INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said Wednesday he does not know what will come of the investigation into claims of sexual harassment against his former top aide Thomas Cook.

The mayor appeared at an afternoon event for the opening of a mixed-use building on the Old Southside, where he was peppered with questions from the media about how the allegations investigation was proceeding.

“You guess is as good as mine. We obviously have some idea of the nature of the allegations that were made by Miss (Lauren) Roberts and Miss (Caroline) Ellert, but how broad that investigation becomes, I guess that’s to be determined.”

News 8 has previously reported that Cook was found to have made inappropriate romantic advances on a coworker in 2014 while employed by Hogsett’s campaign, and the administration knew about it in 2017.

Three women in total have accused Cook of sexual misconduct. Ellert and Roberts spoke Aug. 13 with News 8.

The Democrat mayor also was asked Wednesday about his choice to bring Cook back to work on his 2023 reelction campaign.

The mayor said he was unaware of the earlier allegations until 2023 when Cook was let go a second time.

“Well, you’re right. He had not worked for me for three or four years and he offered to help. The campaign got started in earnest, I believe, in November or December of 2022. I was made aware of additional allegations against Mr. Cook in October or September of 2023, and, given the investigation that was conducted, he was given the option to no longer work on the campaign, and the contracts that he obtained in his private-sector employment practice were canceled. I didn’t know anything about 2018 or 2019 until October or September of 2023.”

Hogsett earlier in August changed the sexual harassment training requirements for city government employees.

“Well, there’s no question that order I issued last week, which requires sexual harassment training for all city employees annually, every year, is something, in retrospect, I wish we had implemented earlier. The old process was once you were trained, upon your employment, if you were not a supervisor, you were not required to do the every-other-year, annual training. That was just required of supervisors. Now, pursuant to my executive order, every employee in the city-county enterprise will go through that training every year from now on.”

Also on Wednesday, the city-county government rolled out a new anonymous website for employees to report sexual harassment.

Previous Coverage

• Anonymous sexual harassment reporting website rolls out for City-County employees
• City-County Council unveils plan to address harassment allegations
• Panel could look into mayor’s office handling of sexual harassment allegations
• Hogsett signs new order on sexual harassment prevention
• Democratic Indiana state senator blasts handling of sexual harassment accusations
• Hogsett to sign executive order on sexual harassment prevention training
• Accusers of mayor’s former aide hope story will inspire other women
• ‘I would like him to apologize’: Former staffers demand changes from Hogsett after claims of abuse by aide
• Indianapolis councilors propose changes to sexual harassment policies
• City-County Council vows better protections amid sexual harassment scandal
• ‘UnPHILtered’ | Hogsett’s former chief of staff accused of sexual harassment
• Councilors react to former chief of staff sexual harassment allegations
• Former Hogsett Chief of Staff accused of inappropriate relationships with subordinates