The Indiana Supreme Court has ordered state Attorney General Curtis Hill to pay more than $19,000 in expenses in a disciplinary case stemming from allegations he groped a state lawmaker and three other women during a party.
The order issued Friday by the high court and agreed to by the five justices directs Hill to pay $19,068.54 in a check made payable to the clerk of the court.
That amount is one-third of the $57,000 Indiana’s attorney disciplinary commission had asked the court in September to order Hill, a Republican, to pay toward expenses in the groping case. The commission’s proposed bill had included about $8,000 in investigation and litigation costs and nearly $49,000 for former Supreme Court Justice Myra Selby’s work as the case’s hearing officer.
Hill disputed the commission’s proposal in an October filing, with his lawyer proposing that he instead pay a total of about $17,400 and calling into question about $39,000 of costs and expenses the commission wanted him to pay.
Friday’s order from the high court was signed by Chief Justice Loretta Rush and states that Hill must pay $16,247.55 to the court as reimbursement for Selby’s work as the hearing officer. The order also directs Hill to pay $2,737.66 to the disciplinary commission to reimburse it for investigative expenses and $83.33 to the clerk of the court as reimbursement for court costs.
Hill completed in June a 30-day suspension of his law license after the Supreme Court found “by clear and convincing evidence that (Hill) committed the criminal act of battery” against the women. The women say Hill drunkenly groped them during a March 2018 party at an Indianapolis bar marking the end of that year’s legislative session.
Hill has denied wrongdoing. His reelection bid failed when he lost the Republican nomination in June to former U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, who defeated Democrat Jonathan Weinzapfel, a former Evansville mayor, in the November election.
Rokita will take office in January.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.