Gina Marie Christensen Messamer

Gina focuses on civil rights cases, specifically on police discrimination. She also works on all kinds of criminal cases, from harassment to murder. She is passionate about fighting for her clients. She can help to make things right if you have been injured or treated unfairly. She cares about her clients and will do her best to make sure your interests are protected. Gina is experienced with criminal defense (both state and federal), appeals, postconviction relief, and personal injury cases.

Examples of Gina's results:

• Civil rights lawsuit settlement: Gina settled a civil rights lawsuit for $75,000 on behalf of two African-American men who were wrongfully stopped by Des Moines Police.
• Dismissed case: A Polk County judge dismissed a criminal charge against an African American man represented by Gina. The judge agreed with Gina that the man should never have been approached by police to begin with, and so the police had violated the man’s constitutional rights.
• Not guilty verdict: A Polk County jury deliberated for only 15 minutes before finding Gina’s client Keilon Hill NOT GUILTY of harassment of a public official. Mr. Hill was canvassing for a political candidate in West Des Moines when a local resident reported him as a “suspicious person.” Mr. Hill repeatedly asked the responding officer if he had broken any laws and received no answer. The officer arrested Mr. Hill after Mr. Hill asked the officer to leave him alone and walked away. The jury agreed with Gina that asserting your right to be left alone is not a crime.
• Murder conviction overturned: Gina represented a young woman who was convicted of killing her toddler and was serving a life sentence. Gina convinced the judge to overturn the 1st degree murder conviction and order a new trial for the client. The judge granted a new trial because Gina was able to establish that the client’s trial attorney made several serious errors at the client’s first trial.