DES MOINES, IOWA (February 11, 2025) — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has announced that the Attorney General’s office, in coordination with the Linn County Attorney’s office, secured a conviction against Jarod Anderson on Thursday for trafficking a then-seventeen-year-old girl in Linn County.
In May 2024, Anderson picked the girl up and took her to a hotel room, where he gave her drugs and took sexually explicit photographs of her. Anderson used the photographs to create online advertisements for men to have sex with her.
Over the following days, several men paid Anderson for sex with the girl. Anderson also sexually abused her during this time. The girl escaped the hotel room and made contact with her family, who were searching for her. The girl was then picked up by a trusted adult. A search of Anderson’s phone backed up the charges, with messages detailing paid arrangements for men to have sex with the girl.
“This conviction takes a criminal trafficker off our streets and sends him behind bars where he belongs,” said AG Bird. “I want to thank my team in the Attorney General’s office and the Linn County Attorney’s office for securing the conviction, as well as the Cedar Rapids Police Department, DCI Criminalistics Laboratory, St Luke’s Hospital, and human-trafficking resource group, Chains Interrupted, for all their work throughout the case. The torture that this young girl went through should never happen to anyone. Let this conviction be a warning that anyone guilty of human trafficking in Iowa will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
This conviction follows Attorney General Bird’s law increasing penalties for human trafficking that went into effect in July 2024. Anderson was found guilty of human trafficking of a minor, sexual abuse, two counts sexual exploitation of a minor, and pimping. Sentencing is scheduled for April 1.
The case was prosecuted by the Iowa Attorney General’s office in partnership with the Linn County Attorney’s office.
