, the board also took up an ancillary matter — a request from Dr. Moreno for reimbursement of her legal fees incurred during the lawsuit. Because Moreno was a contractor rather than a county employee, she was not covered by ICAP and obtained outside counsel at her own expense. Her attorney Trevor Schweinefus, who appeared at Monday’s meeting via Zoom, requested reimbursement of $4,675 — consisting of $3,815 in legal fees and $860 for Moreno’s one-third share of the mediation invoice.
Supervisor Lee Dimmitt pushed back on the request, arguing that the board had previously paid Moreno $7,500 not as legal fee reimbursement but as compensation for medical director services she performed but never billed for under her contract. “We paid that as not reimbursement, but contract obligation with Dr. Moreno for her services as medical director,” Dimmitt said. He noted that Moreno’s contract called for a minimum of four hours per month at $100 per clinical hour across two ambulances — totaling $400 per month — but that no hours were ever submitted for billing. Over approximately 24 months, Dimmitt calculated the county owed her roughly $9,600, of which $7,500 had already been paid, leaving approximately $2,100 remaining. “We had never paid her for her medical director services. So we were okay with the $7,500,” he said. “I figure that if she thought she was due payment, she would have notified us that she hadn’t been paid. And that was never the case. We never received any hours. I don’t know if any services were provided.”
Supervisor Susie Drish added: “And none of us know that for sure, either way.”
Schweinefus pushed back on Dimmitt’s characterization of the March 18th payment, pointing to the official board minutes from that meeting. “It reads: it was moved by Dimmitt, seconded by Drish, to reimburse Dr. Moreno’s legal expenses up to $7,500, all aye, motion carried,” Schweinefus said. “That’s the only notes I have from that prior meeting. From my client’s perspective, she has not been paid for any of the services rendered during her time as medical director, but this payment was for the original $7,500 retainer she had paid to our office to retain our firm to represent her in the Heisel matter.”
Schweinefus also told the board he had authority to offer a resolution on the spot — reimbursement of the $4,675 in legal expenses in exchange for a complete release of any future payments owed to Moreno under the medical director contract. “What I have authority to offer and accept today is repayment or reimbursement of the legal expenses and costs we’re requesting today in exchange for a complete release of any future payments under that medical director contract,” he said. “Beyond that, I would have to get approval from my client.”
Dimmitt also noted that the county had fulfilled other financial obligations to Moreno under her contract, paying $2,945.98 directly to her for malpractice insurance in the first year and $3,720.88 to Cunningham Group for her malpractice insurance in the second year. He said those payments, combined with the $7,500, represented the county’s good-faith effort to honor its contractual obligations to Moreno.
Current Ambulance Director Josh Hemminger offered a frank assessment of his interactions with Moreno since taking over in August 2024. Her contract with the county ended in April 2026. “Between the time I started and the time we ended her contract, she was never here in person,” Hemminger said. “She did a handful of chart reviews over that year and a half or so. But that’s the extent of our interactions. If her contract said she was supposed to be here in person for a certain number of hours per month, that was not done in my time.”
Schweinefus noted that during the mediation the previous week, Moreno had estimated her unpaid hours at a figure in the low $20,000 range — a significant gap from Dimmitt’s calculation of $2,100 remaining under the contract. “She had estimated that to be in the low $20,000 figure,” Schweinefus said. “I think that’s based on the $100 per hour clinical hour contract rate.” Schweinefus offered a different framing of the situation on behalf of his client. “From Dr. Moreno’s perspective, she obviously has this contract to be paid. She had viewed this essentially as a public service — admittedly did not submit the hours she was working, kind of on her own accord, volunteering, even though she’s entitled to be paid, which she was perfectly fine with,” he said. “The issue that’s come up now is that her involvement in this role is now costing her money. And so if it’s going to cost her money, she expects to get paid.”
Moulding proposed tabling the request and asking Moreno to submit a formal invoice detailing her hours as medical director so the board could evaluate the competing figures. “Could your client get us what she feels is due to her from the county for her employment or contract obligations?” Moulding asked. Schweinefus agreed to follow up with his client. The board unanimously agreed to table the matter.
Comments After the Meeting
Following Monday’s board meeting, Dimmitt and Drish spoke with reporters and provided additional context on the settlement and its aftermath.
Dimmitt confirmed that the specific claims against him and Moulding individually had been thrown out by the federal court before the settlement was reached. “The specific claims against me and against Chauncey were thrown out by the federal court,” Dimmitt said. “The remaining claims — Jefferson County as an entity and Dr. Moreno specifically — that’s what mediation was addressing.”
Dimmitt pointed out that the county had originally offered Heisel a severance package of nearly $25,000 when Hemminger was hired in August 2024, which she declined. The package included updated compensation — including equal pay to what Brian Thomas had been receiving — as well as additional compensation. She was also offered the opportunity to return to work on the ambulance as a paramedic. “She was offered to be able to go back on the rig, in which case she would have made a lot more than what her salary was, for less hours,” Dimmitt said. “But again, that was her option. I respect that.”
When asked whether the county itself was paying the $55,000, Dimmitt was clear. “No, no — insurance,” he said. “We have about a $3,000 deductible.” He explained the mechanics of how insurance settlements work and why the county accepted the settlement rather than risking trial. “Insurance companies like to settle rather than go to trial. If we went to trial, just the court costs would have been much higher,” he said. “How it works is — if they come up with a settlement number, say hypothetically $100,000, and we say no, we have a strong case, and you go to court, and for whatever reason your case goes right down the drain and the court awards $300,000 — we’re on the hook for that additional $200,000. Insurance isn’t going to pay it because they agreed to settle for the minimum amount. So the county would have been liable for anything above the settlement. You get to a point where you might get tired of rolling the dice and just be done. The insurance company is paying it, not us.”
