John D. Jessup, 49, Shirley, is a Hancock County Commissioner who has been accused of sexual assault in Las Vegas. After nearly two months in a Las Vegas jail, court officials say he’s been placed on house arrest there and is not supposed to leave Clark County, Nevada until after his trial in February.
Officials in charge of the sexual assault case against Hancock County Commissioner John Jessup sent an alert Saturday stating that Jessup has been released from Clark County Jail in Las Vegas and placed on house arrest.
Jessup, 49, Shirley, is waiting for a Feb. 24 jury trial on a sexual assault charge stemming from an incident January in Las Vegas.
The alert noted that after posting bond, which was listed at $100,000, Jessup was placed on “unsupervised custody status” or home incarceration where he will not be constantly supervised. The alert noted the order was effective Aug. 10. However, Clark County Jail search results show Jessup is still listed as an inmate as of Monday, due to the fact he is on house arrest status.
According to officials who run the house arrest program in Clark County, Jessup gave officials an address in Clark County where he’s staying, and he must stay there and not leave Clark County. If Jessup did venture outside of Clark County, he would be in violation of his terms, arrested and sent back to jail.
Jessup is not allowed to travel to Indiana. He is being monitored through a case management, location monitoring, alcohol monitoring, and drug testing service for clients who are ordered to be monitored pre-trial via a program called SCRAM of Nevada.
There is a protection order in place for the victim, meaning Jessup is not allowed to have any contact with the woman. However, court records indicated that order expires Sept. 26.
Jessup had been an inmate in the Clark County Jail in Las Vegas since late June after being transferred there following his June 14 arrest by the Shirley Police Department. Jessup was held in the Shelby County Jail until being transferred to Las Vegas several days after the initial arrest, and that’s where he’d been prior to the release.
Sexual assault is considered a Category A felony in Nevada, which is the most serious level of felony in the state. State law dictates that it is illegal to engage in sexual penetration either by force or without lawful consent. The sentence for a sexual assault conviction depends on several factors, including the victim’s age, whether the victim was injured, and the defendant’s criminal history. According to Las Vegas statutes, for forced sexual penetration or sexual penetration without the ability to consent, the maximum penalty is life with the possibility of parole after 10 years.
Jessup had a hearing on July 22 where the defense requested Jessup be allowed to travel to his home state, released on house arrest to Community Correction of Indiana, and the state of Nevada requested bail be increased to $500,000. This was prior to the case being bound over for trial in a district court in Las Vegas where the bond was kept at $100,000.
Court documents detail the sexual assault and how Jessup reportedly said “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” before buying a woman he traveled to Las Vegas with in January an excessive number of Long Island Iced Teas and then sexually assaulting her against her will.
When officials from the Shirley Police Department interviewed Jessup about the allegations, Jessup was asked why the woman wanted to leave Las Vegas soon after getting there, to which Jessup replied that “there was inappropriate contact” between him and the victim, the court report stated.
Police pressed Jessup further on the “inappropriate contact,” and he eventually admitted he had touched the woman inappropriately against her knowledge or will. Jessup told police that he felt there was “nothing criminal” about what he had done and reiterated that it was just a “f***ed up, drunk night.” Jessup also reportedly admitted that he said he should kill himself, which police said implied he knew what he did was wrong.
Jessup is a current Hancock County commissioner serving Vernon, Green and Brown townships and has not been able to attend a meeting since his arrest in June. His term expires at the end of year, which will end his involvement as a commissioner. Jessup, however, won a primary in May to become a member of the Hancock County Council in 2025. He is still on the ballot for that office and would need to be one of the top three vote-getters of the multiple candidates to join the Hancock County Council in 2025.
