Ex-NW Iowa public defender sentenced to federal prison for health care fraud

OMAHA -- An Omaha lawyer who served as a public defender in five Northwest Iowa counties was sentenced to federal prison Thursday for health care fraud.

U.S. District Judge Robert Rossiter Jr. sentenced Cassi Wigington to five months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Wigington was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment and $445,255.37 in restitution to Nebraska Medicaid and other insurance providers.

She will be allowed to self-surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons at a later date.

Wigington, 49, pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Omaha to one count of health care fraud for submitting fraudulent claims to Nebraska Medicaid and other insurers from 2017-2023. She operated an Omaha business named New Image, which provided custom-made breast prostheses to women who had undergone mastectomies. An investigation found 25 of Wigington's customers whose health care benefits programs were billed for products never received or provided.

Admitted to practice law in Iowa in January 2020, Wigington served as a contract public defender with the Iowa State Public Defender's Office in Buena Vista, Cherokee, Ida, O'Brien and Plymouth counties. She is no longer contracted with the public defender's office.

Thursday's sentencing was not the first time Wigington had run afoul of the law.

The Iowa Supreme Court in May 2025 suspended her law license for six months after she was charged in Nebraska with felony theft by shoplifting in a case in which she admitted taking items valued at $2,721.50 from a Hy-Vee store on numerous occasions by intentionally failing to scan items at the store's self-checkout lanes. The charge was dismissed after she completed a diversion program, and her license to practice law in Iowa was reinstated in December.

Under Iowa professional guidelines, Wigington would be required to self-report her latest criminal case to the Iowa Office of Professional Regulation. Any complaints or self-reporting of ethical violations are confidential until the Iowa Supreme Court receives a recommendation on an accused lawyer's license from an investigating body.

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