Lake Superior Court judge charged with alleged misconduct by judicial commission

A Lake County judge faces multiple ethical misconduct charges after allegedly sexually harassing court staff members.

The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications charged Lake Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins Monday with three counts of misconduct.

According to the statement of charges, Hawkins violated the code of judicial conduct by acting inappropriately in ways that did not promote the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary.

James Voyles, Hawkins’ attorney, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Hawkins was appointed as judge for the Lake Superior Court in July 2007.

According to the commission, in October 2023, Hawkins and his staff were setting up recording equipment for a jury trial at the Hammond courthouse.

Hawkins introduced himself to a staff employee of a different judge. He rubbed her shoulder and as he did so. F.R. reportedly told Hawkins she did not want him to touch her in that manner.

One the first day of the trial, T.B., another staff member, was assisting with the courtroom’s setup.

Hawkins saw T.B. from his position in the hallway leading into the courtroom and made the comment that T.B. was “on her hands and knees.”

T.B. heard Hawkins’s comment about her being “on her knees.” T.B. felt uncomfortable, interpreting Hawkins’s comment as a sexual reference because of the way he was looking at her after he made the statement.

Later that month, Hawkins was looking for juror paperwork when he saw F.R. She agreed to help him and told him she would bring the paperwork to him. However he stood in her office doorway. She reported she felt uncomfortable due to the small space.

Once she found the juror paperwork she saw Hawkins in a nearby hallway and handed the paperwork to him. When she did so he attempted to hug and kiss her. She physically pushed him away. T.B. witnessed the situation.

In a response to the commission’s notice of investigation, Hawkins stated he did not recall trying to kiss F.R., according to the commission.

In his deposition in March, Hawkins testified that he had reached over to F.R. to spontaneously hug and thank her, and F.R. recoiled. Hawkins further testified at the deposition that he was not trying to kiss F.R. but may have “blown a kiss to her or something…”

Five days after that interaction with F.R., Hawkins wrote her a card.

“It was such a pleasure meeting you last week. Thank you for being so gracious as I have some ‘loose screws’ in my head and may have appeared too forward,” the card read.

F.R. was concerned about how Hawkins learned her last name because she was not listed in the office directory.

She took the card to her office manager who reported the information to another judge.

In a response to the commission’s notice of investigation and during his deposition, Hawkins admitted that he sent F.R. a thank-you card.

F.R. and T.B. are not the only ones to report unwanted touches and comments from Hawkins.

Hawkins engaged in physical contact with, and made comments to his staff member J.P., that made J.P. uncomfortable.

J.P. informed Hawkins that she did not want to be hugged by him and to not come near her work area because it made her uncomfortable.

In his March 2024 deposition, Hawkins stated that one of the last times he hugged J.P., he knew she may have felt some discomfort by the look on her face.

Towards the end of 2023, J.P. met with Hawkins regarding the handling of Trial Rule 41(E) dismissals and the need to make sure another member of the court staff was knowledgeable about how to handle these cases.

During the conversation, Hawkins stated, “shall we have a threesome?”

At other times, Hawkins also made comments about J.P.’s physical appearance, including that her arms were showing while wearing a sleeveless blouse and whether she was wearing makeup.

In his August 1, 2024 response to the Commission’s Amended Notice of Investigation, Hawkins admitted that he made comments to J.P. about her appearance, including her wearing makeup and that she wore a sleeveless blouse one day.

Between 2007 and 2023, Hawkins routinely hugged his court staff and other individuals at the courthouse in East Chicago

Hawkins hugged and kissed one member of his court staff, C.G., in early 2024. Hawkins testified in his deposition that he believed he kissed C.G. either on the cheek or her head.

He admitted to the commission that he hugged people all the time.

At Hawkins’ deposition, when asked how his conducted reflected on the judiciary as a whole he said, “It has a negative effect, but there’s a certain aspect of it, one’s humanity Okay, you know? And I don’t want to demean the fact that if that’s not something that you’re sensitive to, you can go crazy with it. Okay? And you could become a quote, unquote a predator, could be 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 that I had met for the very first time (referring to F.R.).”

The Supreme Court has final authority to determine what, if any, judicial misconduct occurred.

The court can dismiss the charges, accept or reject a disciplinary agreement between the commission and 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.

The case is In the Matter of the Honorable Calvin D. Hawkins Judge of Lake Superior Court, 24S-JD-403.