North Iowa Woman Accused of Sexually Exploiting a Minor Accepts Plea Deal

A north Iowa woman arrested earlier this year for sexually exploiting a minor over four years ago has accepted a plea deal in her court case.

Now 28, Sharmae Field of Nora Springs was charged this past March with third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony; and sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, a Class D felony. 

Court documents show that while Field was a counselor at Francis Lauer Youth Services in Mason City, she would pick up a 14-year-old male client near his home in Mason City and take him to her residence in Nora Springs, where they would have sex.  Investigators say the encounters occurred on multiple occasions for almost a year-and-a-half, between March of 2017 and August of 2018. 

Field has agreed to plead guilty to third-degree sexual abuse with the sexual exploitation charge being dismissed. She could receive a suspended sentence and up to five years of supervised probation when she is sentenced on January 23rd in Floyd County District Court.

Field could also receive Iowa’s special sentence for sexual offenders, which would place her on the state’s Sex Offender Registry for the rest of her life.