A small-town Indiana high school secretary is in deep trouble after her husband caught her in bed with a student on Valentine’s Day and now a leaked interrogation video has prosecutors sweating bullets that it could blow the whole case apart.
Alicia Hughes, 31, was the secretary at Union City Community High School in Union City. On February 14, her husband walked in on her with an 18-year-old male student at their house. Things turned ugly fast. Hughes dialed 911 claiming he’d battered her.
That one phone call opened a much bigger can of worms.
While digging into the domestic call, Union City police uncovered evidence that Hughes had allegedly slept with a different 17-year-old student at least five times late last year. She’s now staring down five counts of Level 5 felony child seduction. In Indiana, that charge hits school employees who cross the line with students aged 16 or 17 who are under their authority. Each count carries up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The encounters with the 18-year-old aren’t criminal he was legally an adult but the 17-year-old allegations are.
A tweet from X.
Hughes was arrested the next day and formally charged February 17. She’s sitting in Randolph County Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond, and the school district put her on administrative leave immediately.
Superintendent Neal Adams issued a short statement:
“RESC takes all allegations involving students extremely seriously. We cooperated fully with law enforcement from the start and will continue to do so.”
Late last month, Union City police dropped a redacted two-minute clip of Hughes’ interrogation online. In the video she’s crying as she talks about the 18-year-old. She tells the officer their relationship started right after his birthday in late January and admits,
“This is the third time that I’ve been with him.”
The second she’s asked about any other students, she shuts down, says she wants a lawyer, and gets cuffed while still in tears.
The clip went everywhere online within hours.
Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly made it crystal clear his office had nothing to do with the release.
“At the time that video hit the media, we didn’t even have a copy of the interview,”
he told the Muncie Star Press. He says he’s dead set on a fair trial and justice for the victims, but he’s worried the leak could poison the jury pool and get everything tossed on a technicality.
Hughes’ attorney has already filed a motion asking for a gag order on the police department’s director of public safety, plus a public apology and $10,000 in damages.
Police Director of Public Safety Mark Ater pushed back hard, calling the release “lawful, measured and deliberate.” He said the clip was heavily redacted to protect victims, matches the public probable cause affidavit, and doesn’t contain any admission of the actual crimes she’s charged with.
“We showed restraint,”
He said.
Hughes is also a mother of three. Her husband filed for divorce right after the Valentine’s Day blowup and asked for emergency custody of the kids.
Her trial is currently set for June 15 in Randolph Circuit Court.
The whole mess has gone national, shining a spotlight on how fast body-cam and interrogation footage spreads in the social-media era and the razor-thin line prosecutors have to walk between openness and giving a defendant a fair shot. Right now Hughes is still behind bars while both sides fight over whether that tearful video helps her or buries her.
