A former Iowa high school teacher and convicted sex offender will have an extradition hearing after being indicted in Virginia for allegedly producing child pornography and having indecent liberties with a child.
Luke Crouse, 33, of Ames, is charged with six counts of indecent liberties with a child, six counts of producing child pornography and seven counts of proposing sex with a child, according to the commonwealth’s court records. All 19 felony counts pertain to children under 15 years old.
The extradition hearing is scheduled for Monday morning at the Story County Courthouse but Crouse’s attorney filed a motion Sunday to postpone the hearing.
Crouse was a maintenance worker at Haverkamp Properties, which manages more than 14 apartment properties in Ames, including 2700 Lincoln, The Foundry and West Towne. In 2023, he earned second place in the Greater Iowa Apartment Association’s Maintenance Mania event while representing Haverkamp Properties.
In response to the Daily’s request for comment, a representative for the company sent the following statement: “Luke Crouse is no longer an employee of our company and was terminated upon learning of the arrest.”
Haverkamp Properties did not answer whether Crouse had access to apartments in his position or when he was terminated.
According to Virginia court records, the alleged crimes occurred in March and April. In September, Crouse was indicted in the Rockbridge Circuit Court. Rockbridge County is located in a rural area of central Virginia within Appalachia.
The Commonwealth Attorney’s Office for Rockbridge County and the City of Lexington – the county’s seat – declined to provide a comment for this story. The Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
On Nov. 7, Ames Police apprehended Crouse at a church after first attempting to find him at his residence in Ames on the same day, according to the department’s Public Information Officer Jason Tuttle. He has been held in the Story County Jail in Nevada since.
Story County Attorney Timothy Meals did not respond to a request for comment.
Crouse is currently in the process of completing a three-year supervised release as part of his sentencing for the transfer of obscene material to a minor in 2018.
In 2017, he was fired from his teaching position at Collins-Maxwell Community School District for sending numerous lewd chats and three photos of his genitalia to a purported 14-year-old girl in another state, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Iowa.
The investigation, conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, did not find Crouse acted inappropriately toward his students.
In 2018, he was sentenced to five years of prison and three years of supervised release. In the last court filing for the case, the court denied ending his supervised release early, according to court documents from 2022.
Southern District of Iowa Public Information Officer MacKenzie Tubbs declined to comment on Crouse’s ongoing supervised release.
