## Facts

- Thomas J. Anderson, a licensed attorney in Harlan, Iowa, represented Steve Schuemann in criminal matters.
- During that representation, Schuemann participated in an undercover narcotics investigation involving Iowa Department of Narcotics Enforcement special agent Todd Jones.
- Schuemann told Jones that Anderson had accepted drugs as payment for legal services; law enforcement later secured Schuemann’s cooperation as a confidential informant through a plea arrangement.
- At Jones’s request, Schuemann contacted Anderson and arranged a meeting, introducing Jones (undercover) as an OWI arrestee who was also a drug dealer and needed a lawyer.
- On February 24, 1998, Anderson, Jones, and Schuemann met at Anderson’s office; Jones testified that the meeting produced no support for the allegation that Anderson would accept drugs as payment.
- In later contacts orchestrated by law enforcement, Jones offered to pay part of the legal fee in cocaine, and Anderson accepted cocaine as payment.
- The State charged Anderson with solicitation of a felony (delivery of a controlled substance) under Iowa Code § 705.1 (1997).
- A jury convicted Anderson; the trial court denied his motion for judgment of acquittal and entered judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether evidence is sufficient to prove solicitation under Iowa Code § 705.1 when an undercover agent initiates the proposal to pay with drugs and the defendant merely accepts the offered controlled substance.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court reversed the conviction and remanded with directions to dismiss the charge.
- The court held the evidence was insufficient to establish the solicitation element required by Iowa Code § 705.1.
- The court concluded the proposal to deliver cocaine originated with the undercover agent, and Anderson’s conduct showed acceptance rather than an attempt to persuade another to commit the felony.

## Legal Principles

- Under Iowa Code § 705.1, solicitation requires proof that the defendant “commands, entreats, or otherwise attempts to persuade” another person to commit a specified felony, with intent that the act be done.
- Solicitation is an inducing offense; it requires initiation or persuasion by the defendant, not mere willingness to participate after another proposes the criminal act.
- A defendant’s acceptance of an unlawful offer made by an undercover agent or informant, without evidence the defendant attempted to persuade the other person to commit the felony, is insufficient to prove solicitation.
- When the State fails to prove the solicitation element, judgment of acquittal is required and the proper disposition is dismissal of the solicitation charge.

## Conclusion

The court reversed Anderson’s solicitation conviction because the State did not prove that Anderson attempted to persuade another to deliver cocaine; the evidence showed law enforcement initiated the drug-payment proposal and Anderson merely accepted it, which does not satisfy Iowa’s statutory definition of solicitation.


State v. Anderson, 618 N.W.2d 369 (Iowa 2000)