BREAKING: Attorney General #CurtisHill suspended for one month, with automatic reinstatement. A hearing officer had recommended two months *without* automatic reinstatement, raising questions about whether he could continue to serve.
Unanimous #INSupremeCourt: "We readily conclude there is ample evidence showing that the manner of [Hill]’s touches was both 'rude' and 'insolent.'” (Those are the words used in Indiana law to define battery.)
#INSupremeCourt: Harsher penalty recommended by hearing officer was based largely on lack of remorse, as evidenced by email exchanges among his political team on how to attack credibility of investigation. But the court says Hill's own involvement in those exchanges is "minimal."
#INSupremeCourt: "While several emails indeed reflect extremely poorly on various members of [Hill]’s team, there is little evidence linking those team members’ musings to [his] direction beyond whatever presumption might be drawn from the agency relationship."
#INSupremeCourt: "We do not believe [#CurtisHill] is
personally responsible for every poor word choice or ill-conceived idea proposed by individual team members in emails or draft documents, many of which were voted down by other team members."
personally responsible for every poor word choice or ill-conceived idea proposed by individual team members in emails or draft documents, many of which were voted down by other team members."
#INSupremeCourt cites 2 instances where #Hill himself went "a step too far" in slamming accusations: calling them "vicious" in a news release, and characterizing one accuser's email asking a friend to proofread an op-ed as an attempt to "coordinate and change" her story.
#INSupremeCourt agrees with hearing officer that #CurtisHill's "gratuitous publication" of that email "could serve only to intimidate" accusers.
#INSupremeCourt: Those attacks "carry some aggravating weight, but not to an extent that entails the type of wholesale lack of insight or lack of remorse" to justify denying automatic reinstatement. Court says suspension in line with past discipline cases for misdemeanor battery.
The harshest language in the order is directed not at #CurtisHill, but attorneys on both sides, expressing "strong disapproval and extreme disappointment" with briefs riddled with "inappropriate ad hominem attacks." "We expect counsel to behave better in future cases."
ISC slams Hill's team for "entirely unfounded attacks on the [disciplinary] commission's motives & integrity," & language including "imperialist" & "arrogant." Commission criticized for "hyperbolic" attacks on Hill, and for accusing him of perjury "entirely without support."
#CurtisHill's suspension takes effect Monday and ends June 17 -- three days before the state Republican convention, at which Hill faces challenges for renomination from Decatur County Prosecutor Nate Harter and Zionsville attorney John Westercamp. /end
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