A GOP lawmaker who sexually assaulted his own daughter after she passed out drunk on her 21st birthday in Vegas would down Long Island iced teas to rile him up for his sex attacks.
John Jessup, 50, enjoyed the vodka, tequila, rum, gin and triple sec cocktail on the night daughter Rachel woke up to find her molesting him in Harrah’s Hotel last year.
And now Jessup’s former colleague Misty Moore has said Jessup gulped back the same potent liquor mix while sleazing on her during his time as Hancock County Commissioner in Indiana.
Moore, the director of Hancock County Homeland Security, said she was targeted by Jessup as they crossed paths in Indiana politics, and recalled one lunch meeting where he crossed the line.
She claimed to the Indy Star that he downed several Long Island ice teas before repeatedly touching her ear as he commented on her hair, and she was forced to bat his hands away while trying to maintain professionalism – because Jessup was technically her boss.
‘I didn’t want to make him mad, and I didn’t know where the boundary is,’ she said.
‘Yes, this feels inappropriate, but he’s also kind of trying to be my friend, but he’s my boss… I knew that anytime I would’ve ever raised a frustration with anything, he could walk in here the next day and fire me.’
The story eerily echoes the story Rachel told Thursday at her father’s sentencing, where she said he pressured her to ‘keep up’ with drinking Long Island ice teas in a Las Vegas casino before she woke up naked in bed with him in January 2024.
Jessup was convicted of sexually battering his offspring, who bravely identified herself to speak out against her dad, and will be jailed for between six and 15 years.
Misty Moore (pictured), the director of Hancock County Homeland Security in Indiana, said she was sexually harassed by councilman John Jessup, and shared an eerily similar story to his daughter’s when she revealed he sexually assaulted her last year
Moore said she was targeted for two years by John Jessup, 50, who is facing up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting his daughter Rachel (pictured together)
Moore said the harassment from Jessup began with creepy, unsolicited text messages as they often crossed paths in Hancock County politics, particularly after she took over the county’s response to recovering from the pandemic.
She shared texts with the Indy Star showing how, in one example from May 2022, he messaged her: ‘Seeing you a lot today lol.’
In another text, he said: ‘Just thought maybe you had missed me.’
Moore said she often replied with an emoji or short response in hopes that Jessup would leave their conversation there without angering him.
She said that for much of the years-long harassment campaign, Hancock County officials were aware of Jessup’s leery conduct, and said the Board of Commissioners failed to take any action when she reported it to them.
After attempting to brush off the behavior for as long as she could, Moore said she felt anguished after seeing Jessup was arrested last October for sexually assaulting a woman in Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, the victim in that attack was revealed to be his own daughter Rachel.
Moore said she tried to brush off Jessup’s behavior because, as she was the director of Hancock County Homeland Security and he was the Hancock County Commissioner, he was technically her boss and could fire her
Moore shared creepy texts she received from Jessup, including telling her ‘I thought you had missed me’ and ‘I suppose I can leave you alone’
Jessup seen in his social media alongside his wife with a caption: ‘Forever love’
As Jessup was sentenced on Thursday, his daughter broke down in tears as she recalled how he plied her with Long Island ice teas and told her: ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’
That November, Jessup won re-election to the Hancock County Council, which his daughter Rachel said was the tipping point that led her to publicly identify herself as the victim.
Jessup subsequently resigned days after his re-election win, and at his sentencing on Thursday he was condemned to six-to-15-years in prison.
As she came forward, Rachel told WADT it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see her father be re-elected, adding: ‘I just told myself, ‘(the voters are) uninformed. You can’t be mad because they don’t have the full story.»
She finally had the chance to condemn her father at his sentencing on Thursday and put her ordeal in her own words, saying that the moment she realized her father sexually assaulted her ‘shattered’ her life.
Rachel, who agreed to be identified in court and subsequent interviews, said the sex attack came as she and her father took a trip to Las Vegas in January 2024 to celebrate her 21st birthday.
She spoke through tears on Thursday as 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.’
Rachel Keesling, the daughter of depraved Republican lawmaker John Jessup, described the horrific moment she woke up in a Las Vegas hotel room to find her father molesting her in gut-wrenching testimony at his sentencing this week
Jessup served on the Hancock County Council from 2016, and won re-election in November days before he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his own daughter
The night began, she said through tears, in 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 with her clothes on, before waking up to discover Jessup molesting her.
In her remarks at her father’s sentencing, she said since her father assaulted her, ‘My life feels like it’s shattered.’
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, per the Las Vegas Review Journal.
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 said she woke up in a Harrah’s hotel bedroom (seen in a stock image) naked with her father touching her, which she said ‘shattered’ her life
Rachel, seen with her boyfriend Dakota Lanning, bravely spoke out at her father’s sentencing this week as she urged a judge to impose the maximum sentence
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
Rachel has disowned her dad over his disgusting behavior.
She was adopted by her stepfather the day before the sentencing and now goes by the surname Keesling.
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,’ the pervert said.
