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A former Kokomo police officer was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison on Wednesday for charges tied to the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl who had run away from home.
A federal jury found Sinmi Asomuyide, 33, guilty in June of several charges connected with the 2024 assault, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana said in a statement Thursday.
They include witness tampering, destruction of records and deprivation of rights under color of law involving kidnapping and abusive sexual contact of a child under age 16, according to federal court documents.
His sentence includes three years of supervised release after prison.
Prosecutors say Asomuyide responded to a 911 call on June 30, 2024, about the girl running away. He found her at the home of another underage girl and took her to the Kinsey Youth Center.
The girl was released from the center to a family friend at the instruction of her father. She and Asomuyide then texted each other through the evening, with the girl being under the impression that he intended to return a vape pen he took from her during a pat-down search, the attorney’s office statement said.
Asomuyide later showed up at the family friend’s apartment in uniform, handcuffed the girl in the back of his squad car and drove her to an empty warehouse parking lot, where he assaulted her, the statement said.
He then drove her back to the family friend’s apartment.
The girl reported the assault and the Indiana State Police started an investigation, the attorney’s office said.
The FBI also investigated the case.
Asomuyide “exploited the badge in one of the worst ways imaginable,” said Tom Wheeler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, in the statement.
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