When asked whether the county had ever formally agreed to cover Dr. Moreno’s legal fees given that she was a contractor rather than a county employee, Dimmitt said no formal agreement had ever been reached. “I don’t think the board ever agreed,” he said. “There was a conversation in a closed session that I can’t go into. But no, there was never an agreement — and that’s what the discussion was today, and why it was tabled, for her attorney to have a further conversation with her.”
Dimmitt also addressed the county’s relationship with Moreno in more detail after the meeting. He explained that under her contract, Moreno was required to appear in person for her clinical hours — remote work did not satisfy that requirement, though she did perform some remote duties such as reviewing call charts. “Now, that doesn’t mean she didn’t do other things remotely — she would review calls, and that was part of what we expected from her,” Dimmitt said. He noted that Moreno had never raised the issue of unpaid hours until now. “She’s never raised the issue until now about wanting to be reimbursed for the hours that she did work,” Dimmitt said. “She’s not wanting to be reimbursed for her hours — that’s the issue. She’s wanting her attorney fees paid.”
When asked what percentage chance he would have put on the county winning the case at trial, Dimmitt did not answer in terms of odds. “I don’t think there are any winners,” he said. “I think that it’s a bad look all the way around. It’s unfortunate. I think that it took a tremendous toll. A lot of those circumstances were beyond our control. We were not driving the car. I can’t even say we were passengers. I think we were running in front of the car trying to keep from getting run over. But I don’t think there were any winners. All I can say at this point is that, with the exception of reaching some kind of agreement with Dr. Moreno, move on. I’m done with it. I’ve been so done with it for a long time.”
Drish echoed that sentiment. “I feel the county has spent too much time on this,” she said. “We have many other things in the county to deal with. I’m glad this is over so we can get back to the business of running the entire county.”
Background
As Ottumwa Radio previously reported, Heisel began working as the Jefferson County Ambulance Service’s base manager in 2023. When Director Brian Thomas resigned in April 2024, she was promoted to interim director at a salary that the lawsuit alleged remained at her $65,000 base manager level rather than Thomas’s $85,000 director salary, despite board minutes indicating she would receive the director’s salary upon appointment. She applied for the permanent role but was passed over in favor of outside candidate Josh Hemminger, who was hired at $85,000.
The lawsuit, filed November 3rd, 2025, alleged civil rights violations, sex discrimination, retaliation for reporting misconduct, slander during her job interview, and malicious prosecution. The five defendants named were Moulding, Supervisors Dimmitt and Drish, former Supervisor Dee Sandquist, Dr. Moreno, and Jefferson County.
Central to Heisel’s complaint was her handling of workplace misconduct by EMT Damien Wimmer in spring 2024, who she alleged performed duties outside his certified scope of practice on two separate occasions. In 2013, he received a letter of warning for representing himself as a paramedic while only certified as an EMT. In 2014, he faced a one-month license suspension for initiating intravenous lines on patients beyond his scope of practice, with his certification placed on probation until April 2017. In 2015, he was again cited for using an intravenous line on a patient, resulting in a two-month suspension and an additional two years of probation.
After Heisel reported the 2024 incidents, she alleged that Dr. Moreno — described in the lawsuit as a close personal friend of Wimmer — failed to file required state paperwork despite promising to do so. Heisel ultimately submitted the documentation on June 21st, the same day Wimmer’s employment was terminated. State records indicate no public action was taken against Wimmer as a result of the 2024 allegations.
During Heisel’s June 26th, 2024 interview for the permanent director position, Dr. Moreno joined remotely — allegedly from a Lake of the Ozarks vacation with Wimmer. About 30 minutes into the interview, Moreno raised what she called “the elephant in the room,” characterizing the ambulance service as an “internal dumpster fire” before questioning Heisel about an alleged sexual relationship with former director Brian Thomas. When Heisel declined to discuss her personal life, Moreno replied the issue was not her personal life but that Thomas had been her supervisor. The lawsuit states a heated exchange followed in which Moreno alleged Heisel and Thomas were having sex in the ambulance building and that Heisel was abusing prescription drugs requiring IV treatment. Supervisor Dimmitt reportedly characterized the questioning as unprofessional after the interview, and a member of the human resources staff allegedly told Heisel that Moreno’s statements created significant liability exposure for the county.
Following the hiring of Hemminger on August 5th, 2024, county officials presented Heisel with an alternative employment opportunity, according to the lawsuit. Heisel alleged the offer did not include a defined title, duties, or compensation details, and that she was asked to make an immediate decision. She declined the offer as well as severance paperwork that was subsequently presented to her, and her employment with the county ended that day.
Hours later, Fairfield police were called to the ambulance building on a report that computers had been factory reset, erasing all stored data. No arrests were made in connection with that incident.
Criminal charges were filed against Heisel in January 2025 after Moulding filed an affidavit alleging she had secretly recorded a conversation on August 5th in the ambulance director’s office. Moulding alleged he noticed Heisel had left her cell phone on her desk during a closed-door meeting and that waving his hand over it activated the screen, revealing a recording in progress. The Washington County Attorney’s Office handled the prosecution due to conflict of interest concerns. A jury acquitted Heisel of both the felony interception of communications charge and the misdemeanor electronic eavesdropping charge in June 2025.
A federal judge dismissed three of the original six counts in the lawsuit in May 2026 — including claims of malicious prosecution and abuse of process against Moulding and Dimmitt — finding insufficient evidence of actual malice and noting that Heisel’s own petition never stated her phone was not in recording mode. The remaining three counts — sex discrimination under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, violation of Iowa public policy, and slander — were resolved through the July 29th mediation and the $55,000 settlement approved Monday.
