Michael Shawn McGuire, Cyberstalking, Iowa 2021

A Cresco, Iowa man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for cyberstalking a Minnesota woman.

Michael Shawn McGuire, 58, received the prison sentence on July 30, 2021, after a guilty plea to four counts of cyberstalking on December 8, 2020.

According to information disclosed at the sentencing and plea hearings, McGuire met the victim on an online dating website in the fall of 2017. The two dated for approximately seven months before the victim broke up with McGuire. At that point, McGuire began sending the victim harassing messages via text and email.

In the summer of 2018, the victim obtained a no-contact order prohibiting McGuire from contacting her or anyone in her family. However, McGuire continued to harass and torment the victim over the course of the next approximately two years.

During that time, McGuire created five fake Facebook profiles containing the victim’s name or photo and sent over 80 friend requests to the victim’s friends and family. He also made dozens of flyers and yard signs with sexually explicit messages, photographs of the victim, and sexually explicit photographs of women appearing to be the victim.

McGuire was arrested for violating his restraining order and spent a few days in a county jail. However, he continued to stalk and harass the victim for several months after his arrest. Investigators searched McGuire’s place of business in Cresco in the fall of 2019 and seized multiple items, including photos of the victim and her family and friends, her Facebook friends list, supplies used to make the flyers and yard signs, rubber gloves, and rope.

McGuire was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Judge Williams described McGuire’s conduct toward the victim and her friends and family as ‘a form of mental torture’ and ‘a form of public terrorism in a way.’

McGuire was sentenced to 120 months’ imprisonment and must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. He must pay $400 to the special assessment fund, a $15,000 fine, and $17,500 in restitution to the victim.

‘Michael McGuire tormented the victim for over two years,’ said Acting United States Attorney Sean R. Berry following the sentence. ‘He will spend the next decade in federal prison, protecting both his victim and the public from his malicious behavior. This sentence sends a strong message to all that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.’

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