Left: This booking photo provided by the Boone County Sheriff's Office shows Adria Kester, chief judge of the state's Second Judicial District, on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, at the Boone County Jail in Boone, Iowa, after her arrest on a charge of operating while intoxicated (Boone County Sheriff's Office via AP). Right: Kester's judge portrait (Iowa Judicial Branch).
An Iowa judge pleaded guilty about a month after she was busted driving the wrong way down a highway and appeared to be passed out as she crashed into a median.
Adria Kester, the chief judge of the Hawkeye State's Second Judicial District, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of operating while under the influence — first offense, court records say. Local CBS affiliate KCCI reported Kester will be on probation for a year, must pay a $1,250 fine and complete a 48-hour OWI program.
Concerned motorists called 911 shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 4 after seeing Kester's 2026 GMC Canyon Denali slowly driving east in the westbound lanes of U.S. Highway 30 near Boone, which is some 45 miles northwest of Des Moines, a criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press said.
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Witnesses reportedly saw the 55-year-old Kester slumped over the wheel as she entered the median, cops wrote. One witness tried to open the driver's door, but it wouldn't open as the truck moved slowly through the median. The witness had to climb through a back window to stop the vehicle.
Deputies with the Boone County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene and found Kester in the driver's seat, unconscious. They also found a "cup with a liquid that smelled like alcohol," the affidavit said. Kester was observed to have bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, cops noted. When deputies pulled her out of the vehicle, she was unable to walk.
Kester appeared to be so drunk that deputies determined it would be unsafe to perform field sobriety tests, cops said. She was taken to the hospital for treatment, where staff drew her blood for analysis. The results of the blood test were not publicly released.
"Judge Kester recognizes the seriousness of the situation and is fully cooperating with law enforcement and the judicial process," her attorney Matt Lindholm said in a statement to the AP. "She is committed to addressing this matter responsibly and in accordance with the law."
Kester was appointed to the bench in 2017. She was previously a prosecutor, public defender and private defense attorney, according to her biography.