Attorney general blasts groping allegations as false

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill defiantly rejected calls to resign on Monday, lamenting that he has been unfairly denied “due process” amid allegations that he drunkenly groped a lawmaker and three legislative staffers at a party.

The Republican called the claims “vicious and false” during a news conference as the allegations play out across news headlines and in the court of public opinion. He demanded due process—a legal concept that generally refers to fairness from the government in proceedings—but he has declined to offer his own version of events.

“Due process, in politics and the non-legal world, means ‘Give me a chance to make my statement and answer questions and see what the public thinks,’” said attorney Paul Helmke, a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne and a public affairs professor at Indiana University. “So far that hasn’t happened.”

Hill lashed out at his accusers during the news conference and said he looked forward to “the day when I can speak freely and answer questions.” He did not take questions or respond to shouted questions about whether he was calling the women liars.

“These past several days and weeks, my name and reputation have been dragged through the gutter in ways that I would have never imagined. Apparently in this climate the standard is guilty and ‘who cares if you’re innocent?’” he said from a podium in his office. “A week ago today, I had a name. And I want my name back.”

The claims against Hill were made public after an internal legislative memo was leaked to the media last week. In it, the four women said Hill drunkenly groped them during a party in March in Indianapolis.

Democratic Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon and Gabrielle McLemore, the Indiana Senate Democrats’ communications director, said Friday that they were among the victims. Candelaria Reardon fired back after Hill’s Monday news conference, saying he was the one who had lied.