Law firm updates council on sexual harassment investigation INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The road map for the independent investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration is now clear. The law firm spearheading the investigation, Fisher Phillips, said they haven’t officially started digging into the details of the complaints, but on Thursday they detailed which laws they’ll be filtering the complaints through to see if Hogsett or his staffers could be held liable. Two lawyers with the firm spent the better part of an hour presenting what they called phase one of their investigation to the City County Council Investigative Committee. They explained to the committee what sexual harassment even is. There’s two types: Quid pro quo and hostile work environment, which is where a reasonable person would consider the workplace intimidating, hostile, or abusive. The investigative committee stems from Lauren Roberts and Caroline Ellert coming forward with accusations of sexual harassment against Thomas Cook. “I think the minute it happens to you there’s not really a way to win. There’s just kind of different ways to lose,” said Ellert in an interview with WISH-TV Reporter Kyla Russell. Cook is the former top aide to Mayor Hogsett who was allowed to resign from Hogsett’s administration in 2020 only to be hired as an advisor for Hogsett’s mayoral campaign in 2023. Hogsett said this about Cook in September, “I did what I was required to do at the time people complained about how Thomas Cook was behaving.” A few days before that, Roberts spoke with Russell about the accountability she would like to see. “I’m curious what kind of accountability for other people in power aside from the mayor who were aware of my case and perhaps others, I don’t know, but didn’t take the action that they should have at the time,” said Roberts. During Thursday’s investigative committee we learned what that accountability might look like. The law firm told the committee that there are higher standards for managers when an employee comes forward with sexual harassment allegations. They said managers can be held liable for their actions if it’s deemed they didn’t follow the law. We now enter phase two of the investigation. The law firm will analyze all of the sexual harassment allegations made against employees of the mayor’s administration to see if the response to those allegations meet legal compliance with state and federal law. The next investigative committee meeting is Dec. 4th, if the law firm conducting the investigation has gotten far enough along to warrant another meeting. If they haven’t, the next meeting will be in Jan.