Sex crime prosecutor fired over note to girlSex crime prosecutor fired over note to girl
Jay Meisenhelder professed his love for 16-year-old in an e-mail turned over to officials.
By Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.comMarch 12, 2005
The Marion County deputy prosecutor who was assistant chief of the sex crimes division was fired this week for sending a romantic e-mail to a 16-year-old girl.
Jay Meisenhelder, 53, admitted he used poor judgment but insisted he broke no laws.
"I didn't really think about the ultimate appearance of this because it was a friendship, and I didn't realize that I was looking at this as anything other than a friendship, initially," Meisenhelder said. "I will just say that nothing I did was illegal. It was a completely nonsexual relationship."
Hired in 1997, Meisenhelder was fired Tuesday by Prosecutor Carl Brizzi after Brizzi's office received a copy of the e-mail Meisenhelder sent to the girl the day before.
In the e-mail, obtained through Indiana's open records law, Meisenhelder repeatedly told the girl he loved her.
"I'm 53-years-old, and believe me, I know what love is -- I know how it feels," Meisenhelder wrote. "I love you as I have only loved two other women in my life. I also know that my feelings are not going to change anytime soon."
There is no evidence that Meisenhelder committed a crime, said John Commons, Brizzi's chief of staff.
According to a memo placed in Meisenhelder's personnel file Thursday, at a recent meeting with the girl, "he turned the lights down, lit a candle, made non-alcoholic Bananas Foster for them and played music from the sound track of 'Phantom of the Opera.' "
The memo was written by Commons. The girl wanted to leave and Meisenhelder took her home, the memo said.
"It is clear from these acts and the attached e-mail that Meisenhelder has taken the knowledge he gained as a deputy prosecutor to push right to the edge of legal conduct," Commons wrote. "Given this conduct and poor judgment, Meisenhelder is no longer fit to perform as a deputy prosecutor."
Meisenhelder, who is married, is a member of a local theater group and recently starred as Daddy Warbucks in a presentation of "Annie." The girl also was in the play.
Roberta Ross, Meisenhelder's attorney and longtime friend, said the memo leaves out many significant details. He was sharing his heart with the girl, she said.
"I would term it as expressing a fantasy, verbalization of a fantasy," Ross said.
Brizzi's office overreacted by firing Meisenhelder, Ross said.
"What they essentially chose to do was take an excellent eight-year employee who lived and breathed and loved his job and dramatically overreacted," Ross said.
Meisenhelder was named assistant chief of the sex crimes division in December.
In November 2002, he successfully prosecuted Broad Ripple photographer Andrew R. Scalini for taking explicit nude photographs of 17-year-old girls. Scalini was convicted of child exploitation and possession of child pornography and served a six-month prison sentence.
In 1999, Meisenhelder prosecuted 72-year-old Russell R. Leonard, who had sex with an 11-year-old girl who was being set up as a prostitute by her crack-addicted mother. Leonard was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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