Matthew Ammel, Kyrsten Sinema’s former bodyguard, was charged with aggravated criminal damage over alleged damage to her Arizona home and released with an ankle monitor. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said he allegedly caused $200,000 in damage.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said nearly two dozen paintings were thrown into Sinema’s pool and expensive liquor bottles were smashed. Sinema was not home and gave investigators text messages and security-camera footage. In a document cited by The New York Times, investigators wrote that Sinema told them Ammel demanded she post a video to Twitter and threatened to damage a painting every 10 minutes until she did.
Separately, Matthew Ammel’s ex-wife, Heather Ammel, sued Sinema in North Carolina earlier this year, alleging that Sinema’s affair with her husband destroyed their marriage. A judge denied Sinema’s efforts to dismiss the suit, finding that she sent Ammel nine Signal messages while he was at his family home and that her testimony denying knowledge of his location was not credible.
