A federal judge has ruled that former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can be sued in North Carolina over a lawsuit that accuses her of helping break up Heather Ammel's marriage. U.S. District Judge David A. Bragdon denied Sinema's motion to dismiss, clearing the way for the case to continue.
The ruling matters because North Carolina is one of the few states that still recognizes alienation-of-affection claims, and Heather Ammel is seeking damages for what she says was interference with a good and loving marriage. The case centers on allegations that Sinema had an affair with Matthew Ammel, who joined her security team in 2022 after retiring from the U.S. Army and later traveled with her domestically and internationally.
Heather Ammel said she discovered the relationship in early 2024 after reading nine messages Sinema sent to Matthew Ammel while he was in North Carolina with his wife and their three children. Judge Bragdon said those messages, and the facts around them, were enough to keep the case alive. He found that Sinema knew Matthew Ammel lived in North Carolina and concluded the communications showed she was furthering a romantic relationship with him and invading his marriage while he was at home and while she was traveling with him.
Sinema had argued that she lacked a meaningful connection to North Carolina and could not be hauled into court there. Her lawyers, Steven Epstein and Abigail Jenkins, also pointed to Sinema's July 31 deposition, when she said the first sexual encounter happened around Memorial Day 2024 at an Airbnb in Napa, California. That account does not end the jurisdiction fight, because the judge focused on where the alleged interference was felt and where Matthew Ammel lived with his family when the messages were sent.
The lawsuit now moves ahead without a dismissal, and that keeps the dispute on the narrow ground the judge addressed: whether the conduct described in the complaint is enough to support a North Carolina claim against Sinema. For Heather Ammel, the next step is proving that the alleged affair damaged a marriage she says was good and loving. For Sinema, the court has already answered the first question in the case against her — North Carolina can hear it.
