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Accusations mount in Wal-Mart harrassment case
The investigation of a former Greencastle Wal-Mart employee who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to harassing a customer of the store, via unsolicited text messages on her cell phone, grew larger this week with a second victim coming forward.
Putnam County Prosecutor's Investigator Charles Bollinger told the BannerGraphic on Wednesday that since the original story about the text messages was published in Monday's newspaper, a second woman has come forward to say she too was a victim of unwanted text messages that she believes may have come from the same Wal-Mart employee.
The accusations come after police arrested 19-year-old Thomas Isaac Bixler of Quincy on Monday on charges of harassment. On Tuesday, the former employee of the Wal-Mart car service center pleaded guilty to the class A misdemeanor.
The first victim in the case, Jamie Cashion of Cloverdale, told Putnam County Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Simmons that she had her car serviced at the Wal-Mart oil lube on Dec. 12 and after giving her address and phone number to employees there, she immediately began getting text messages, even while she was still inside the oil lube area.
According to the officer's report, the person sending Cashion the messages described what Cashion looked like as she was waiting for her car to be serviced.
In addition to receiving additional unwanted text messages over the next several days, Cashion told police she was leaving her home one afternoon and noticed a man, whom she believed was Bixler, driving in the opposite direction on her street. She said Bixler tried to flag her down, but she kept driving.
Police confronted Bixler at Wal-Mart and notified store staff, according to the police report. Bixler admitted he was the one sending the messages, according to the police report.
Wal-Mart officials have been unwilling to comment on Bixler's case except to say that he is no longer an employee of the store.
Bixler's brush with the law may not be over just yet as prosecutor's investigators are now looking into a report of a second victim. The alleged victim, who lives in Greencastle, told authorities that she had her car serviced at the Greencastle Wal-Mart oil lube and a short time later, began receiving the unwanted text messages on her phone.
Bollinger said Wednesday that he is currently analyzing the text messages from the second victim and if they can be traced to Bixler, additional charges may be filed. If it is proven that Bixler actually drove to the home of the victims, he could be charged with stalking, which is a felony charge.