The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications said Wednesday it will suspend a Lake County civil judge in East Chicago for 30 days for sexually harassing court employees.
The vote was 3 to 2, with Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justice Christopher Goff dissenting, saying Judge Calvin Hawkins, 79, of Gary, should be removed from the bench “due to his repeated acts of sexual harassment.”
The suspension is from March 31 to April 30. Hawkins will also have to complete sexual harassment training via the National Center for State Courts.
“The parties agree that an appropriate sanction is a thirty-day suspension without pay,” according to the decision. “A judicial suspension is a very severe sanction, and it is fully warranted here.”
Hawkins’ lawyer James Voyles could not be immediately reached.
At least three women accused him of inappropriate behavior, according to filings.
Hawkins’ staff had to move a civil trial to Lake Superior Court in Hammond on Oct. 19, 2023, after technical difficulties stopped them from recording it in his East Chicago courtroom.
One female staffer in Hammond said Hawkins started to rub her shoulder when he introduced himself and stared at her chest.
Later, a secretary was kneeling over to help fix recording equipment in the Hammond courtroom. Hawkins said she was “on her hands and knees.”
The woman interpreted it as a sexual reference due to how “he was looking at her,” filings show. Another staffer in the room shared her conclusion.
Investigators allege Hawkins hugged and kissed another woman on his staff last year. He testified he kissed her on the cheek or head. He said he was a hugger.
“It has a negative effect, but there’s a certain aspect of it, one’s humanity,” he said in his deposition. “And I don’t want to demean the fact that if that’s not something you’re sensitive to, you can go crazy with it. Okay? And you could become a…predator.”
“My characterization of when I got this, the only person that I felt could have had any kind of feeling would be the young lady (the initial Hammond staffer) that I had met for the very first time.”
Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed Hawkins to the bench in 2007 to replace Judge Robert A. Pete, who died during his term.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan briefly honored Hawkins on the House floor for Black History Month in Feb. 2023, citing his commitment to civil rights and his stay-in-school program.
Hawkins previously told the Post-Tribune that he grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended the March on Washington in 1963 days before he moved to Indiana to go to Huntington College.
mcolias@post-trib.com
