• A Polk County judge ruled that former DCI agent Larry Hedlund's firing was due to insubordination, not retaliation for whistleblowing.
• Hedlund claimed he was fired for reporting Gov. Terry Branstad's speeding vehicle, but the judge found ample evidence of his insubordination and defiance toward superiors.
• The judge's decision follows a decade-long legal battle, including three appeals to the Iowa Supreme Court.

A former Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official was fired due to blatant insubordination, not his whistleblowing on speeding by the governor's vehicle, a Polk County judge has found.

The decision ends, for now, a legal fight dating back more than a decade.

Larry Hedlund was terminated as a DCI special agent in charge in 2013 and filed suit later that year, accusing the DCI of age discrimination and various other claims. The case has gone to the Iowa Supreme Court on three occasions, most recently in 2023, to resolve disputes in pretrial litigation.

Now narrowed to a whistleblower retaliation claim, it finally went to trial in November before Judge Christopher Kemp, and on Monday, May 12, Kemp issued his decision. He found that Hedlund failed to prove his accusations against his supervisors — and about speeding by Gov. Terry Branstad's official vehicle — were the reason for his firing.

"The evidence presented at trial provides ample support for the state’s assertion that the decision to discipline Hedlund was due to insubordination, undermining...

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