Former Warsaw Officer Whitright Gets One Year for Sexual Battery
Posted
Craig Brosman-
Former Warsaw Police Department officer Timothy Whitright was sentenced this morning in Kosciusko County Superior Court I.
Whitright was sentenced to one year in jail, with six months suspended, for sexual battery, a Class D felony. The suspended portion of his sentence will be spent on probation. Whitright will be spend his jail time in the Indiana Department of Corrections, according to the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office.
Whitright pleaded guilty May 1 to inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl.
During sentencing, Kosciusko County Prosecutor Daniel H. Hampton read a letter written by the mother of the victim. Additionally, Hampton cited another inappropriate case with a young teenager in 2011 as the reason why Whitright resigned from WPD.
The family of the victim was in the courtroom, but did not speak.
Prior to Whitright’s sentencing, Judge Duane Huffer told him that he “embarrassed the community.”
The Whitright case was broke in late November when someone reported to Warsaw Police Department Police Chief Scott Whitaker about Whitright making an inappropriate contact with a 16-year-old Warsaw Community High School student. On Nov. 23, Whitright resigned from his position as a patrolman with WPD.
Less than a month later, on Dec. 16, criminal charges were brought against Whitright in a separate incident. According to the probable cause affidavit, the girl was at the Whitright’s home with friends and later was given a ride home by Whitright.
During the ride home, Whitright allegedly attempted to solicit sexual favors from the girl, and the girl alleged he touched her in her private area.
The girl told investigators that Whitright told her not to tell anyone and that nobody would believe her because “he’s a cop and (she) was a kid.”
During an interview with investigators, according to the probable cause affidavit, Whitright admitted to asking for sexual contact with the girl and placing his hand on her waist/stomach area and just inside the waistband of her pants. However, Whitright denied that he reached any further into her pants.
