Jacqueline Heidt, the Racine Correctional Institution (RCI) employee booked into the Racine County Jail last week on 41 felony charges was assigned a $5,000 cash bond during her initial appearance Monday. Half of those charges were for allegedly having sex with an inmate who was convicted of sexual assault.
After her arrest on Aug. 25 and spending the weekend in jail, Jacqueline Heidt, 37, of Franksville, was charged Monday, Aug. 29, in Racine County Circuit Court with 22 felony charges; 20 counts of second-degree sexual assault of a person housed in a correctional facility and one count each of misconduct in office and delivering illegal articles to an inmate. If convicted of all charges, she faces up to 77 years in prison and/or up to $220,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators with the Racine County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 24 were advised a sergeant was having a sexual relationship with an inmate and supplied him with a cell phone, which is considered an illegal article. Heidt is actually a corrections program supervisor and not a corrections officer with a rank of sergeant. There was also a report that Heidt was pregnant with the prisoner’s baby. When the inmate was questioned by authorities on Aug. 18 after suffering an overdose, he had the cell phone in his shorts, and it contained nude photos of Heidt and text conversations between the two.
Pregnancy terminated by Heidt
The prisoner told investigators that neither he nor Heidt pressured the other into having a relationship and they didn’t use protection. The inmate said Heidt wanted to have his baby and provided him with ultrasound photos. He also described physical attributes of Heidt’s body confirmed by her husband, the complaint continues, who also confirmed Heidt had been pregnant, but she terminated the pregnancy.
According to the criminal complaint, a physical examination of Heidt’s body provided descriptions that matched both the prisoner’s and her husband’s. A search warrant executed on her van turned up the phone Heidt used to communicate with the prisoner.
Inmate identified
Sources who spoke to Racine County Eye on the condition of anonymity said the inmate’s name is Travis Jones, 37. He was convicted in Milwaukee County Circuit Court of three Class C felonies in 2015; two counts of second-degree sexual assault with the use of force and one count of kidnapping. Jones was sentenced to 20 years confinement and 10 years supervision for each of the sexual assault charges consecutive to the five years confinement and five years of supervision on the kidnapping charge.
According to online court records and the Department of Corrections website, Jones isn’t scheduled to be released until 2059 when he’ll be 74 years old. His periods of extended supervision don’t end until 2084, when he would be 99 years old.
John Beard, communications director for the DOC, confirmed in an email that Jones did overdose and that he was receiving care at a DOC location after he was treated first at the hospital as stated in the criminal complaint against Heidt.
If she posts her $5,000 cash bond, Heidt will be on house arrest and only allowed out for court appearances, medical appointments, and meetings with her attorney. She will next be in court on Sept. 21 for her preliminary hearing.
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