By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
October 14, 2024
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Destiny Wells faced each other in a recent debate, which covered a range of topics, including the ongoing ethics complaints against the incumbent, and, at times, featured tense exchanges between the candidates.
Rokita, a former Indiana secretary of state and congressman representing Indiana’s 4th District, is running for a second term as the state’s top attorney. He described the role of attorney general as “one of protector” and said he has protected Indiana from the “bad ideas” coming from Washington, D.C., such as the “open border” that is causing an increase in fentanyl deaths and sex trafficking of children.
“I ask everyone to join our movement, to join the fight, and I ask for your vote,” Rokita said during the debate which aired Sunday in Indianapolis on CBS4 Indy and Fox59 Sunday Morning.
Wells emphasized her military experience, saying she joined the Army National Guard shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel to command a unit of troops. She said she became a deputy attorney general under former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill because she wanted to “actually get into governance to affect policy,” but, she said, the office lacked leadership.
“We need better leadership in the office,” Wells said. “I want to start doing things like making sure Hoosiers have medical privacy, that we’re looking out for workers and we’re bringing integrity back to how we serve Hoosiers.”
Since he took office as attorney general, Rokita has been publicly reprimanded by the Indiana Supreme Court for misconduct and is currently under at least two more investigations by the state’s attorney disciplinary commission.
During the debate, Rokita swatted away a question about what would happen if, as a result of the investigations, he lost his law license and could not continue as attorney general.
“I don’t think my law license can be suspended here,” Rokita replied. “I mean, we’re talking about something that happened two years ago.”
Wells pushed back, noting Rokita is under multiple disciplinary investigations. “We have a tendency with Todd Rokita to keep getting in trouble,” she said.
Rokita responded by calling Wells “an officer of the Democratic Party,” and said that Democrats were weaponizing and politicizing the disciplinary process. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves, making a mockery of the Indiana Supreme Court like they are,” he said.
Rokita was first investigated for his handling of his office’s inquiry into Indianapolis OB/GYN Caitlin Bernard. At a rally for reproductive rights held shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, Bernard confirmed to an Indianapolis Star reporter that she was providing abortion care to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio.
Appearing on national television, Rokita called Bernard an “abortion activist acting as a doctor” and claimed she had a history of failing to file the required medical reports with the state. The disciplinary commission launched an investigation and, in November 2023, a 3-2 majority of the Indiana Supreme Court accepted a conditional agreement in which Rokita admitted he violated two Indiana attorney professional conduct rules and he accepted a public reprimand.
However, almost immediately after the Supreme Court reprimanded him, Rokita released a lengthy and defiant response.
During Sunday’s debate, Rokita blamed Bernard, saying she went to the newspaper and divulged the Ohio victim’s confidences and identity “for political gain.”
Bernard did not approach the newspaper and did not reveal the girl’s name, family or home address. A reporter overheard her conversation with a colleague and she confirmed the victim’s age, home state and that an abortion was being performed because the girl had been impregnated through a rape.
The story made national news and, initially, some media outlets were skeptical. A short time later, the story was verified when reporters discovered that Gerson Fuentes, then 27, had been arrested in Ohio after he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions.
At the debate, Rokita said that he agreed with the Indiana Supreme Court, but he then reiterated his post-reprimand statement. “Nothing I said was untrue,” Rokita said, “and that’s the reputation I have with the people of Indiana. I’m always direct. I always tell them the truth.”
Asked, looking back now, whether he would change how he handled the situation, Rokita indicated he would not.
“Being human, I don’t know that I could. It was so horrific,” Rokita said, referring to the rape of the young girl. “I would never change the fact of what I said, because everything I said was absolutely true.”
When Wells pointed out that the Indiana Supreme Court had found Rokita had violated the rules of professional conduct, he denied he had overstepped. “I agreed with the Supreme Court to settle the matter so we (could) stop it from being a distraction,” Rokita said. “That’s what that was about.”
The attorney general made a similar comment after his reprimand, saying in his public statement that he decided to quit fighting the disciplinary commission in order to save the taxpayers money and stop the distraction. Also, he said he was required to sign an affidavit to resolve the matter.
That statement ignited a second disciplinary investigation in November 2023 into whether Rokita perjured himself by signing the affidavit. In the affidavit, Rokita conceded “there exist grounds for my discipline” and the material facts in the conditional agreement were true.
In the summer of 2024, the disciplinary commission launched a third investigation into Rokita’s conduct. This one focuses on a news conference where the attorney general released his advisory opinion about the Indiana Department of Health’s decision to no longer release terminated pregnancy reports.
Doctors are required by state law to file the reports after performing an abortion. Previously, the health department had made them available to the public, but changed its policy after Indiana’s near-total abortion ban took effect, fearing that with so few women receiving treatment, they would be able to be identified from the information in the TPRs.
At the news conference, Rokita said anyone who is denied access to the TPRs could sue the health department. That prompted the disciplinary commission to investigate the allegations that Rokita was encouraging the public to sue a state agency which, as attorney general, he had a duty to represent.
Recently, the Indiana Supreme Court signed an order extending the deadline to February for the disciplinary commission to complete its second investigation into Rokita. The status of the third investigation is unknown.
Rokita struck a similar theme – that what he said was true – when he was asked during the debate about misinformation. In particular, he was asked about his questioning of the state’s COVID statistics and a misleading post he shared last week on social media about FEMA funds being diverted to help undocumented immigrants.
The attorney general defended his statements. He cited to a report his office produced about the COVID stats that, he said, “found mispresented causes of death.” That report does not offer any conclusions, but rather calls for more analysis and recommends public health officials audit medical records to determine whether deaths that occurred between March 2020 and September 2022 were caused by the COVID-19 virus.
Saying misinformation and disinformation are a threat to national security, Wells criticized Rokita for repeating the mistruths about the FEMA money. “He’s part of the problem, not part of the solution,” she said.
Rokita retorted, “It’s called free speech.”
As Wells tried to rebut, Rokita kept talking over her. Wells finally had to ask the moderator if she could finish and when Rokita pointed out that the 30 seconds allotted to her had expired, she replied her time ran out because he kept interrupting.
After the debate, each candidate’s campaign declared victory.
“It is clear Attorney General Todd Rokita won this debate because Destiny Wells cannot defend her positions as a foot soldier in Kamala Harris’ left-wing army,” Brent Littlefield, consultant to the Rokita campaign said in an email. “Todd made it clear he is fighting to protect Hoosier jobs, defend taxpayers, and end illegal immigration which is driving up crime.”
Conversely the Wells campaign asserted its candidate provided a detailed vision for Indiana’s future by protecting access to health care, defending reproductive rights and ensuring the government respects individual freedoms.
“Destiny showed Hoosiers what leadership looks like—authentic, principled, and prepared to fight for them,” Hannah Smith, spokesperson for the Wells campaign, said in a statement. “As a combat veteran and dedicated public servant, she proved that she has the experience, temperament, and vision to represent every Hoosier. Meanwhile, Rokita’s performance only confirmed what we’ve long known: he lacks the judgment and professionalism to continue in this role.”
The election is Nov. 5.
Dwight Adams, a freelance editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
