Lawmaker gets 15 years for molesting own daughter as they drunkenly celebrated her 21st birthday in Vegas

Daily Mail​

26-04-2025

A Republican lawmaker has been sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for sexually molesting his own daughter on her 21st birthday.
John Jessup, 50, stripped Rachel naked and assaulted her in a hotel bed during a drunken vacation to Las Vegas to celebrate her coming of age.
Rachel, who waived her right to anonymity, has recalled the horror of waking up naked alongside her own father.
Jessup, 50, pleaded guilty in November to abusing Rachel on January 26, 2024.
Rachel, who agreed to be identified in court and later interviews, spoke through tears at her father's sentencing Thursday.
She described a chilling night out with her father where he plied her with alcohol and continually told her: 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.'
Jessup is a former Hancock County Commissioner and councilman who was forced to step down over his depravity.
He's been jailed for a maximum of 15 years for the depraved act of incest, and will serve a minimum of six years behind bars.
Rachel said the sexual assault came after she and her father went out drinking the night before at Harrah's Hotel and Casino on the Vegas strip, where Jessup urged his daughter to 'keep up' with him as he continually ordered her drinks.
After he plied her with several Long Island ice teas, she said she told Jessup she wanted to take a break, but he kept pressuring her to keep up with him to the point where he dragged her to a strip club.
At the club, Jessup ordered himself a private dance while leaving his daughter sitting at the bar, and she said they only returned to their hotel after she began throwing up from the alcohol.
She broke down in tears as she recalled the last thing she remembered from the night was showing up with her clothes on, before waking up to discover Jessup molesting her.
Rachel said that when she woke up and moved, her father stopped. Court records said he then apologized to her, and when he was interviewed by cops months later in May 2024, he insisted he had done 'nothing criminal.'
'(Jessup) told detectives it was just a f*****-up drunk night', prosecutors said, as per a report in the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Rachel was adopted by her stepfather the day before the sentencing and now goes by the surname Keesling.
Rachel urged the court to impose the lengthiest possible prison sentence on her father. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of eight-to-20-years, but a judge handed him a sentence of six-to-15-years.
When Jessup was first arrested, it was only reported that he had assaulted a woman in the Vegas hotel room, but Rachel was not identified.
She said she decided to come forward and identify herself as the victim of her father's 'sickening' acts because he had been elected to the Hancock County Council in Indiana despite his arrest for sexual assault.
As she came forward, she told WADT it was 'heartbreaking' to see her father be re-elected, adding: 'I just told myself, "They're uninformed. You can't be mad because they don't have the full story.' "
In her remarks at her father's sentencing, she said since her father assaulted her, 'My life feels like it's shattered.'
Jessup's eventual guilty plea came days after he won election, and because Indiana law prevents convicted felons from office, he was forced to immediately resign.
Scene: The shocking sex attack unfolded in a hotel room in Harrah's Hotel and Casino on the Vegas strip, after the father and daughter spent the night drinking on the casino floor and a strip club
Rachel described the horrific effect the assault has had on her in the year since the Vegas trip, which has included a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), severe anxiety and depression.
She said she frequently suffers from panic attacks, and even had to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases following the sex attack.
Deputy District Attorney Morgan Thomas said at Jessup's sentencing that the former politician attempted to deflect responsibility for the crime for some time before his eventual guilty plea, and said he even blamed his daughter for the assault.
'Fathers are supposed to protect their children. They're not supposed to violate them when they are vulnerable,' Thomas said.
In a statement to the court as he was sentenced, Jessup apologized for tearing apart his family, and said the fallout of his sickening act led him to lose his children, grandchildren and job.
Jessup told the judge he became sober after realizing he was an alcoholic following the night in Las Vegas, and said while he did not blame alcohol for what happened, he turned his addiction around and has been sober for 451 days.
'I'm not the same man I was,' he said.
Hancock previously served as the Hancock County Board of Commissioners from 2017 until his arrest, having been first elected to the Hancock County Council in 2016.
Following his arrest, he also faced allegations of misconduct in his political role.
Misty Moore, the director of Hancock County Homeland Security, alleged that Jessup sexually harassed her at work, in the form of inappropriate text messages and in-person remarks.
She said the harassment endured for almost two years because Jessup was technically her boss and had the ability to fire her, and alleged that officials failed to step in after she reported him.