Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is scheduled to speak at a Grassroots Conservatives meeting 7 p.m. Monday at the Monroe County Public Library.
Attorneys general serve as chief state law enforcement officers and give legal advice to state government agencies and legislatures. Hill, a Republican, took office in January 2017 for a four-year term.
Hill’s agenda is focused on “defending freedom, protecting families and encouraging youth to pursue meaningful lives,” according to the Indiana Attorney General website. Allegations of sexual misconduct have cast a shadow over his past year in office.
Last summer four women claimed Hill inappropriately touched them in March 2018 during a legislative party at a bar in Indianapolis. Gov. Eric Holcomb called for Hill to resign in July, but Hill did not.
Special Prosecutor Dan Sigler announced in October he did not have enough evidence to file criminal charges.
But in March, nearly a year after the original allegations surfaced, the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission filed an administrative complaint reflecting the allegations. The complaint says Hill “engaged in a pattern of misconduct.”
Hill has denied the allegations.
The complaint accuses Hill of violating Admission and Discipline Rule 22, which is the attorney’s oath in Indiana, and the Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys at Law. The Indiana Supreme Court appointed former justice Myra Selby in Aprilto oversee the public disciplinary hearing.
Punishments could include disbarment, suspensions, a censure or no discipline, according to the state legal newspaper Indiana Lawyer. Disbarment could prevent Hill from serving as attorney general.
In regards to policy, Hill won an appellate ruling last weekin which he defended an Indiana law that requires local police to cooperate with federal requests to detain immigrants, according to a press release from his office.
In February, he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit regarding a 2016 Indiana abortion law which required women to wait at least 18 hours after an ultrasound to seek an abortion.The Supreme Court has not announced whether it will hear the case.
Hill asked the Supreme Court in fall 2018to rule on a lawsuit over two other parts of the law, one that required health centers to bury or cremate fetal remains from abortions or miscarriages and another that banned abortions on the basis of disability, race or sex of the fetus.
Both suits were brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.
Hill is from Elkhart, Indiana, and received both his bachelor’s and law degrees at IU. Before running for attorney general, he served as the Elkhart County prosecuting attorney.
