By Nick Hytrek
Sioux City Journal, Iowa
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — A man seeking more than $200 million from Sioux City police officers and investigators who he said violated his rights after his 2001 arrest has had his federal lawsuit dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.
U.S. District Judge Leonard Strand ruled Duane Yates would have been required under Iowa law to file his lawsuit within two years of his alleged rights violations. Because the events that were the subject of Yates’ lawsuit occurred in 2001, the statute of limitations expired sometime in 2003.
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“Yates filed this case on June 12, 2026, more than 20 years too late. Thus, I must dismiss his complaint,” Strand said in his order, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City.
Yates, who lives in Ralston, Nebraska , said his rights to due process and against cruel and unusual punishment were violated in the case, which ultimately ended with a Woodbury County jury finding him guilty of second-degree sexual abuse for sexually abusing a young boy. He had claimed police failed to adequately investigate the sexual abuse complaints filed against him.
He had sued Sioux City Police Chief Rex Muelle , who was not the police chief at the time of the investigation, and a number of other officers and investigators, some of whom were listed only by their last name. Yates sought $50 million in actual damages, $50 million in compensatory damages and $110 million in punitive damages.
Yates, now 67, initially received a 50-year prison sentence that was later reduced to 25 years after the Iowa Supreme Court said the sentencing judge incorrectly added a sentence enhancement. Yates has completed his prison sentence.
During his incarceration, Yates filed a number of appeals, challenges and requests for relief in state and federal court, a fact Strand referred to in his order.
A court brief in one of those previous cases referred to Yates’ “voluminous litigation.” In many of his past federal filings seeking relief, Yates represented himself. He had filed the most recent lawsuit himself and had asked for an attorney to be appointed to represent him.
Yates has 30 days to appeal Strand’s ruling.
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