A felony charge has been dismissed against a woman who became pregnant by an inmate at an Edinburgh correctional facility where she had supervised prisoners.
Last year, Heather Sinnett, 28, of Lebanon, was charged with a felony count of sexual misconduct. But in May, that charge was dismissed.
The issue was with the timeline of when Sinnett, an Army sergeant, was assigned to work at the Edinburgh Correctional Facility and when she became pregnant, Johnson County Deputy Prosecutor Daylon Welliver said.
The Indiana Department of Correction began an investigation into a report that Sinnett and an inmate had engaged in a sexual relationship. The state investigator reviewed emails and phone calls between Sinnett and the inmate. In those discussions, the two discussed Sinnett being pregnant, and the inmate being the father of the child. Sinnett told the inmate she was looking forward to his release so they could be together and take care of their baby.
In order to prove their case for the felony charge, prosecutors would have had to show that Sinnett was working in the prison for the Army when she and the inmate had engaged in a sexual relationship, Welliver said.
Sinnett was not employed with the state department of correction, but was assigned to work at the facility by the Army and was often tasked with supervising inmates.
Through further investigation, prosecutors found that Sinnett’s orders from the Army that would have involved her supervising the inmate ended in September. Prosecutors were only able to prove Sinnett and the inmate engaged in sexual activity based on her pregnancy, and she became pregnant in October, Welliver said.
With that information, prosecutors decided to dismiss the charge, he said.
If convicted, Sinnett could have faced between one and six years in prison, under state law.
