Gary Edward Demercurio

Two men were arrested early Wednesday morning after breaking into the Dallas County Courthouse in Adel, though they allegedly were hired to do so.

According to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, at around 12:30 a.m., deputies found 43-year-old Gary Edward Demercurio of Bothell, Washington, and 29-year-old Justin Lawson Wynn of Naples, Florida on the third floor of the courthouse. The men were in possession of numerous burglary tools and told the officers they were on contract to test out the courthouse alarm system’s viability and to gauge the response time of law enforcement. Dallas County officials had no knowledge of the contract, but later Wednesday the State Court Administration confirmed they had hired a company to test potential security vulnerabilities of Iowa’s electronic court records. However, the SCA said they didn’t intend or anticipate the efforts to access the records to include forced entry into a building.

Demercurio and Wynn were both arrested and charged with third-degree burglary, a class D felony, as well as serious misdemeanors for possession of burglar’s tools. They were booked into the Dallas County Jail and were later released after each posted $50,000 bond. The two men are employed with Coalfire, a cybersecurity advisor that’s headquartered in Colorado. The SCA issued an apology to the Dallas County Supervisors and Sheriff’s Office, and said they are cooperating with the Attorney’s Office in the investigation.

Raccoon Valley Radio will bring you more information as it becomes official.