Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
City-County Council President Vop Osili on Monday night ordered one of the women at the heart of a sexual harassment investigation involving Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office to be removed from the public assembly room by sheriff’s deputies during her public testimony at the City-County Building.
Lauren Roberts, who has accused the mayor’s former chief of staff, Thomas Cook, of sexual harassment, was forcibly escorted out of the room (see video here) along with two women who stood with her at the lectern after arguing with Osili over public comment time limits during council meetings.
The removal took place during a meeting in which council members eventually and overwhelmingly voted to not yet approve a final $300,000 payment to Fisher Phillips, the Atlanta-based law firm hired to investigate Hogsett and his administration’s handling of harassment allegations against Cook. The firm has already been paid $150,000.
The proposal to pay off the law firm was included in the city’s $27.2 million spring budget package.
The 54-page final report from Fisher Phillips determined that the mayor and his administration did not break any laws in handling the allegations. Roberts appeared before the council a week after she told The Indianapolis Star that the law firm omitted key details and documents from the report, including “uncomfortable” text messages she and another woman had received from Hogsett and provided to investigators.
Osili directed law enforcement to escort Roberts out after she continued speaking through the council’s two-minute time limit. Following the encounter, Councilor Jesse Brown requested that the payment proposal be returned to the Administration and Finance Committee, where councilors will listen to more public comment.
Brown is an outspoken Democratic Socialist who was expelled from the Democratic caucus early this year. He called for the mayor to resign last August. He noted that the council heard a long, honorary resolution for a former colleague now in the Indiana Senate, but removed Roberts from the room when her time ran out.
“What we’ve seen here tonight is that we could make as much time as we need for a sitting state senator to be honored, and yet, someone who’s been trying to have her voice centered and heard was dragged out by sheriff’s deputies,” he said.
Twenty-two councilors of the 24 present voted to send only the investigation piece back to the Administration and Finance Committee. Councilors on the committee will hear public testimony on June 17.
Speaking in support of the move, Democratic Councilor Dan Boots called the night “less than spectacular” and said that “persons involved do have a right to be heard to the fullest extent.”
Minority Leader Michael-Paul Hart, a Republican who advocated in a statement Monday morning for an addendum to the original report, apologized to meeting attendees.
“By no means do I support those actions,” Hart said. “More importantly, I think this is their opportunity, Mr. President [Osili]. I don’t know what it’s like to be in that position, but any information I can hear from them helps us move forward.”
Democratic Councilors Ron Gibson and Frank Mascari voted against returning the proposal to committee. Gibson told reporters before the committee that the law firm found no wrongdoing by the Hogsett administration. He said that anyone critiquing the mayor is doing so for “political gain.”
Mascari, the chair of the Administration and Finance Committee, told IBJ that he initially voted against the move because of his own personal time constraints. He said any victims who wish to speak before his committee can take “10, 15 minutes” or all the time they need.
A few dozen attendees cheered on the decision.
The remainder of the fiscal package passed with the support of Democrats and opposition from the six-member Republican caucus.
Roberts: Council actions ‘horrific and so shameful’
Roberts, who lives in Denver, Colorado, appeared before the City-County Council in person.
“This is the first time that you, the council, are actually listening to me,” Roberts said during her comments. “That’s shameful. The council’s Democratic caucus members … have silenced and refused to listen to me outside of manipulative backroom conversations intended to manage survivors and keep us out of the way in your political agenda.
Democratic Majority Leader Maggie Lewis and Osili both interrupted Roberts to ask if her comments were directly related to the payment proposal. Two women who joined her, Elise Shrock and Maggie Adams-McBride, responded that the comments involved the Fisher Phillips investigation.
“I’m going to take my time,” Roberts said.
“You have 2 minutes,” Osili responded.
“You’re welcome to have me hauled out by sheriffs, but I’m going to take my time,” Roberts responded.
Osili also repeatedly called Roberts, who has been written about and photographed by numerous media outlets in light of her accusations, the wrong name. She corrected him, “My last name is Roberts. I don’t know what you’re calling me.” He apologized.
Roberts went on to accuse Osili and other councilors in leadership positions of being “less interested in getting to the truth and holding abusers accountable than protecting your own power.” The two-minute timer sounded, and Osili told Roberts, “Ms. Roberts, you are now done.” She continued speaking.
Sheriff’s deputies wearing armed vests then began crowding Roberts and a crowd of supporters that had joined her at the lectern. Shrock and Roberts repeatedly asked that the officers unhand them. The officers pushed and pulled the women into the hallway outside the council’s Public Assembly Room.
Osili told reporters after the meeting that “it is never a pleasure to escort someone from our room,” but that the council “has practices we have followed for a very long time” that “others have to abide by.”
Supporters of Roberts, who held signs calling for the mayor’s resignation, chanted “shame” at Osili after she was forced out. Roberts read her full statement to reporters at the front door of the City-County Building along East Market Street.
“Please stand on the right side of history with us: please demand that Joe Hogsett resign,” Roberts said. “That’s what I was going to say to the council tonight before I got grabbed and hauled off by sheriff’s deputies … this is horrific and so shameful.”
Earlier Monday, the council’s Democratic Caucus, which holds 18 of the council’s 25 seats, announced it would create three new independent boards or positions meant to hold city government accountable to the public and investigate allegations of wrongdoing in city and county offices.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.