A 30-year-old man, accused of inappropriate sexual behavior including intercourse with a child under the age of 14, was scheduled to appear in Greene Superior Court this morning, Thursday, September 27, to be formally charged with two counts of child molesting, both as Level 1 felonies.

Jesse James W. Cornett, 30, was taken into custody in Monroe County early last Friday, September 21, on a warrant issued for Cornett’s arrest in Greene County last Thursday, September 20.

Following an investigation by Greene County Sheriff’s Det. James O’Malley, Greene County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Keven McIntosh filed the criminal case against Cornett.

One of the counts is related to an incident that allegedly occurred in early August of 2016, the other one to an incident that allegedly occurred in early March of 2017. In the first, Cornett is accused of having protected sexual intercourse with a victim who was 13 years old at the time. In the other, he’s accused of having unprotected sexual intercourse with the same victim on a later date.

These incidents, and others, were first reported to the Linton Police Department just recently, on Friday, August 24. The LPD then referred the case to the sheriff’s department. GCSD Det. Shawn Cullison took the initial information.

Det. O’Malley, the lead investigator, reported that in interviews with the child at the Greene County Department of Child Services, the child said Cornett had told them not to tell anyone and they were afraid of what he might do. But after a family member questioned what they said was odd behavior by Cornett whenever he was around the child, the child then spoke to a parent and revealed what had been done to them. Another family member then reported the situation to police.

O’Malley said that during this investigation, several attempts were made to contact Cornett for an interview and to locate him at his last known address on Farr Road, Bloomington, with no success.

After Cornett’s arrest in Monroe County, he was transferred to Greene County and booked in to the Greene County Jail this week at 10:25 a.m. on Tuesday.

Cornett’s bond was set at $80,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed.

His initial hearing was scheduled for today at 11:15 a.m.