Child Protective Services Employee Accused Of Child Molestation

Indystar
Posted : 2007-06-05

Cory A. Heinzman, 38, a former family case manager at the Indiana Department of Child Services, faces a total of 29 charges, ranging from child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor, performance before a minor that is harmful to minors, official misconduct and corrupt business influence. The charges carry the potential for a sentence of hundreds of years in prison.

NOBLESVILLE -- Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp painted a former Child Protective Services worker as a predator today in her opening arguments of a jury trial. The Arcadia man's attorneys maintain that their client is innocent.

Cory Heinzman, 38, faces 29 charges, which include child molestation and official misconduct involving two teen boys.
"He preyed on these young men knowing their disabilities," Leerkamp said of two boys with special needs who she and police say fell victim to Heinzman in 2004-05. "He breached the trust of these young men, their families and his employer."

"Cory has been wrongly accused," argued Rodney Sarkovics, one of Heinzman's two attorneys. He urged the jury to "make this case about the truth, not about perception."

Heinzman, dressed in a dark gray suit and red tie, sat quietly during the proceedings, often looking at the jury, Leerkamp and Sarkovics as they spoke in Hamilton County Superior Court 2. He didn't speak in court, but conferred with Sarkovics and his other attorney, Andy Barker, while waiting for Judge Dan Pfleging to enter the courtroom.

Heinzman's charges include 15 felonies ranging from child molestation and sexual misconduct with a minor to 14 misdemeanors, all official misconduct. If convicted, he faces 20-50 years per charge on the six more-serious Class A felonies alone, in addition to fines ranging from $5,000-$10,000 per charge.

Leerkamp told the 12-person jury that all of the child-molesting charges and many of the official misconduct charges stem from incidents Heinzman is said to have been involved in between Aug. 5, 2004, and March 3, 2005, with a then-13-year-old boy. One of the sexual misconduct charges, she said, was filed on an incident that was reported to have happened when the boy was 14, and three of the charges for performance harmful to a minor were said to have happened between Aug. 4, 2004, and April 15, 2005.

The charges also stem from accusations that Heinzman committed sexual misconduct with a then-15-year-old boy in November and December 2004.
It is the policy of The Noblesville Ledger to generally not publish the names of sexual-assault victims.

Heinzman, who worked with Child Protective Services in Hamilton County for three years beginning in 2002, had also worked with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Madison County, the YMCA, United Methodist Church Children's Home, Alternative Inc. and Specialized Alternative for Family and Youth.

Leerkamp told the jury of two men and 10 women that over the course of the next few days they will hear from detectives who investigated the case, as well as the two boys, now 16 and 18, who claim to have been abused by Heinzman.

According to Sarkovics, the prosecution does not have any physical, DNA or medical evidence to use during the trial, and suggested that at least one of the boys switched his story on what happened.

"Don't be swayed by speculation and innuendo," he asked of the jury.