INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in two months, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett met with reporters for an extended debriefing on the sexual harassment scandal that has roiled his administration and threatens to derail his third term in office.
Hogsett used the press briefing as an opportunity to sign City County Council Proposal 287 which authorizes the Council to create a seven-member investigative committee to examine the allegations that former Deputy Mayor Thomas Cook preyed on women in the Hogsett administration and his campaign over the course of six years.
Cook was investigated once internally for such allegations in 2017 at which time Hogsett put him on notice that any further incidents would result in his firing.
After violation of Hogsett’s zero tolerance policy, Cook was dismissed from city service in December of 2020 only to return to the Hogsett re-election campaign in December of 2022 as an unpaid advisor to the campaign’s director.
A year ago, weeks before the November election, Hogsett said he learned of fresh allegations against Cook and dismissed him again, this time from his campaign.
Hogsett was asked by Fox 59 News why he allowed Cook back into his campaign knowing that his former top advisor had been dismissed two years earlier for violating his personal commitment to the mayor to not repeat his behavior that at least one woman has described as a sexual assault.
”Well, Russ,” answered the mayor, “he was no longer employed by the city of Indianapolis. He was working as a private citizen in the city of Indianapolis and he asked to volunteer for the campaign and I allowed him to.”
Hogsett was asked why he didn’t refer the 2017 Cook allegations to the city’s Human Resources Department.
”The complaint was given to my special counsel to begin with and then an outside law firm was brought in that provided extraordinary expertise and the lawyers did their work,” said Hogsett who noted that the woman filing the complaint was not a city employee. ”That’s important to underscore. She was not an employee of the city at the time.”
But then a reporter responded that Cook, who at that time was Hogsett’s chief of staff, was employed by the city and would have fallen under city HR oversight.
“Right,” answered the mayor.
FOX59 asked Hogsett whether he would submit to a council committee subpoena and answer questions about his investigation into the Cook affair and whether he expected to testify as a witness or a target.
”We will fully cooperate,” said the mayor. “I’m not going to speculate as to what that would look like.”
This past weekend Hogsett told a comedy concert crowd that they should register to vote in the upcoming general election. Even though he is not running for office, he said, “I’m running from things.”
Hogsett said it was a misinterpreted joke not intended to reflect a lightheartedness about the current scandal but he didn’t explain what his intent was.
”I was trying to get people to go out and vote in November.”
Hogsett was asked if he bears responsibility for the scandal and Cook’s repeated transgressions.
”As mayor of the city, I do bear responsibility to make sure that we are doing everything we can to provide a safe equitable comfortable work environment for every employee,” he said. ”Clearly we wouldn’t be here today if there weren’t mistakes that had been made.”
Recently it was revealed that a former director of the Department of Metropolitan Development apologized for his sexual harassment behavior before leaving the post in 2023 and last week a top administrator at DMD was dismissed for similar allegations.
Hogsett said he held a no-holds-bared meeting with his cabinet on July 31st where the issue of sexual harassment was discussed.
”An employee stopped by afterwards into my office and expressed some concern about an employee,” he said. “I referred that concern to Human Resources.”
Hogsett’s full press conference can be viewed below.
