The Indianapolis City-County Council member who leads the committee investigating allegations of sexual harassment within Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration called for not only the mayor to step down on Tuesday night, but also for a leadership change on the council.
Democratic Councilor Crista Carlino, the chair of the Investigative Committee that councilors created in September 2024 to investigate the allegations, implied that Council President Vop Osili limited the scope of the investigation in “marching orders” given to an outside law firm hired to examine the misconduct.
She also criticized his and Council Vice President Ali Brown’s leadership during a June 9 council meeting, where Osili ordered sheriff’s deputies to forcibly remove alleged victim Lauren Roberts for exceeding the time limit for public comment. Carlino said Osili and Brown should step down from their council leadership roles.
Carlino said the firm’s 54-page report focused too narrowly on Thomas Cook, the top Hogsett aide who was accused of harassing and pushing for unwanted sexual encounters with several women subordinates, while overlooking alleged misconduct by others including the mayor. IndyStar revealed that the report excluded late night and personal texts Hogsett sent to two of Cook’s alleged victims that made them uncomfortable.
“Joe Hogsett must resign,” Carlino said during a June 17 meeting focused on whether to pay the additional $300,000 that councilors owe to law firm Fisher Phillips for its investigation. “The leadership of this council needs to step down as well so that we can move forward with fidelity in implementing change and establishing a culture of trust and respect for all city workers and our constituents in the city of Indianapolis.”
Carlino said she wasn’t given the authority to dictate the language of the contract with Fisher Phillips. LeAnnette Pierce, general counsel for the City-County Council, said Tuesday that she negotiated the contract and Osili signed it.
“I share grave concerns about sort of the marching orders given to the law firm being lightyears away from the spirit of the law that was written and intended,” Carlino said after the meeting. The Investigative Committee was tasked with scrutinizing the Hogsett administration, she said, not just Cook.
Osili did not attend Tuesday night’s committee meeting but sent IndyStar a statement rejecting claims that he somehow limited the scope of the law firm’s investigation.
“In no way did I have any personal influence on the scope of the contract with the law firm that investigated misconduct in the Hogsett administration,” Osili said in a written statement. “To suggest that I did is not only false, it is an attack against my integrity and the values that I hold in every aspect of my life.”
Brown, the council vice president, also denied that she was involved in narrowing the scope of the investigation. She had no involvement with the Investigative Committee by choice, she said.
She told IndyStar that she has been mostly silent about the investigation throughout the last year as she navigates severe trauma stemming from a sexual assault she experienced while a college student at Ball State University in January 2004. She disclosed that assault to her council colleagues, including Carlino, last year.
“I told them I really want to see this done right and I am having terrible flashbacks,” Brown said. “I know I couldn’t do a good job if I’m hurting this bad. I want to make sure the judgment is not clouded. Trauma isn’t a sign of weakness, but it’s also about knowing what your limitations are. (Carlino’s accusation) feels like a betrayal. It just hurts.”
Four councilors call for Hogsett’s resignation
Four councilors have now called for Hogsett to resign: Democrats Carlino, Andy Nielsen and Jesse Brown, as well as Republican Joshua Bain. A fifth council member, Jessica McCormick, hinted Tuesday night that she may soon add to calls for the mayor to step down.
“I think accountability comes at the top,” McCormick said, “and we need to make sure that those that are allowing the behavior to continue and to have gone on need to be held accountable.”
While Hogsett has acknowledged that his texts to younger women may have made them uncomfortable, he told IndyStar in a June 10 interview that they were part of the “casual conversation style” he has developed with political aides and advisers. He said he has “no intent to resign” before the end of his third term.
The council’s Administration and Finance Committee ultimately voted 7-5 to recommend approval of the $300,000 payment to Fisher Phillips, which the full council will vote on in a future meeting. Even Carlino voted in favor of the payment, saying that the law firm had fulfilled its duties and accountability should rest with city leaders. Democrats Rena Allen, Maggie Lewis, Nick Roberts, Frank Mascari, Andy Nielsen and Dan Boots also voted in favor of the payment.
Despite the approval, councilors said they have questions for Fisher Phillips that they want answered, potentially in a follow-up hearing. The five councilors who voted not to approve the payment — Democrat John Barth and Republicans Michael Dilk, Paul Annee, Derek Cahill and Brian Mowery — said the council should demand those answers before sending over the final $300,000 in a roughly $450,000 investigation.
Carlino said her inquiries to Fisher Phillips about a possible follow-up hearing have so far been rebuffed.
“I’ve been … threatened with the fact that there could be a potential defamation case since some of my colleagues came out speaking against the investigation,” Carlino said. “I’ve been told that they probably will not appear in person, but I remain committed to gathering all the questions not only from my colleagues but from members of the public and those survivors to get our questions answered in writing.”
Councilors hear from women accusing Hogsett of mishandling alleged sexual harassment
Carlino’s comments come eight days after sheriff’s deputies pushed Roberts out of the council chambers while she was trying to criticize the council’s investigation of alleged sexual harassment against her and two other women. The council invited her and other victims to speak in person Tuesday night, but none showed — two live out of state, and Roberts said she no longer feels safe at the City-County Building.
Instead, the councilors and dozens of Roberts’ supporters who want Hogsett to resign listened to a legal advocate from the National Women’s Defense League read Roberts’ and Caroline Ellert’s statements on their behalf. Councilors also relived the chaos of the June 9 meeting, as a nearly 18-minute audio recording Roberts captured that night was played aloud. At a point in the audio where Roberts breaks down sobbing in an elevator, Carlino shut her eyes while other councilors listened with bowed heads.
Roberts, who says she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after her experience working with Cook and the Hogsett campaign from November 2014 to June 2015, said the days since the June 9 meeting have been “some of the darkest days of my recovery.” Two days after removing Roberts from the June 9 meeting, Osili said he regretted his decision and should have acted to deescalate the situation.
“I am no longer willing to put my safety at risk,” Roberts wrote in her statement to councilors June 17, “to help you do your jobs.”
In Ellert’s statement, she said the Fisher Phillips report failed in numerous ways, but most “painfully,” she said, was that it “explicitly denied” that she reported she had been sexually assaulted, instead choosing to cite Hogsett’s recollection that she hadn’t used those exact words.
“Experiencing sexual assault tore away my sense of safety,” Ellert said in her statement. “Reporting it left me even more vulnerable and alone. But I did not expect to have my experience undermined or belittled. And that’s exactly what the Fisher Phillips report did.”
Cook has denied allegations of sexual harassment and has not been charged with a crime. In a 2024 statement to IndyStar, he apologized to women involved in what he called “consensual relationships that violated a trust placed in me.”
Email IndyStar Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Democratic Indy council member calls for council leadership change, Hogsett’s resignation
Reporting by Jordan Smith and Hayleigh Colombo, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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