WINCHESTER, IN — Randolph Circuit Court Judge Jay Toney has taken under advisement a request to issue a gag order in a local child seduction case.
Alicia S. Hughes, 31, of Lynn, was charged Feb. 17 in Randolph Circuit Court with five counts of child seduction, a Level 5 felony carrying up to six years in prison.
She is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student at Union City Junior-Senior High School, where Hughes worked as a secretary.
After her February arrest, the Union City Police Department released a video that showed a portion of Hughes’ interrogation by a Union City officer. The video then appeared on many websites, including one belonging to a tabloid publication in England.
The release of that video prompted Hughes’ attorney, David M. Jordan of Richmond, to file a motion calling the release of the video by Mark Ater, Union City’s director of public safety, “an injustice of magnanimous proportion.”
At a hearing on Tuesday, April 28, on Jordan’s request for a gag order, the Richmond attorney told Toney the video of his client has drawn more than 5 million views online and could make it difficult to seat an impartial jury in Randolph County.
Ater testified Tuesday it was his decision to release that video to the news media.
“My intent was to be transparent and be open to the community we serve,” said Ater, who oversees the police departments in the state line community of both Union City, Indiana, and Ohio.
Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly said his office had no involvement in preparing or releasing the video.
Daly said he was bound by “professional conduct rules” to not try to “inflame” the community against a defendant awaiting trial on criminal charges.
“The prosecutor’s office had nothing to with these press releases, judge,” Daly said. “Some of the releases in this case have gone a little too far. That’s my opinion.”
Daly noted that with Tuesday’s hearing approaching, the Union City Police Department last week issued another statement to the media.
That release announced police had examined Hughes’ cell phone and “discovered video evidence depicting a person under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts with Ms. Hughes.”
Jordan’s motion for a gag order was accompanied by a copy of a similar order issued in Carroll County by a judge presiding over the case of Richard Allen, convicted in October of murder in the 2017 slayings of two teenagers in Delphi.
In addition to asking that Ater be directed to not publicly comment on the Hughes case without the permission of Judge Toney, Jordan also asked that the Union City Police Department be ordered to pay his law firm $5,000 for the research done in determining how often the video of his client had been viewed online.
Jordan withdrew a request that Ater be ordered to publicly apologize to his client and Daly, after Toney said that request “seems like a publicity stunt.”
The judge took the motion for a gag order under advisement and said he will issue an order “in accordance with the law.”
Hughes attended Tuesday’s hearing but did not testify. Her trial is scheduled for June 15.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Judge to rule on bid for gag order in Randolph County seduction case
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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