Two women publicly accuse Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill of groping
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INDIANAPOLIS — Two women who said Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill inappropriately touched them at a bar in March are speaking out publicly for the first time.
Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, a Democrat from Munster, identified herself as one of Hill’s alleged victims in a letter submitted to The Indianapolis Star.
“I am not anonymous,” she says in the letter. “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.”
Gabrielle McLemore, communications director for the Indiana Senate Democrats, also came forward Friday with her own letter, identifying herself as one of the alleged victims.
“I was trapped both physically and mentally by the state’s highest law enforcement official,” McLemore said in her letter.
State lawmaker recounts details of Curtis Hill encounter
Reardon goes on to explain that in the early hours of March 15, she gathered with other lawmakers and staff to celebrate the end of the legislative session. She said she was surprised to see Hill enter the party at AJ’s Lounge, a bar in Indianapolis, “because in my 12 years in and around the General Assembly, I have not seen any Attorney General attend an end of session gathering.”
She said that as she exchanged pleasantries with Hill, he “leaned toward me as if he could not hear me and placed his hand on my back and slid his hand down to my buttocks and grabbed it.”
She then told him to “back off” and walked away as a legislative staffer with her “stood shocked,” she said.
But Hill approached her again later in the evening, she said.
“Hill came up behind me and put his hand on my back again and said, ‘That skin. That back.’ I recoiled away before he could touch my buttocks again,” she said.
‘I had an obligation to report’ Curtis Hill’s behavior
Candelaria Reardon describes herself as “a strong, independent woman” and said she originally had planned to address the issue personally with Hill.
“To me, he was not the Attorney General, or a married man, or a religious man, or a Republican,” she said. “He was the man who put his hand on my skin and my buttocks, and I felt I needed to address it face to face.”
But, she said in the letter, she later learned during a lunch with another lawmaker and legislative staffer that Hill had touched other women at the party as well.
“At that time, the staffer, still shocked and disgusted, told us that after I went home, Curtis Hill continued to grope at least four other women, herself included,” Candelaria Reardon said. “I realized that this was bigger than me, and I had an obligation to report it to our House leadership, to protect these women and any others, from Curtis Hill’s deviant conduct. These young women came to Indianapolis to be mentored and taught professional conduct, not to be assaulted.”
She and House Democratic Leader Terry Goodin then went to Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma.
‘We should not have to deal with this,’ legislative staffer says
McLemore opened her letter explaining that the night was supposed to be a celebration, following the successful defeat of a bill her Democrat colleagues had fought for months.
She said she was approached halfway through the evening by Hill who asked, “Do you know who I am?”
He pulled up a stool next to her and began rubbing her back, she said.
Her first thoughts: “What will people think if they see this interaction? Will they think I beckoned him over? Will they make quick judgements that I was flirting with him? Would they assume I enjoyed the attention?”
She added that she was surrounded by other men who did nothing to ease the situation.
McLemore mouthed “help me” to her female intern, who immediately suggested they go to the restroom.
McLemore’s account matches that of one of the anonymous victims in the memo.
‘I did not have a single defined motive’
McLemore said she did not request to be a part of the investigation launched by Statehouse leaders but was offered the opportunity. Likewise, she said she had no motive or need for Hill to resign.
She just wanted her story on the record, “in case it ever came up to bite me in the ass.”
McLemore said she had been sexually assaulted in college, and never said anything about it.
“While an unwanted, slow, sexual rub on the back is nowhere near as traumatizing as the rape I experienced only a few years ago, sexual abuse is sexual abuse no matter the degree, and the process of healing from these instances takes years, if full healing ever comes at all.”
This time, she felt empowered to come forward after other women like Candelaria Reardon came forward, she said.
“I am in awe of her bravery and I am deeply sorry for the abuse she was subjected to that same evening,” McLemore said.
Report leads to inquiry, confidential memo
That discussion took place during the one-day special legislative session, according to a confidential memo about the allegations later prepared by an outside law firm on behalf of legislative leaders.
“I appreciate the earnestness with which Republican and Democrat legislative leaders launched an investigation into these independent incidents,” Candelaria Reardon said. “They interviewed six women independently, and hired an independent law firm to investigate as well.”
She lamented the fact that there was no formal process for the legislature to reprimand Hill.
“As I continue to deal with the harm perpetrated by Indiana’s top law enforcement official, I must also deal with the reality that there is no process by which Curtis Hill, an independently elected official can be held accountable,” she said. “No censure. No recall. Not even a slap on the hand.”
The account in her letter differs in two ways from the account as described in an eight-page confidential memo first made public by IndyStar on Monday.
The June 18 memo, prepared by outside legal counsel at the request of legislative leaders, summarizes interviews with six women, four of whom say Hill touched them inappropriately.
But in her letter to IndyStar, Candelaria Reardon refers to five victims.
In a phone interview Friday morning, Candelaria Reardon said it was her understanding that there were five victims but that one declined to participate in the legislative investigation that prompted the June 18 memo.
In summarizing Candelaria Reardon’s account, the legislative memo also said Hill reached beneath her clothing twice and grabbed her buttocks.
More:Top Indiana Republicans call on state’s attorney general to resign
More:4 women allege Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill touched them inappropriately at bar
In her letter, she does not describe him as reaching beneath her clothing, and she says she moved away before he could touch her buttocks a second time.
In the interview Friday, she said she never told House investigators that Hill reached beneath her clothing or that he touched her buttocks a second time.
She called the account in the memo a misunderstanding of what she told House investigators, noting that the memo was never shared with her until IndyStar made it public.
Candelaria Reardon said the misunderstanding likely stemmed from her description of what Hill said about her skin when he approached her.
“It was probably a miscommunication as to how exactly the touching occurred,” she said. “My story has never changed.”
What’s next for Curtis Hill?
She said she was speaking out publicly “to support the other victims of Attorney General Curtis Hill, who have not yet found their voice.”
She said she was grateful for “the strong statements” from Gov. Eric Holcomb, Bosma, Senate leader David Long, Senate Minority Leader Lanane and House Minority Leader Goodin calling on Hill to resign in the wake of the allegations.
“I call upon our Statehouse leaders to protect not only the young adult public servants, but State employees, and to create a method whereby deviant behavior is held accountable, no matter the perpetrator’s title,” she said.
Pressure mounts, but Hill said he won’t resign
In a statement Tuesday, Hill said he never engaged in inappropriate behavior or touching. He also said he had never been contacted by any investigators and criticized what he called a lack of “due process.”
The allegations, first disclosed Monday by IndyStar, led Holcomb and most of the state’s other top Republicans and Democrats to call for Hill’s resignation.
On Friday in his most recent public statement, Hill said he would not resign. Instead he’s asking the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to do their own independent investigation.
“The fact that the Governor, who appoints the Inspector General, has already determined the outcome of the investigation eliminates the ability of the Inspector General to conduct a fair and independent investigation,” Hill said in his statement. “This fundamental lack of fairness and due process regarding this prejudicial so-called ‘investigation’ is in violation of the principles on which this country was founded.”
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