CRAWFORDSVILLE, IN — In March, a Crawfordsville police officer responded to a call about the alleged abuse of a single mother’s infant son.
By that night, he had friended her on Facebook and asked for her Snapchat username, she said.
Micah Hatch resigned to take a job in the private sector, Crawfordsville Asst. Chief Ryan Teeter said Aug. 25, before Hatch’s accuser, Alexis Wilkinson, reported to authorities in early August that the former officer frequently sent her lewd and suggestive messages until she blocked him.
Teeter said officials passed the information to Indiana State Police to investigate.
Wilkinson said an ISP detective emailed her Aug. 21, saying they were investigating her allegations against Hatch. An ISP spokesman told a reporter he could not confirm an investigation. Hatch did not respond to a request for comment.
Hatch arrived at Wilkinson’s home about noon March 2 after Wilkinson called police, according to police logs. Her infant had suffered injuries in the care of a babysitter three days prior, she reportedly told Hatch and a Department of Child Services caseworker, and since then the child had vomited and been lethargic. Her son had red, raised marks on his face and head in the pattern of fingernail scratches.
Hatch chatted with her about his own children, Wilkinson said, and repeatedly asked about the fathers of her children.
Less than 12 hours later, Hatch reportedly began messaging her on Facebook and proceeded to follow her on other social media platforms, trying at one point to give her his cell phone number and asking her to text him. He would call her on Facebook Messenger; she said he sent her explicit photos of himself in his squad car on Snapchat, taking advantage of the app’s self-deleting message feature.
Hatch told her he had sway with Indiana’s Department of Child Services, and she said she felt as if he were implying that he could influence the case against her son’s babysitter. Hatch formerly worked for DCS, according to a local news article from when he was sworn in as a police officer in 2018.
Hatch would park his car in an empty lot next to Wilkinson’s house, she said, and frequently drove by. After seeing her at the preschool their children share, Hatch messaged Wilkinson suggestive comments about her appearance.
In screenshots of Facebook messages Wilkinson provided to a reporter, Hatch began with a message after 9:30 p.m. March 2: “Not trying to be weird by adding you lol.”
The same night, he said, “Not creeping on your page but Jesus Christ,” and he included a drooling emoji.
The night of March 4, Hatch insinuated that he would make adult content with Wilkinson on OnlyFans. He asked about her presence on the platform and asked in a message, “Just making content by yourself now? lol,” with a photo of himself in a mirror raising his shirt.
He sent six messages and called Wilkinson the night of March 6 before she responded, according to screenshots. He repeatedly messaged her privately about her posts with suggestive comments like “Classic moving the seatbelt to make the girls pop,” with a drooling emoji. He apparently messaged her almost exclusively at night.
Wilkinson said Hatch told her he “had an in with DCS.”
“I didn’t know what that meant, right?” she said. “So I was like, ‘OK, if I don’t deal with your sexual comments, are you gonna try to get my kid taken away? Are you gonna make it where nothing happens (to the babysitter)?’”
Wilkinson said she pulled her son out of the preschool he attended with Hatch’s daughter and moved away in part because of Hatch’s alleged harassment.
Teeter, with Crawfordsville police, said his department turned the original police case over to DCS. He never received an update.
Israel Schuman is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. You can reach him at ieschuma@purdue.edu or on X @ischumanwrites.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Ex-Crawfordsville officer faces investigation into suggestive messages
Reporting by Israel Schuman, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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