Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, Three Other Women Sue Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill Over Groping Allegations

INDIANAPOLIS (AP/CBS) — Indiana's attorney general is being sued in federal court by four women who say he drunkenly groped them during a party last year.

The women, including Northwest Indiana Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, and their lawyers announced the lawsuit against Republican state Attorney General Curtis Hill during a Tuesday news conference.

"You cannot go through something as traumatic as this and not have it affect your life," Reardon said. "It changes the way you view the world. It changes the way you do your job."

"It has influenced where we go and where we don't go. It's caused distress to our families."

Reardon said attacks on social media about her integrity is "threatening to my career and my life."

"We didn't want this circus, but here we are."

The women's lawyers said in October that they intended to sue Hill after a special prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against him.

Hill is accused of touching the backs or buttocks of Reardon and three legislative staffers in March 2018 at an Indianapolis bar. Hill has denied wrongdoing and rebuffed calls from Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to resign.

He faces an October hearing on possible sanctions from the state Supreme court, which could include up to disbarment as an attorney.