Sinema seeks dismissal of NC alienation of affection suit

Former US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is seeking dismissal of a lawsuit alleging she broke up a North Carolina woman’s marriage. Plaintiff Heather Ammel sued Sinema under North Carolina’s alienation of affection law.

Sinema’s Raleigh-based lawyer filed a motion Thursday in US District Court to dismiss the lawsuit for “lack of personal jurisdiction.” Sinema had the case moved from Moore County Superior Court to federal court in January.

“Jurisdiction over Defendant does not exist because she did not purposefully direct any conduct giving rise to Plaintiff’s claim for alienation of affection into North Carolina,” wrote Steven Epstein.

“Defendant admits that she and Plaintiff’s husband, Matthew Ammel, began a romantic relationship in May 2024, about five months prior to his separation from Plaintiff,” Epstein wrote. “Yet, as her declaration establishes, that relationship occurred exclusively outside of North Carolina.”

“Plaintiff grounds her assertion of jurisdiction on romantic telephone calls and electronic messages she alleges Defendant initiated with Mr. Ammel while he was in North Carolina,” Synema’s court filing continued. “The evidence, however, refutes her allegations. During the relevant time period, Mr. Ammel was traveling outside of North Carolina for at least three different jobs all but a few days each month. Defendant documents each telephone call and email communication she had with him — none of which occurred while he was in North Carolina.”

“Though Plaintiff points to a handful of arguably romantic Signal messages Defendant sent to Mr. Ammel prior to October 2024, Mr. Ammel was not in North Carolina when Defendant transmitted any of them,” Epstein wrote. “The only arguably romantic message Defendant transmitted to Mr. Ammel while he was in North Carolina was sent in mid-October 2024, after Mr. Ammel had found a new place to live in response to Plaintiff’s clear directive that he move out of the marital residence. That one communication — when the marriage was already over — did not give rise to Plaintiff’s cause of action for alienation of affection and, therefore, cannot establish personal jurisdiction over Defendant.”

“Because Defendant’s conduct related to her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way, jurisdiction over her in this action does not comport with due process,” the court filing continued.

“I did not, as Plaintiff alleges in paragraph 53 of her Complaint, solicit Mr. Ammel ‘by using telephonic and internet communications of lascivious natures’ while ‘Plaintiff and Mr. Ammel were domiciled and present in North Carolina,’” Sinema said in a separate declaration filed along with the motion.

“It is untrue, as Plaintiff alleges in paragraph 55 of her Complaint, that ‘[m]any of the communications’ referenced in her Complaint ‘occurred while Mr. Ammel was in the marital residence in Moore County, North Carolina with Plaintiff and the Children,’” Sinema added.

“The opposite of Plaintiff’s allegations is true,” Sinema declared. “I had no knowledge at the time I initiated any communications with Mr. Ammel that he was located in North Carolina at the time. Indeed, my research has confirmed that Mr. Ammel was located outside of North Carolina when virtually all of the communications addressed in this declaration occurred.”

Originally filed last September in Moore County Superior Court, the suit attracted national attention from CBS News, the New York Times, and other news outlets when Sinema’s lawyers had the case removed from state court to federal court.

Heather and Mathew Ammel were married and living with their three children in North Carolina in 2022 when Sinema hired Matthew Ammel in April 2022 to work on her security detail, according to the lawsuit.

The 15-page complaint offers details of Sinema’s alleged interactions with Matthew Ammel. “In addition to accompanying Defendant to various work events, Mr. Ammel accompanied Defendant on several trips and went with her alone to Napa Valley, California in the fall of 2023,” Heather Ammel’s lawyers wrote. “Upon returning home from Napa Valley, Mr. Ammel appeared uncomfortable and informed Plaintiff that if anyone had seen them together on the trip, it would have appeared as if they were on a romantic getaway.”

In January 2024 Heather Ammel discovered that Sinema was “frequently messaging” Matthew Ammel using the Signal messaging app. “The messages exceeded the bounds of a normal working relationship and were of romantic and lascivious natures,” according to the complaint.

Sinema offered to help Matthew Ammel deal with mental health challenges related to his previous military service, according to the lawsuit. “Defendant suggested for Mr. Ammel to bring MDMA drugs on a work trip so that she could guide him through a psychedelic experience,” Heather Ammel’s lawyers wrote.

“Defendant messaged Mr. Ammel during the State of the Union Address, and when Mr. Ammel asked why she wasn’t attending the State of the Union that year, Defendant stated she didn’t need to listen to some old man, President Biden, talk about the legislation that she wrote,” the complaint added.

Sinema and Matthew Ammel attended concerts and other events together. “Around May or June 2024, Mr. Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring,” Heather Ammel’s lawyers wrote. “Mr. Ammel stated it was best for ‘public optics’ so it wouldn’t look like Defendant was putting her hands on a married man when they were out at concerts and various other public events.”

In June 2024 Sinema named Matthew Ammel a defense and national security fellow on her US Senate staff. He also worked as Sinema’s personal bodyguard, according to the complaint.

Heather Ammel confronted Sinema in October 2024. “Defendant messaged Mr. Ammel stating, ‘I miss you. Putting my hand on your heart. I’ll see you soon.’ Plaintiff responded to the message stating, ‘are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family,’” according to the complaint.

The Ammels separated in November 2024.

“Beginning in or prior to 2023, Defendant, with actual knowledge of the Marriage between Plaintiff and Mr. Ammel, began to willfully and intentionally seduce, entice, and alienate the affections of Mr. Ammel, and began to wrongfully and maliciously deprive Plaintiff of the warmth, companionship, love, affection, consortium, society, financial contributions, services, and attention of Mr. Ammel,” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that Sinema “remains engaged in a romantic and sexual relationship” with Matthew Ammel. The complaint includes details of interactions involving Sinema, Matthew Ammel, and at least one of the Ammels’ children as recently as September 2025.

The suit seeks compensatory damages of at least $25,000, along with “punitive damages for Defendant’s willful and wanton conduct.”

North Carolina is one of only six states that permit lawsuits for alienation of affection, according to FindLaw.com. The others are Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah.

Elected as a Democrat to the US Senate in 2018, Sinema dropped her party affiliation in 2022 and became an independent. She continued to caucus with Democrats. She left the Senate at the end of 2024 after one term.

“Sinema seeks dismissal of NC alienation of affection suit” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.