Chief Judge of Iowa’s Second District, which includes north-central Iowa, arrested for operating while intoxicated

BOONE — The chief judge of Iowa’s Second Judicial District, which includes north-central Iowa, has been charged with operating while intoxicated after witnesses say she drove the wrong way on a highway this week and was later found passed out behind the wheel.

A criminal complaint says motorists dialed 9-1-1 on Tuesday night, reporting a truck was slowly driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of US Highway 30 near Boone. One witness reported the driver looked unconscious and slumped over the steering wheel and had driven into the highway median. A Boone County sheriff’s deputy said he found Adria Kester in the driver’s seat appearing to be heavily intoxicated and unsteady.

Kester was booked into jail at about 4 o’clock Wednesday morning. Kester filed a written plea of not guilty on Wednesday afternoon.

Kester was appointed chief judge in the 22-county Second District, which includes north-central and central Iowa, in December 2022 after being appointed as a district judge by Governor Reynolds in 2017 after serving as a prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer.

As the district’s chief judge, Kester supervises hundreds of judges and court employees in the district and presides over cases.