Police Say Woman Was Stalked While Stalker Was In Jail
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A woman who had a protective order against an inmate in the Kosciusko County Jail found herself still harassed by him while he was serving time and by others on his behalf in 2017.
Mitchell Patrick Hall, 46, Wolcottville, was arrested and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday for domestic battery with a prior; failure to appear – original charge felony; probation violation – misdemeanor; stalking – threatening sexual battery/serious bodily injury/death; and probation violation – felony. His total preliminary bond was set at $21,449.
His initial hearing for stalking, a level 5 felony, and invasion of privacy, a Class A misdemeanor, with an enhancement to a level 6 felony, was set for 8:15 a.m. today.
Court documents filed Jan. 23 list an address for Hall as 3762 W. Old 30, #84E, Warsaw.
On March 21, 2016, the female victim obtained a protective order against Hall. The order prohibited Hall from stalking, harassing, annoying, telephoning, contacting, or directly or indirectly communicating with the victim. The protective order was in effect until Wednesday.
On Sept. 23, 2016, Hall was convicted of invasion of privacy against the victim as a lesser included offense of stalking in Kosciusko County Superior Court I and he was sentenced to the county jail.
On May 25, 2017, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Kyle Cooper was searching inmate trusties at the county jail. During the search, a black cellphone was found on Hall.
KCSD deputy Don Wiesehan obtained a search warrant for the phone. He also received a call from the victim stating Hall was violating a protective order through Facebook messages and phone calls from the jail.
Cooper spoke with the victim, who said she was receiving daily calls from the jail. She also received Facebook messages from Hall on May 22, 2017. On Nov. 14 and 15, 2016, Timothy Bowen allegedly contacted the victim at Hall’s request. On Feb. 23, 2017; March 7, 2017; and April 3, 2017; Ashley Cummins allegedly sent Facebook messages to the victim at Hall’s request. Ashley Elliott also had allegedly contacted the victim on Hall’s behalf.
The victim reported she was “scared to death” at what will happen when Hall is released from jail.
Cooper obtained the messages sent by Elliott, Bowen and Hall.
Cooper obtained the jail calls from Hall to Cummins, and Hall is heard requesting and telling Cummins to contact the victim and telling her what to say to the victim.
Cummins allegedly admitted Hall had contacted her to get in contact with the victim for him. She messaged the victim three times on Facebook at Hall’s request.
Officers searching the black cellphone found Hall had sent text messages to the victim. Hall also allegedly admitted he had sent a couple of Facebook messages using the phone he had in jail.
On Dec. 12, 2017, Hall bonded out of the jail. Three days later, KCSD Deputy Thomas Waikel spoke with the victim, who said Hall had been violating the protective order since he was released. He was texting and calling her and posting comments on her Facebook. She provided the text messages Hall had sent to Waikel, who also saw that the victim had received 10 calls in a two-day period from Hall’s phone number that the victim did not answer. She also received text messages from Hall on Dec. 13, 2017. The victim received messages of threatening derogatory comments from Hall.
