Judge of Lake County, Calvin Hawkins

The Indian commission for judicial qualifications said on Wednesday that he will suspend a civil judge of Lake County in eastern Chicago for 30 days for the sexual harassment of the court employees.

The vote was from 3 to 2, with the chief judge Loretta Rush and the justice of Christopher Goff who did not agree, saying that Judge Calvin Hawkins, 79, from Gary should be eliminated from the bench “because of his repeated acts of sexual harassment.”

The suspension is between March 31 and April 30. Hawkins will also need to complete the sexual harassment training through the National Center for State Courts.

“The parties agree that an adequate sanction is a thirty -day suspension without payment,” according to the decision. “A judicial suspension is a very severe sanction and is fully justified here.”

Hawkins’ lawyer James Voyles could not be contacted immediately.

At least three women accused him of improper behavior, according to records.

Hawkins’ staff had to move a civil trial at the upper court of the lake in Hammond, on October 19, 2023, after the technical difficulties stopped him in the Chicago courtroom.

A woman in Hammond said Hawkins began to rub her shoulder when she presented and looked at her chest.

Later, a secretary was kneeling to help remedy the registration equipment in the Hammond court. Hawkins said he was “on his hands and knees.”

The woman interpreted it as a sexual reference because of the way she “looked at her”, the recordings show. Another staff in the room shared the conclusion.

Investigators claim that Hawkins hugged and kissed another woman in her staff last year. He confessed that he kissed her on the cheek or on the head. He said he was a hug.

“It has a negative effect, but there is a certain aspect of it, one’s humanity,” he said in his submission. “And I do not want to fit the fact that if it is not something you are sensitive to, you can go crazy. Okay? And you could become a … predator. “

“My characterization when I got this, the only person I felt could have any kind of feeling (the initial Hammond staff) that I met for the first time.”

Governor Mitch Daniels named Hawkins on the bench in 2007 to replace Judge Robert A. Pete, who died during his term.

The American representative Frank Mrvan honored Hawkins on the floor of the house for black history in February 2023, citing his commitment to civil rights and his school residence program.

Hawkins previously said the post-tribune that he grew up in Washington, DC, and participated in Washington’s march in 1963 days before moving to Indiana to go to Huntington College.

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