Charles J. Williams

Leans heavily towards the government, especially in pre-trial matters and sentencing issues. Considers the Sentencing Guidelines as "gospel" and refuses to deviate from them in most cases, even for credible arguments such as the unfair pure/mix meth guidelines.

Now a District Court Judge in Cedar Rapids. In criminal cases it is clear that he is a former AUSA, as he still follows their policies when it comes to sentencings and suppression issues. He needs to realize that he is a District Court Judge now and not a prosecutor. He needs to also sentence "individuals" and not group all defendants into the same category of "bad" people. He rarely uses all of the factors under 3553(a), and instead puts too much emphasis on the sentencing guidelines.