A southern Missouri sheriff and the subordinate he was having a romantic relationship with have been indicted on multiple felonies following a year in which more than 40 sheriff’s office employees were fired or quit.
The grand jury indictment returned Wednesday charged Texas County Sheriff James Sigman and Lt. Deputy Jennifer Tomaszewski with assault, robbery, child endangerment, unlawful use of a weapon, harassment and two misdemeanors.
Sigman, 48, and Tomaszewski, 38, were arrested at the Texas County Justice Center in Houston, Missouri, on July 18, following the indictment.
Missouri’s Texas County Sheriff James Sigman, 48, and his lover, Lt. Deputy Jennifer Tomaszewski, 38, were arrested and charged with multiple felony and misdemeanors following an investigation carried out by the Missouri State Highway Patrol
They were arrested following an investigation carried out by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, focusing on the period from late June 2016 to May 2018, when Tomaszewski had been hired as a corrections officer up until she graduated from the Missouri Sheriff’s Association Academy and was granted a peace officer license, the Kansas City Star reported.
Tomaszewski was promoted during that time to jail administrator without ‘prior experience’ and is currently Sigman’s chief deputy, the probable cause statement said.
The statement said she went on ride-alongs, acted as an undercover officer during stings and served search warrants during which she would detain suspects, search residences and perform other duties reserved for commissioned officers.
Sometimes she was armed with an AR-15 riffle normally used by Sigman and wore a uniform that was undistinguishable from what deputies wore, the trooper wrote.
While serving one search warrant, she pointed a firearm at several people, including a one-year-old, who lived across the street from the home being searched, placing all of them in ‘immediate danger,’ the trooper wrote.
Tomaszewski confronted them because she thought they were video recording the officers and taking pictures and mistakenly believed that wasn’t allowed.
A grand jury returned an indictment charging Sigman (in 2015) and Tomaszewski with assault, robbery, child endangerment, unlawful use of a weapon, harassment and two misdemeanors
Tomaszewski (in an undated photo) was promoted to jail administrator without ‘prior experience’ and is currently Sigman’s chief deputy, the probable cause statement said
Among the court document’s claims were that Sigman and Tomaszewski had brought a child into the jail multiple times, exposing the child to danger. Tomaszewski was also accused of having hit an inmate with the intention of ‘trying to bust his eardrum out’
One officer also reported pushing Tomaszewski away when he saw her pointing a firearm in the back of a man who was lying on the ground while trying to handcuff him with her other hand because the officer felt what was doing was ‘extremely dangerous,’ the trooper said in the statement.
In another incident, which occurred in February, according to the Houston Herald, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper wrote that Tomaszewski hit an inmate with the mental capacity of a nine-year-old in the face with her elbows after he was rendered unconscious, possibly by a ‘choke hold.’
A corrections officer told investigators that Tomaszewski said she was ‘trying to bust his eardrum out.’ A deputy told investigators, ‘If we hadn’t been there, they would have killed that boy. He was completely unconscious and his lips were turning blue,’ according to the probable cause statement.
The statement said Sigman was present during the incident and that reports about what happened were removed from the mentally disabled inmate’s file.
The trooper wrote that Tomaszewski also threatened to put a bullet in the head of another inmate but that the grievance the inmate filed was missing when a search warrant was served this spring at the sheriff’s office.
According to the probably cause statement, the trooper noted that dispatchers resigned after Sigman reprimanded them for refusing to give Tomaszewski the results to searches she was conducting through a special law enforcement tool that she wasn’t authorized to use.
The statement also said that a child was brought into the jail multiple times, helped serve meals to inmates in the kitchen and ate with two of the inmates, including a sexually violent offender.
Court records alleged that Tomaszewski and Sigman had brought the child to the jail, ‘resulting in the jail facility essentially being used as a child care facility by them,’ and that Sheriff’s office employees told troopers they were worried about the child because she had been in danger, the Kansas City Star reported.
In almost all of the incidents spelled out in the probable cause statement, Sigman was allegedly present and ‘did nothing to intervene.’
Sigman was elected in 2012 and remains in office, although the coroner has been leading the department while the special prosecutor filed paperwork to remove Sigman from office, the Houston Herald reported.
Both Sigman and Tomaszewski’s bonds were set at $500,000. Tomaszewski has been released on bond the day of her arrest, while Sigman was released on bond the next day.
They appeared at their arraignment on the criminal charges Tuesday morning.
On Friday, the Missouri Department of Public Safety suspended Sigman and Tomaszewski’s licenses, although they have the opportunity to petition the decision.