GRAND JURY INDICTS JAMES SIGMAN ON SIX FELONY CHARGES
CHIEF DEPUTY FACES THE SAME CHARGES AS HER BOSS
Texas County Sheriff James Sigman allowed a woman he hired and engaged in a romantic relationship to impersonate an officer on multiple occasions, threaten bodily harm to others and physically abuse inmates.
A report from a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator sheds light on the circumstances that led to the arrest last Wednesday of Sigman and his chief deputy, Jennifer Tomaszewski. Sigman is the first Texas County officeholder to be charged with a crime in 45 years.
While Tomaszewski carried out the wrongdoings in the report, authorities said Sigman was present for the incidents and allowed them. They both face similar charges: first-degree felony assault, first-degree robbery, felony first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, felony unlawful use of a weapon, felony harassment, felony endangering the welfare of a child, second degree; misdemeanor misuse of official information by a public servant and misdemeanor false impersonation.
Sigman, 48, of Eunice, was held on $500,000 bond at the Greene County Jail in Springfield before his release. Tomaszewski, 38, who has the same home address as Sigman, was taken to Shannon County and held with same bond. She was released last Wednesday night. Both appeared for arraignment Tuesday morning before Associate Judge Doug Gaston inside Courtroom A of the Texas County Justice Center.
Sigman was served a quo warranto Friday by Don Trotter, special prosecutor, seeking his ouster as sheriff for violating his responsibilities to the office. He has 10 days to respond and is barred from performing any duties as sheriff. Both Sigman and Tomaszewski were served new bond terms last Thursday night that forbid them with having contacting with Marie Lasater, then the acting sheriff, as well as any employee of the sheriff’s department. They were also not to be present on any Texas County government property except for a scheduled court day.
Lasater, the Texas County coroner, assumed duties as acting sheriff until Tuesday morning, when former detective Rowdy Douglas was sworn in as interim sheriff. The Texas County Commission said he will hold the position until a November special election.
“July 18, 2018, was a dark day for Texas County,” the commissioners said in a news release.
IMPERSONATING AN OFFICER
The patrol said Tomaszewski was hired as a jailer on Dec. 14, 2016, and the following July was promoted to jail administrator without any prior experience. She had previously worked at a local pet motel. Despite not graduating from a Missouri Sheriff’s Association Academy in West Plains until May 2018, authorities said Tomaszewski on multiple occasions conducted herself as a licensed officer.
The patrol, which announced its investigation in late April, said Sigman regularly allowed Tomaszewski to illegally dispatch calls through the sheriff’s department using his badge number. When dispatchers would not acknowledge Tomaszewski’s radio traffic, the patrol said they were reprimanded. All of those dispatchers have since resigned –– among about 50 employees who have left or been fired from the sheriff’s department since May 1, 2017.
Authorities said Tomaszewski regularly wore a uniform indistinguishable from deputies with the department and carried a department-issued Glock given to her by Sigman. She also at times carried an AR-15 rifle normally used by Sigman.
Tomaszewski, who the patrol said was involved romantically with Sigman since her hiring, went on ride-alongs and conducted search warrants with the sheriff. Authorities said she detained suspects, searched residents and performed other duties reserved for commissioned officers.
The patrol said Tomaszewski also acted as an undercover officer during stings. Sigman and Deputy Nathan Long once had Tomaszewski play the role of “Sarah” to meet with suspects that had been identified online.
THREATENING HARM TO OTHERS
While illegally participating in the June 30, 2017, execution of a search warrant on Steffens Street in Houston, the patrol said Tomaszewski pointed a firearm at five bystanders, including a 1-year-old. The patrol said the individuals were not suspects and lived across the street. Tomaszewski confronted them, authorities said, because she believed they were video recording officers and taking photos.
Officers serving the search warrant, including members of the South Central Drug Task Force, said they believed Tomaszewski was an officer at the time. She was dressed in a uniform similar to other members of the sheriff’s department at the scene. One member of the task force said he intervened when Tomaszewski had a male on the ground and was attempting to arrest him with one hand while pointing a firearm in the back of the person’s head.
Multiple officers said Sigman was present and allowed Tomaszewski’s behavior.
In September 2017, the patrol said Tomaszewski, who had been promoted three months earlier to administrator of the Texas County Jail, threatened the life of an inmate by saying she was, “Going to put a (expletive) bullet in your head.” Tomaszewski made the threats, the inmate told the patrol, because she believed she had Tomaszewski’s address. The person was visibly emotional and cried while sharing her story with the investigator.
During the execution of a search warrant by the patrol, the grievance file from the inmate was missing, the patrol said. It was obtained from other sources. Surveillance footage of the incident confirmed the victim’s story, authorities said. Sigman was present for the situation and did not intervene.
In April 2018, the patrol said an inmate was antagonized by jail staff, namely Tomaszewski, and possibly struck by her. He was kept in solitary confinement for long periods of time and “generally treated inhumanely,” the patrol said.
Tomaszewski and Sigman were among three persons previously named in a $1 million lawsuit filed by Harry A. Scheina III, who alleges the sheriff used excessive force on him. He said he was also taunted by a supervisor. A judge recently ruled the lawsuit can proceed.
INMATE KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS, REPORT GOES MISSING
In February 2018, authorities said an inmate described as having “the mental capacity of a 9-yearold” was struck in the face by Tomaszewski’s elbows while he was unconscious and unable to resist. The inmate had been rendered unconscious, the patrol said possibly inadvertently, by a choke hold while resisting officers.
One corrections officer said he heard Tomaszewski and another officer bragging about beating up the inmate. She allegedly told the officer, “I was trying to bust his eardrum out.”
“If we hadn’t been there, they would have killed that boy,” a deputy told authorities. “He was completely unconscious, and his lips were turning blue.”
Two corrections officers told the patrol they believed Sigman was present for the encounter and did not intervene.
The patrol said during the execution of a search warrant, a hand-written note by the facility nurse, Wanda Etchason, was missing from the inmate’s file. Etchason, who was a nurse hired by a private firm that provided healthcare services at the jail, described his injuries to authorities as several contusions on his head and face, two black eyes and minor lacerations.
Etchason was fired shortly after meeting with a patrol investigator.
JAIL USED AS ‘CHILD CARE FACILITY’
Authorities said since Tomaszewski was hired, she brought a minor child to the Texas County Jail on multiple instances. Sigman also took the juvenile to the jail, the report says.
At the jail, the patrol said the minor was exposed to sexually violent offenders and dangerous criminals. On Thanksgiving Day 2017, the minor helped serve meals to inmates and ate with two of them in the jail kitchen, the patrol report says. One was a sexually violent offender from Wright County.
Several employees told authorities the juvenile was in imminent danger on multiple occasions. They were afraid to intervene due to fear of retribution, they told the patrol.
An investigator obtained a jail visitor log showing the juvenile’s presence and serving meals with Tomaszewski. The name was scratched out by Sigman, who was described as angry there had been documentation of her visit.