Indiana AG denies groping
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana lawmaker at the center of groping allegations against Attorney General Curtis Hill came forward Friday to accuse him publicly of groping her twice during a party earlier this year, increasing pressure on the embattled Republican to resign.
Democratic state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon published her own account of the March 15 incident, which occurred at an Indianapolis bar, in The (Northwest Indiana) Times newspaper.
She described Hill’s behavior as “deviant” when she encountered him in the early morning hours after the legislative session ended for the year. She said he leaned toward her, put his hand on her back, slid it down and grabbed her buttocks. The Munster lawmaker Hill Candelaria Reardon
said she told Hill to “back off,” but he approached her again later in the night, put his hand on her back and said: “That skin. That back.”
Hill was defiant Friday, saying he had no intention of stepping down despite calls from top Republicans for him to resign. He also called for the Marion County prosecutor’s office to conduct its own investigation, arguing that a similar probe by Indiana’s inspector general would not be “fair and independent.”
That’s at odds with Candelaria Reardon’s account, and those given by several other women to investigators who looked into the matter, according to a confidential legislative memo that was leaked to news outlets this week.
The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual misconduct or assault unless they come forward publicly, as Candelaria Reardon did.
“My name is Mara Candelaria Reardon. I am not anonymous. I am a wife, mother, business owner and a state representative. I am also a victim of sexual battery, perpetrated by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill,” she wrote in the piece. “I speak out now, to support the other victims of Attorney General Curtis Hill, who have not yet found their voice.”
In the article, Candelaria Reardon also suggested there’s actually five women who were groped by Hill that night.