Criminal case dropped against UI fraternity member accused of sharing images of sexual assault on campus

Iowa State has filed a motion to dismiss the harassment case against Carson Steffen, one of the men accused of sharing images of and participating in an alleged sexual assault at a fraternity on the University of Iowa campus.

Steffen was charged with harassment. He was accused of sharing an image of the alleged assault with multiple people without the alleged victim’s permission. A court hearing was originally scheduled for Friday to split the trial into two parts.

According to court documents, the state is now seeking to dismiss the harassment charge against Steffen after the alleged victim filed a written request through a civil attorney. However, the state required that Steffen pay court costs as part of the agreement.

Lawyers announced earlier this week that they had reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit against Steffen, who was the last person left to join the lawsuit. The lawsuit was originally scheduled to go to trial in a few weeks, but all other people named in the lawsuit, including Jacob Meloan, who was accused of carrying out the alleged attack with Steffen, had already settled out of court.

Steffen and Meloan were never criminally charged for the assault.

The allegations sparked three days of protests outside the Phi Gamma Delta house at the University of Iowa in 2021, and Makena Solberg had said at the time that she didn’t even know the alleged attack had taken place in 2020 until the images emerged Snapchat were shared.

A lawyer for Steffen said earlier this week that the settlement was “the end of an extraordinary legal ordeal” and that they would have no further comment on the settlement.

Solberg, who is now 23 and has since graduated from the UI’s Tippie College of Business Finance, said in a statement through her attorney Wednesday that she is glad she chose to stand up for herself in the justice system.