{"id":182850,"date":"2026-01-29T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/cybersecurity-testers-reach-600000-settlement-after-wrongful-arrest\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:00:09","slug":"cybersecurity-testers-reach-600000-settlement-after-wrongful-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/cybersecurity-testers-reach-600000-settlement-after-wrongful-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity testers reach $600,000 settlement after wrongful arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity testers reach $600,000 settlement after wrongful arrest<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2026\/01\/30\/cybersecurity-testers-reach-600000-settlement-after-wrongful-arrest\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-29 23:37:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.kcrg.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Two cybersecurity experts who were wrongfully arrested more than five years ago for breaking into the Dallas County Courthouse have reached a $600,000 settlement with Dallas County and the former county sheriff.Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn, then working for Coalfire, a cybersecurity firm, were hired by the Iowa Judicial Branch in September 2015 to test security vulnerabilities at state buildings, including the Dallas County Courthouse in Adel.The cybersecurity experts said they found the courthouse\u2019s front door unlocked when they arrived. After closing the door to activate the security system, they used a plastic cutting board to break into the now-locked door and trigger the alarm as part of their contracted security test.The Adel Police Department and Dallas County Sheriff\u2019s Office responded within minutes. Body camera footage shows multiple officers arriving on the scene.\u201cWhat are you doing in our courthouse with the alarm going off, sir? The state testing security hires us. Here\u2019s our paperwork, here\u2019s our IDs, go ahead and run us, we\u2019ll just hang out,\u201d Wynn said.After providing officers with state paperwork, the two were about to be released when former Sheriff Chad Leonard arrived, saying they had never had anything like this happen before.\u201cWell, yeah, they\u2019re going to jail,\u201d Leonard can be heard saying in the body camera footage.The two were handcuffed and booked into the Dallas County jail, where they remained for nearly 20 hours. The charges were later dropped, but the impact lasted for all five years. The two even had to start a new company for employment called Kaiju Security.\u201cYou know, you see somebody in a mug shot, dude\u2019s guilty, why else would he get arrested? That has definitely lasted with us in our personal lives, professional opportunities, promotions, job ops, whatever it is,\u201d Wynn said.This week, a $600,000 settlement was reached between the county, the former sheriff, Wynn, and Demercurio.\u201cWe told you from the get-go that we didn\u2019t do anything wrong,\u201d DeMercurio said.Wynn and Demercurio said the real issue remains the county\u2019s attitude toward security.\u201cPretty important that Iowa revisits things otherwise they are going to be the lowest hanging fruit and remain vulnerable,\u201d one said.County Attorney Matt Schultz issued a warning in his statement: \u201cI am putting the public on notice that if this situation arises again in the future, I will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.\u201dCopyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity testers reach $600,000 settlement after wrongful arrest https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2026\/01\/30\/cybersecurity-testers-reach-600000-settlement-after-wrongful-arrest\/ Publish Date: 2026-01-29 23:37:00 Source Domain:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/gray-kcrg-prod.gtv-cdn.com\/resizer\/v2\/WDSH7YYJ7NHQ3JCYQOSMS3GQJE.png?auth=591a6729b7a2972d64c947aa2a8c9db531a5e0d500c88e9eb9cf806561285a10&width=1200&height=600&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-182850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182852,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182850\/revisions\/182852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}