Charles City woman charged with additional drug felony

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Charles City woman who was originally charged with intent to deliver methamphetamine and gathering where illegal drugs are used has had an additional charge added.

According to documents filed in Floyd County District Court, a search warrant was executed on the morning of Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2023, at a residence in the 200 block of South Johnson Street in Charles City, where drugs and drug paraphernalia were allegedly located.

“Field test were conducted on the drugs located with positive results for methamphetamine,” the court record states. “An informant provided information of methamphetamine being provided by the defendant. This is also a known location where drug users and dealers gather to use or distribute narcotics.”

Megan Nicole Mason, age 37, was charged with intent to deliver methamphetamine under 5 grams, a Class C felony, and gathering where controlled substances are unlawfully used, other than marijuana, a Class D Felony.

Mason was being held in the Floyd County Jail on $15,000 cash-only bond. Her attorney, William Morrison of Mason City, requested a bond hearing and asked that she be released on her own recognizance or with pretrial supervision.

Judge DeDra Schroeder ruled at a hearing Feb. 9 that the bond would remain as originally set.

Last week the Floyd County Attorney’s Office filed a motion in court asking to amend the original charges, adding a charge of delivery of methamphetamine under 5 grams, another Class C felony charge.

The County Attorney’s Office wrote in the motion that the new charge occurred earlier on the same day, Dec. 24, 2023, that the other charges allegedly had occurred, and formed part of the basis for the search warrant.

Judge Colleen Weiland ordered the additional charge added and set a date for arraignment on the new charge. The most recent trial date set on the original two charges is April 2.

In April 2023, Mason had been charged with possession with intent to deliver marijuana and gathering where controlled substances are unlawfully used, both Class D felonies.

Those charges were ultimately dismissed last September after Associate Judge Elizabeth Batey ruled that the time between alleged illegal acts and the time those alleged acts were used as the justification for issuing a search warrant, plus the transient nature of the locations where the acts allegedly took place, meant “that too much time had passed to support a finding of probable cause to issue the search warrant in this matter.”

Batey ordered that all evidence and statements obtained pursuant to the search warrant were suppressed.

After that ruling the Floyd County Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to justify prosecution and conviction.