By Lacey Watt
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—Lawyers for Indiana Attorney Curtis Hill is urging the Indiana Supreme Court to reject the 60-day suspension of his law license that a disciplinary hearing officer recommended on charges he groped four women at a party two years ago.

Attorney Donald Lundberg, in a 63-page brief filed with the court Monday, argues that the disciplinary commission failed to prove that Hill engaged in professional misconduct.

“The disciplinary system is a mechanism to hold him accountable for alleged acts undertaken in his role as a lawyer, not in his role as Attorney General or private citizen Curtis Hill,” he said in the documents filed with the court.

In February, former Supreme Court Justice Myra Selby recommended that Hill’s license be suspended over the charges that resulted from the end-of-legislative session party at a downtown Indianapolis bar. Selby served as the hearing officer for the Supreme Court disciplinary commission.

Selby listened to four days of testimony last October where the women—state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, and three legislative assistants, Samantha Lozano, Gabrielle McLemore and Niki DaSilva—described in detail how Hill grabbed and groped them at the party.

“The Indiana Attorney General holds a position of public trust and engages in work that has a wide impact across the state,” she wrote in her opinion recommending the suspension. “The conduct of the Indiana Attorney General can affect the public’s perception of our state’s executive branch.”

Selby said Hill’s conduct at the March 2018 gathering “was offensive, invasive, damaging and embarrassing” to the women, and that she found clear and convincing evidence that Hill violated the rules of professional conduct and recommended the 60-day suspension without automatic reinstatement.

Lundberg, in his brief, said Selby’s conclusion weren’t supported by the evidence and had nothing to do with the practice of law.

The disciplinary commission is “not a system that was created as a mechanism to hold lawyers accountable to the law generally or considerations of personal morality that do not implicate the interests of clients, judicial officers or third-party participants in legal affairs,” Lundberg wrote.

The purpose, he said, is to regulate the behavior of lawyers as it affects their clients, the courts and the system of justice.

Hill’s lawyers questioned the accuracy of the charges against him, saying that “the Respondent’s conduct did not meet the statutory elements of the crime of misdemeanor battery.” And even if the conduct met the elements of Class B misdemeanor battery, which it didn’t, it wasn’t the kind of crime that had anything to do with Hill’s fitness to practice law, Lundberg concluded.

He pointed to Hill’s history of public service as another reason for rejecting Selby’s recommendation.

Hill was first elected Elkhart County prosecutor in 2002 and won the attorney general’s office four years ago. Lundberg noted that Hill is an engaging person who often leans into other people because he is hard of hearing.

Lundberg also wrote that “in order to better connect with other people, he will often make some form of physical contacts with them, such as placing a hand or arm on their arm, shoulder or back.”

Lawyers for the disciplinary committee have argued that the 60-day suspension without an automatic reinstatement is justified because of the position Hill holds as the state’s top lawyer. The commission had originally sought a two-year suspension, which Lundberg call mean-spirited.

The five justices of the state Supreme Court will review Selby’s recommendation and the documents filed by attorneys for both sides before reaching a final decision on a possible suspension.

A suspension without an automatic reinstatement means that Hill could be without a license to practice law for many months, raising questions about whether he could continue to serve as attorney general or run for re-election.

During the 2020 session of the General Assembly, the legislation failed that would have barred anyone whose law license had been suspended more than 30 days from serving as attorney general.

FOOTNOTE: Lacey Watt is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.