A longtime Lake County civil judge in East Chicago is facing judicial misconduct charges for unwanted hugging, kissing, and making inappropriate comments toward court employees.
The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications filed three charges Monday against Judge Calvin Hawkins, 79, of Gary. He can formally respond within 20 days.
Efforts to reach Hawkins by phone Monday were unsuccessful. Hawkins is represented by high-profile Indianapolis lawyer James Voyles. His paralegal declined comment through a secretary.
The Indiana Supreme Court now will decide what happens next, spokeswoman Kathryn Dolan said in a press release.
“The court can dismiss the charges, accept or reject a disciplinary agreement between the commission and Judge Hawkins, appoint a panel of judges to conduct a public hearing, impose a fine, or impose sanctions ranging from a reprimand to a suspension to a permanent ban on holding judicial office in Indiana,” she wrote.
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.
The next day, Hawkins went to the initial female staffer’s office for jury paperwork. He stood in the doorway of her small office.
When she found the paperwork, Hawkins “leaned in” to hug her and tried to kiss her in the hallway, according to filings.
Hawkins told judicial investigators he didn’t remember trying to kiss her. He later testified he tried to hug her and she pulled away, saying he may have blown a kiss to her. The woman was later taken aback when Hawkins sent her a thank you card, since her last name wasn’t in the office directory.
“Thank you for being so gracious as I have some ‘loose screws’ in my head and may have appeared too forward,” he wrote to her.
She reported the incident.
The Commission also accused Hawkins of acting inappropriately for years to one of his own staffers.
From 2007 to 2020, the woman said Hawkins repeatedly tried to hug her against her wishes or rub her arms and shoulders.
She told him to stay away from where she worked in the East Chicago courthouse.
In a deposition, Hawkins later admitted the woman looked uncomfortable.
In late 2023, the woman tried to brief Hawkins, telling him another staffer needed to know how to handle cases with a specific type of dismissal.
“Shall we have a threesome,” he said at one point in the conversation.
The woman also said he made “comments” that she had a sleeveless blouse and asked if she wore makeup.
Investigators allege Hawkins hugged and kissed another woman on his staff earlier this 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 for civil rights and his stay-in-school program.
He previously told the Post-Tribune 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.
