The right-wing activist who calls herself “Iowa Mama Bear” pleaded guilty Friday to making a false report of sexual abuse against the family of her former business partner. Kimberly Reicks, 40, will be sentenced later this month for just one of the two counts she faced under a deal with prosecutors, according to the Des Moines Register.
Reicks and the victim, Emily Peterson, rose to national prominence as campaigners against masks, vaccines, and drag queens but had a falling-out—with Reicks accusing the other woman of having an affair with her husband.
That’s when, according to a criminal complaint, she allegedly called the Iowa Department of Human Resources, claiming to be a neighbor, and reported that Peterson’s teen son was molesting a sibling—which authorities say was untrue.
She was accused of making a second call to the agency after she and Peterson dissolved their business partnership.
Reicks told The Daily Beast in January that she made sure she looked good for her arrest.
“I did my hair and makeup, went in at like two o’clock in the morning, smiled for my mugshot,” she said. “I never saw a mugshot like that.”
She also said she was planning to go to trial and predicted she would be acquitted.
While both Reicks and Peterson called themselves “Iowa Mama Bears” and both were invited to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signing of a bill banning all school mask orders, after the split Reicks took over the organization.
She is currently appealing a judge’s ruling against a lawsuit she filed against the Ankeny School District, alleging that her daughter faced retaliation because of her anti-mask stance.
