Overview
- U.S. District Judge David A. Bragdon ruled Friday that North Carolina courts can hear Heather Ammel’s alienation-of-affection claim against former senator Kyrsten Sinema because nine text messages Sinema sent while Matthew Ammel was in the state establish a sufficient link.
- The suit seeks money damages from Sinema for allegedly wrongfully interfering with the marriage of Matthew and Heather Ammel, who separated on Nov. 1, 2024, after Heather discovered messages between her husband and Sinema.
- Sinema has acknowledged a romantic relationship with Matthew Ammel in a July deposition and testified the relationship became sexual on May 27, 2024, in Napa and later occurred in New York, Washington, Colorado and Arizona but not in North Carolina.
- The complaint says Ammel joined Sinema’s security team after retiring from the Army in 2022, that he later worked in her Senate office, and that those overlapping professional ties are part of the plaintiff’s account of how the marriage ended.
- The decision tests how courts use digital messages to create personal jurisdiction in rare alienation-of-affection cases and could shape whether similar out-of-state conduct can be tried in states that still allow such claims.