Sinmi Asomuyide

Introduction

Sinmi Asomuyide is a 33-year-old former Kokomo, Indiana, police officer who used the authority of his badge to sexually assault a 14-year-old girl — and then worked to cover it up. A federal jury in the Southern District of Indiana convicted him after a five-day trial of willfully depriving the girl of her constitutional rights by sexually assaulting her, with the jury finding his conduct included kidnapping and abusive sexual contact of a child under 16. He was also convicted of lying to the Indiana State Police and deleting the messaging application he had used to communicate with the victim. On November 4, 2026, he was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

Background Information

Asomuyide served as a police officer in Kokomo, Indiana, before the federal civil-rights prosecution ended his career. The case was prosecuted jointly by Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Blackett for the Southern District of Indiana, Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Anita Channapati, and former Senior Sex Crimes Counsel Tara Allison, and was investigated by the FBI. It was announced by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division alongside U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler of the Southern District of Indiana and FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. O’Malley. The conviction sits in the category the Justice Department describes as civil-rights abuses committed by “the small minority of police officers that betray public trust.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted by a jury and sentenced. Sinmi Asomuyide was convicted by a federal jury of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and of obstruction, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The jury’s verdict, returned after a five-day trial, found that Asomuyide willfully deprived the victim — who was then 14 years old — of her constitutional rights by sexually assaulting her, and that his conduct included kidnapping and abusive sexual contact of a child under the age of 16. The conviction thus records the assault as an abuse of the very authority his position conferred: the Justice Department’s announcement describes a defendant who exploited the badge, using the tools, training, and authority entrusted to him as a police officer to assault a vulnerable child.

The cover-up became its own set of convictions. Jurors found Asomuyide guilty of lying to the Indiana State Police in an attempt to conceal the assault — denying that he had sexual contact with the victim and lying about the presence of other corroborating evidence — and of deleting the messaging application he had been using to communicate with the minor victim before the sexual assault, in a further attempt to cover it up. At sentencing on November 4, 2026, the court imposed 40 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, a term the announcement ties to both the assault and the obstruction.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The officials who brought the case framed it as a betrayal answered. Assistant Attorney General Dhillon said the Department of Justice takes civil rights abuses seriously, “including those committed by the small minority of police officers that betray public trust,” that the defendant would be “held accountable for the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a child,” and that the department hopes the victim “will be able to recover and prosper despite this horrific episode.” U.S. Attorney Wheeler said Asomuyide “exploited the badge in one of the worst ways imaginable” and that the evidence “told a different story” than his denials, sending “a clear message that no one can use the authority of the badge as a shield from accountability.” FBI SAC O’Malley said the defendant “preyed on a 14-year-old girl and then attempted to cover up his crimes,” calling that “calculated abuse” unconscionable.

Current Status

Asomuyide is a sentenced federal inmate. The 40-year term was imposed on November 4, 2026, following the jury verdict at the five-day trial in the Southern District of Indiana, with three years of supervised release attached. His convictions — the civil-rights deprivation accomplished through sexual assault, with kidnapping and abusive sexual contact of a child under 16 within the found conduct, plus the false statements to Indiana State Police and the deleted messaging application — are final jury findings recorded in the Justice Department’s announcement. There is no parole in the federal system, so the four-decade term runs at good-conduct-adjusted rates, and the release reports no appeal as of sentencing.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Asomuyide’s policing career ended in a federal courtroom that sat directly on the conduct his job was meant to prevent. The jury verdict preserved both halves of the case — the assault of a 14-year-old and the deliberate destruction of the messaging evidence that connected them — so the record cannot be reduced to an accusation: it is a conviction, on counts the government litigated for five days. At 33, his 40-year sentence extends past his seventieth birthday, with supervised release following. The Justice Department’s own summary now states the principle his case was prosecuted to establish: the badge is not a shield from accountability, and the officer who uses its authority to assault a child answers for it in federal court.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Former Kokomo Police Department Officer Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Sexually Assaulting Minor, Lying to Investigators,” November 2026. source