Chipley woman charged with witness tampering

A
Chipley woman has been charged with witness tampering after law
enforcement officials say she inundated an alleged victim in her sonÂ’s
child molestation case with negative comments, comments that
investigators report led to a suicide attempt by the victim. 

According
to a Washington County SheriffÂ’s Office report, 61-year-old Rosemary
Burkett of Godwin Road, Chipley was arrested Thursday, October 21, after
WCSO launched a secondary investigation following the October 9 arrest
of Burkett’s son, Andy James Bradley. 

WCSO
arrested Bradley, a registered sexual predator, on four counts of lewd
and lascivious exhibition on a victim under the age of 16 and two counts
of lewd and lascivious molestation on victim under the age of 12. 

Investigators
report that subsequent to BradleyÂ’s arrest, Burkett made several
negative comments to the victim about the accusations, telling the
victim they lied about the incidents of abuse and that Brandley was an
ordained minister and therefore, the victim would be “punished and live a
life of misery” for the accusations. The report states Burkett went on
to make several other negative comments to the victim which made them
“feel as if no one believed them and resulted in the victim attempting
to take their own life.”

The victim spent several days in a Pensacola hospital and has since been released. 

 Washington County Sheriff Kevin Crews says he will not tolerate victim intimidation.

“I
take these reports very seriously and will go above and beyond in
assisting the prosecution of such people to the fullest extent of the
law,” said Sheriff Crews. 

Burkett is charged with tampering with a witness/victim, a second-degree felony.