By Robert Hall
Special to TheStatehouseFile.com

Allegations have been made against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill for inappropriately touching four women last year at a bar in Indianapolis. I have thought about this matter for months and have now formed my opinion about it.

Allegations like this are always serious, but there’s a lot more to the story. It appears to me to be a political hit job — an overreaction to friendly gestures. I have attended many political events for years and often noticed friendly gestures such as handshakes, fist bumps, touching arms, patting backs, hugs, kisses and air kisses.

Most politicians are friendly people, many even gregarious. They hug and touch other people. It is harmless, innocent and definitely not sexual groping. This incident occurred in a bar after hours, and everyone was in a festive mood and having fun after the legislative session ended. It was not a hostile environment, but most people were having libations.

This matter was investigated and no criminal charges were filed. Inappropriate touching accusations after the fact and months later may be uncomfortable but not necessarily criminal or illegal. It was not severe or pervasive. It was not sexual assault or battery. It was not sexual harassment or sexual misconduct. It was not sexual advances and no touching was done under clothing. It was friendly gestures.

These four women, the media and other politicians have used exaggerated inflammatory language against Curtis Hill. Where is the standard of fairness? Why no presumption of innocence? We need to give him the benefit of the doubt until a crime is proven. People should be held liable for defamation. There are no cellphone photos of inappropriate behavior by Curtis Hill, and no men have gone public with eyewitness accounts of misbehavior.

For sheer hypocrisy, we know that Joe Biden, Al Franken, Bill Clinton and Democratic politicians have behaved much worse. Creepy Joe Biden is on video inappropriately touching, kissing and smelling women’s hair, and he is the Democratic front-runner. There is a photo of former Sen. Al Franken sexually groping a woman while she slept. Bill Clinton’s sexual assaults are public knowledge. Several Virginia Democrat leaders also were accused of behaving badly but they are still in office.

In regards to policy, Hill won an appellate ruling last month in which he defended an Indiana law that requires local police to cooperate with federal requests to detain immigrants, according to a news release from his office.

In February, Hill asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit regarding a 2016 Indiana abortion law that requires 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 the fall of 2018 to rule on a lawsuit over two other parts of the law. The Supreme Court just ruled 7-2 to allow Indiana to require health centers to bury or cremate fetal remains from abortions or miscarriages but declined to hear another part that banned abortions on the basis of disability, race or sex of the fetus.

It’s time to restore Curtis Hill’s good reputation and quit mentioning these allegations in every media story written about him. He has done a fine job as attorney general for Indiana, and we need him focused on his job and not on these exaggerations. This is a cautionary note to all that danger lurks in the simplest of human interaction but it is time to move on.

FOOTNOTE: Robert Hall is leader of Grassroots Conservatives.

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