An Indiana prosecutor has decided not to file criminal charges against the woman who made a false child welfare complaint against out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg after she was found to be mentally unstable.
Due to the anonymous tip, Michigan authorities told Buttigieg in late June he could not be alone with his 4-year-old children until they could be interviewed away from their parents the next day.
A week went by before investigators realized they’d jumped on an unsubstantiated claim filed by a mentally unstable woman.
Authorities decline to prosecute woman who made false report against Buttigieg https://t.co/hgTvZgOsEF
— The Randy Report 🇺🇸 🏳️🌈🇺🇦 (@randyslovacek) September 9, 2026
From the Washington Post:
While acknowledging that the evidence shows that her false hotline tip resulted in an “intrusive investigation of an innocent individual and his family,” the prosecutor determined the woman was not “capable of forming the requisite intent to support a criminal conviction.”
The caller has a long history of alcohol abuse and mental illness, E. Nelson Chipman Jr., a prosecutor in Indiana’s Marshall County, where investigators determined the call had originated, wrote to state police in a July 29 email outlining his decision.
Her history includes “hallucinations and delusional thinking which includes frequently responding to voices only she hears,” he added.
Buttigieg — who ran for president in 2020 and is widely seen as a 2028 presidential contender — described the ordeal in a Substack post as “the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began.”
He wasn’t allowed to be alone with his children until forensic interviews could be completed, he said, so the twins stayed with their grandparents who live nearby.
The accuser is from Alabama but was visiting family in Indiana at the time of her call about Buttigieg. During her “relatively short stay” in Indiana, she was involved in at least three separate police encounters, according to the prosecutor.
Read more here.
The woman who reported Buttigieg to CPS is mentally ill, hears voices, and seems to have fairly frequent contact with the police. I understand why it doesn’t make sense to lock her up for this. I don’t understand why, in a functional society, our response is “ah well, nothing… https://t.co/7HT1fPGnvd
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) September 9, 2026
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