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Incoming Indiana attorney general chooses chief deputy

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The incoming Indiana attorney general has named a persistent critic of the state’s revamped criminal sentencing laws for a top position in the office.

Republican Attorney General-elect Curtis Hill on Monday announced the selection of Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard as his chief deputy.

Negangard has spent the past 10 years as prosecutor for the two counties in southeastern Indiana. He’s been a leader of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and has criticized the 2014 sentencing law changes approved by the GOP-dominated Legislature as soft on drug dealers.

Hill is now prosecutor in northern Indiana’s Elkhart County and takes office as attorney general in January. The attorney general’s office doesn’t decide on county-level prosecution of crimes, but handles the defense of convictions in appeals courts.