Police: Former Kokomo cop accused of sexual misconduct with runaway juvenile
DISCLAIMER: This article contains brief descriptions of sexual conversation and contact between an adult and a minor.
KOKOMO, Ind. (WISH) — A Kokomo probationary officer is in custody after being accused of sexual misconduct with a minor, Indiana State Police said Tuesday.
Sinme I. Asomuyide, 31, of Indianapolis, on Wednesday was being held at the Tipton County jail on a $30,000 cash bond. He’d turned himself in on Tuesday.
The Kokomo Police Department terminated Asomuyide on July 1, citing multiple policy violations outside the criminal investigation. He started working with the department in July 2023 and graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in December.
State police joined the investigation into Asomuyide on July 8 at the request of Kokomo police.
A probable cause affidavit shared with News 8 says a man living in Bloomington, Illinois, on July 1 reported to local authorities that in the months prior, his foster daughter reunited with her biological father residing in Kokomo.
When visiting her father in Kokomo, the daughter contacted him and said “things were not going well.” She said she’d been sexually assaulted by a police officer.
On July 2, detectives in Illinois spoke with the girl. She told investigators that she’d been on a “running away streak” and was arrested for it while in Kokomo. She added that the “same ‘African’ cop” picked her up each time. Officers later identified the cop as Asomuyide.
She told authorities that the last time the cop picked her up, he told her her biological father wanted her taken to Robert J. Kinsey Youth Center for running away.
Court documents say when the two arrived at the youth center, they parked in the garage, and Asomuyide asked the girl for her phone number. The girl said Asomuyide wanted to check in on her and ask her to “hang out with his daughter who is 15.”
A Kinsey worker eventually found them in the garage area and asked if they were OK. The two then exited the vehicle.
During a physical search of the girl and while filling out paperwork, the affidavit says Asomuyide “rubbed the girl’s leg” and asked her inappropriate questions about sexual activity and who was “the oldest man she’d been with.”
Before leaving, Asomuyide reportedly pulled her aside and told her to “hit (him) up so (they) can hang out.” He then called her so she’d have his phone number, police say.
The same day after she was released from the youth center, the girl says Asomuyide “figured out where she was” and showed up at the apartment she was staying at with her father’s friends. The girl’s father was in the emergency room, and Asomuyide told the girl he needed to speak with her about her dad.
Asomuyide led the girl from the apartment and drove them to an “abandoned lot.” There, Asomuyide forced the girl to perform sexual acts on him. He then returned her to the apartment, where court documents say her father’s friends were waiting on her “because they were confused why she left.”
Investigators later learned that during his interactions with the girl at Kinsey, Asomuyide turned off his body camera. On the night of the assault, court documents say Asomuyide requested overtime to do paperwork at the police department. After reviewing GPS data on his patrol car, they learned Asomuyide wasn’t at the department when he said he’d be doing paperwork.
On July 8, state police detectives spoke with Asomuyide. He confirmed he’d interacted with the girl and picked her up for running away, and said he picked her up again later in that day after he met with her father in the emergency room and was asked to take her to Kinsey. He denied giving the girl his phone number or asking her sexual questions.
Court documents say after the first trip to Kinsey, Asomuyide told police he was informed the girl ran away. “He then changes his narrative and states she told him she felt unsafe and was about to run away again,” the affidavit says.
Asomuyide said the girl contacted his work phone, believing she got the number from someone at Kinsey. He then admitted to texting the girl on his personal phone but “didn’t have the messages anymore.” He later said he’d texted with the girl over the “Text Now” app, but it was deleted from his phone.
Asomuyide then claimed the girl devised a plan for him to pick her up and “put handcuffs on (her) to make it look like (he was) taking (her) back to Kinsey.” According to court documents, Asomuyide then left the police station without his body camera, drove to the apartment complex the girl said she was at and removed her from her father’s friends as she wasn’t “released to the female she was with.”
He took the girl back to Kinsey, saying along the way they pulled over so the girl could contact her father and “make sure he was OK with her going to Kinsey.” He claimed they could not get ahold of their father, so he drove the girl back to the apartments.
Police say he denied ever touching her inappropriately or taking off his clothes.
Asomuyide turned himself into the Tipton County jail on Tuesday, state police say. Online records show he was charged with felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor; sexual battery; child seduction; and official misconduct.
Court records did not show if a hearing was scheduled for Asomuyide’s case.
Help is available for victims of domestic violence. Below is a list of suggested resources on the Domestic Violence Network website:
- Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence: 24-hour hotline available at 800-332-7385
- Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking
- The Julian Center
- Indiana Child Abuse Hotline: 800-800-5556
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788
- National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673
