IMPD officer suspended, faces felony charge

An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer has been suspended and stripped of his police powers after he was arrested and charged with assisting a criminal, a felony, and providing false information to investigators.

Officer Jason Thomas, 42, was booked into the Marion County Jail on the two charges Nov. 12. He has since been released on bond, according to online court records.

IMPD Chief Rick Hite suspended Thomas and will recommend his termination to the Civilian Police Merit Board, a release from the department said.

A probable cause affidavit filed in the case alleges Thomas covered for his live-in girlfriend, Amanda Nickless, who had missed multiple court dates and violated a no-contact order that barred her from communicating with Thomas.

Nickless was arrested and charged with battery, criminal mischief and theft involving Thomas in April, court documents state. While incarcerated in the Marion County Jail, Nickless made calls to Thomas informing him of the protection order.

But in an interview with investigators in July, Thomas denied knowing about the protective order, according to court documents.

After Nickless posted bond and was released from jail, Thomas picked her up in his marked IMPD patrol car.

A few days later, Nickless told Thomas that she had been accepted into a substance abuse treatment center in Florida. Thomas told investigators that Nickless told him that she had contacted her lawyer, who was able to push back her initial hearing date on the charges stemming from her arrest.

Court documents state that Thomas then drove Nickless to the airport and put her on a plane to Florida. The next day, he arrived at her initial court hearing and told the prosecutor assigned to her case that Nickless would not show up, that she was at a treatment center in Florida.

The judge in the case issued a failure to appear warrant for Nickless, and when she missed the rescheduled court date a week later, a bench warrant was issued. Nickless also was charged with four counts of violation of a protection order for the calls she made to Thomas while in the Marion County Jail.

In June, Nickless was picked up by the Greenwood Police Department after an anonymous caller tipped off police to her whereabouts. Greenwood officers transported her to the Johnson County Jail.

During his interview with investigators, court documents state, Thomas said he had spoken to Nickless while she was in the Johnson County Jail. He told detectives that it had been a "constant lie" from Nickless about her warrants and her protective orders.

However, investigators obtained the recorded jail phone conversations between Nickless and Thomas, which indicated that Thomas knew about her warrants.

"I told you — I said you got options, turn yourself in, you can (expletive) leave and you didn't," Thomas told Nickless in the phone call. "I had to take the actions in my hands because I was frankly getting tired of it..."

Online court records indicate the battery and theft charges against Nickless were dropped, as well as three of the four violation of protection order charges. She was sentenced to a year of probation, drug/alcohol monitoring and substance abuse evaluation for the remaining criminal mischief and protection order charges.

Thomas has a pretrial conference for his case on Dec. 15.

Call Star reporter Michael Anthony Adams at (317) 444-6123. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelAdams317.