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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana’s governor is endorsing a proposal that could force the state’s attorney general from office if his law license is suspended over allegations that he drunkenly groped a state legislator and three other women.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement Thursday that he supports a bill endorsed by the Indiana House that would prohibit anyone whose law license has been suspended for at least 30 days from serving as attorney general.
That action came as Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill awaits a decision from the state Supreme Court on whether he’ll face any punishment for the alleged professional misconduct. Former state Supreme Court Justice Myra Selby, who heard four days of testimony about the allegations in October, last month recommended that Hill’s law license be suspended for at least 60 days, writing that his “conduct was offensive, invasive, damaging and embarrassing” to the women.
State law requires the attorney general to be “duly licensed to practice law in Indiana” but doesn’t specify whether the person can continue serving after facing professional disciplinary action.
“Clarity and certainty are always good,” Holcomb’s statement said. “The House has provided both for anyone who holds the office of attorney general. I would support and sign the bill if it came to my desk.”
Hill, who is seeking reelection this year, has denied wrongdoing and resisted calls for his resignation from Holcomb and other state Republican leaders. A special prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against Hill and a federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the women alleging sexual harassment and defamation by Hill. The judge ruled that the women didn’t establish that Hill violated federal law.
Hill is accused of grabbing Democratic Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon’s buttocks and inappropriately touching and making unwelcome sexual comments toward three female legislative staffers during a party in March 2018.
The Republican-dominated House voted 83-9 Monday in favor of the attorney general removal provision. The bill is pending with the state Senate, which must approve it by next week’s end of the legislative session for it to become law.
The attorney general’s office said the provision “raises some legal concerns—and this kind of rushed proposal lacks transparency and leaves no opportunity for public input.”
Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said Thursday that while he and other senators were still discussing the House proposal, he recognized that legislators hadn’t previously contemplated an attorney general being subjected to a law license suspension.
“This issue has been evolving even through this legislative session because we didn’t have the (disciplinary) recommendation when we started in January,” Bray said. “So, these things have come to light and it’s been recognized as an issue.”
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Well OF COURSE Holcomb would endorse such a bill. He and all the other culturally-liberal RINOs in the statehouse hate Curtis Hill Jr. and would do anything to get rid of him.
So sad when AG Hill is such a good man, albeit having no business in a bar with a bunch of Democrat women who would delight in finding a reason to generate so much ado about nothing…and, sadly, he may well have given them the seed to germinate in their fertile, liberal minds…always on the lookout for a potential offense.
I sure hope he beats this rap.
Complete nonsense. Curtis Hill messed up. You’re the attorney general, you’re held to a different standard. If you want to ruffle feathers in the Indiana GOP, don’t give them a gold-plated excuse to get rid of you. The blame starts and ends with Curtis Hill, and there would be no need for such a law if such a “good man” had just resigned.
If Hill wants to blame anyone, he should start with the people he was out with that night before he got to AJ’s…
Bob P – a good man doesn’t grab the rear end of women.
I will be one of the Republicans that will vote for Attorney General at the State Party Convention. I have not decided which candidate that I will vote for. I am in favor of this law, but believe its implementation should begin January 1, 2021, when the new term begins. Curtis Hill like any other citizen should not be punished by an ex post facto law.
Holcomb is just another run of the mill RINO. Recently he endorsed/approved bringing refugees here to Indiana, and now sticks his nose into AG Hill mess. I don’t know what this guy is, but he sure as hell isn’t a conservative.
That’s funny, some of us who grew up voting Republican look at the current Republican Party and say “I don’t know what these people are thinking, but it sure as hell isn’t conservative.”
Being against sexual harassment and Christian principles like loving your neighbor and the poor means you’re a RINO. 🤷♂️