INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Center Township Constable Denise Hatch on Friday told a Marion County judge she can no longer afford an attorney because she can’t collect income as the constable.

During a Friday morning counsel status hearing, Hatch, who faces multiple felony charges, told Judge William Nelson she has not been paid since October. That’s when Center Township Small Claims Court Judge Brenda Roper issued an order appointing the other eight constables in Marion County as special constables for the township. By law, constables are compensated solely from process fees on the papers they serve. Hatch said she has no other source of income.

Friday’s hearing was part of the latest criminal case to be filed against her. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detectives say they spotted Hatch carrying a gun over the weekend, something she is not allowed to do given the two other felony cases facing her. Hatch faces a charge of felony official misconduct and misdemeanor charges of unlawful carrying of a firearm and invasion of privacy in Saturday’s incident.

She also faces felony charges of official misconduct, assisting a criminal and resisting law enforcement in an October incident in which IMPD officers say she tried to interfere with their arrest of one of her deputy constables.

Additionally, Hatch faces charges of felony official misconduct and misdemeanor theft in an August incident involving rotten produce at a north side grocery store.

Mark Nicholson was representing Hatch in the cases stemming from the August and October incidents. He withdrew from those cases on Friday morning to allow Hatch the option to seek a public defender. Nelson told Hatch she cannot use a private attorney for one case and a public defender for another.

Nicholson tells News 8 whoever ends up representing Hatch will have access to all of the depositions and other documents he had compiled before he withdrew.

“It’s easier to have one attorney on all three cases,” he said. “It’s a lot easier, since she no longer has the funds, if there’s one attorney, such as the public defender’s office, that can do all the cases and can do depositions, since there’s going to be costs associated with depositions.”

Hatch won a three-way Democratic primary for the job in 2022, defeating then-Constable Lance Stephens, who faced legal trouble for DUI charges. She was unopposed in that fall’s general election and took office on Jan. 1, 2023.

Under state law, any township that operates its own small claims court separate from the county court system must have a constable, who serves papers on the court’s behalf and provides security in a manner akin to a county sheriff. The nine townships in Marion County are the only ones in the state with small claims courts and, thus, the only ones with constables. Constables have full arrest powers but are exempt from the state’s peace officer licensing requirements. They serve a four-year term.

Throughout the controversies surrounding Hatch’s tenure, Center Township officials, particularly Trustee LaDonna Freeman, have stressed Hatch is elected separately and therefore independent of other branches of the township government. State law provides few options for instances in which an elected official faces criminal charges. The law requires any official convicted of a felony to be removed from office but none of Hatch’s cases have yet gone to trial.

Hatch has a hearing scheduled for June 4 to determine if she is eligible for a public defender. Additionally, her friend, Bobby Kern, told the judge toward the end of the hearing another attorney will look into representing her pro bono.