WARNING: This story contains graphic material that may not be suitable for all readers
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – She thought $400 would get the girl to change her story.
She gave the girl gifts, too. All she had to do was say the man didn’t molest her, that she made the whole thing up and lied when she talked to police last year.
The girl, though, knew that would be the real lie.
Allen County Prosecutors on Friday charged 37-year-old Heather Nicole Steel with felony counts of obstruction of justice and child neglect, accusing her of trying to bribe a girl into recanting testimony that a man harmed her.
Steel is also accused of drafting an email – with an unnamed witness – in which she pretended to be the girl, writing that she lied about the molesting claims she told police.
She then sent the email to Allen County prosecutors, according to court documents.
Steel also enabled the man accused of molesting the girl to have contact with the child while police were investigating those claims against him, according to Allen Superior Court documents.
Police arrested that man, 32-year-old Anthony Suave Steel, in February after prosecutors charged him with a felony count of child molesting.
Fort Wayne Police began looking into Anthony Steel in August when the girl, then 11-years-old, told investigators he had molested her one night a few days beforehand.
She later told them he had inappropriately touched her in the past, as well.
The accusations against Heather Steel came to light after the witness who helped her concoct the phony email to prosecutors spoke with Fort Wayne Police, according to court documents.
Investigators then spoke with the girl and a boy who also lives with the girl.
The girl told a detective Heather Steel offered her cash to change her testimony against Anthony Steel, but changing that testimony “would be a lie,” she said in court documents.
They told investigators in court documents Heather Steel punched the girl in the back and pulled her hair to drag her off a bed several days after Anthony Steel’s arrest.
She used a phone charger cord to whip the boy, too, court documents said.
Just as she did with the girl, Heather Steel tried to bribe the boy to recant testimony against Anthony Steel, according to court records. The specifics of that testimony is not clear, but there is an accusation in court documents that Anthony Steel also used a cord to beat the boy.
When interviewed by a investigators, Heather Steel admitted to trying to bribe the children at the request of Anthony Steel, according to court documents.
She gave the girl cash and gifts; she gave the boy gifts, she said in court documents.
Heather Steel admitted in court documents to drafting the email sent to prosecutors in which she pretended to be the girl, according to court documents.
She also confessed in court documents that she tried to get someone else to convince the girl to recant her testimony and admitted to slapping the girl as well as pulling her hair.
Heather Steel said in those documents she witnessed Anthony Steel using a cord to whip the boy. She did not call police while or after he did so, according to court documents.
Finally, Heather Steel said she allowed Anthony Steel to have contact with the girl while the child molesting investigation was being conducted.
That violated a Safety Plan that was designed to keep Anthony Steel away from the girl during the investigation, according to court documents.
Heather Steel was booked into Allen County Jail on $12,500 bond and is currently on monitored release. Anthony Steel is still in Allen County Jail.
Both have been ordered to have no contact with the children involved in the case.
