UPDATE 6/8/25: since our last update one week ago:

-Joe Hogsett claimed that in 2023, Thomas Cook was not in contact with anyone who was directly involved in the campaign. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR61v_ENFAs&ab_channel=FOX59News)

-Six people characterized that claim as untrue, as reported in Mirror Indy. (https://mirrorindy.org/thomas-cook-joe-hogsett-2023-campaign-indianapolis-mayor/)

-IndyStar journalism showed that Mayor Joe Hogsett himself sent unwanted, repeated, pushy text messages about poetry to some of the same women who experienced this behavior from Thomas Cook. Investigators knew about these texts and downplayed or omitted them from the taxpayer-funded report. (https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/05/hogsett-investigation-late-night-texts-from-mayor-key-details-left-out/84009459007/)

-IndyStar editor and moderate James Briggs wrote an editorial that stated "Mayor Joe Hogsett is the toxic workplace culture"

-Councilors on both sides of the aisle are publicly questioning the investigative reports and several are planning to refuse to sign off on taxpayer dollars paying for an incomplete and misleading report.

-The signatories to this petition have doubled.

Central Indiana DSA, in support of and in solidarity with an organized group of survivors and their advocates, is renewing our calls. The survivors have three demands, which we sign on to and endorse:

First Goal: Mayor Joe Hogsett must resign due to systemic failures in protecting city workers, public school families, those in need of affordable housing and the unhoused, and animals under his administration.

Second Goal: Immediately implement a temporary, unbiased third-party mechanism for reporting harassment allegations against the Mayor and cabinet members, ensuring confidentiality and a survivor-centered approach, while simultaneously initiating the development of a permanent, independent harassment policy and investigation office led by a bipartisan, survivor-led task force.

Third Goal: Commission an independent, external audit of the Office of Corporation Counsel's handling of investigations and evidence in misconduct cases, then implement structural reforms to legally separate its "enterprise protection" functions from impartial internal investigations, potentially establishing a dedicated Public Integrity Unit.

Please share this petition with your friends and family, and look for further calls to action coming soon.

UPDATE 6/2/25: While the law firm hired to investigate, Fisher Phillips, found that no laws were violated in regards to the investigation or firing of Thomas Cook, major moral and ethical gaps in the city's policies and handling of his and the mayor's behavior have been revealed, including the fact that Cook remained employed 68 days after it was recommended that he be fired by an independent investigation. Now more people are speaking out calling for the Mayor Joe Hogsett to resign, including Democrat City County Councilor Andy Nielsen.

Original text:

We, the undersigned, are disgusted by the reports outlined by Indy Star and Mirror Indy that describe how the Mayor’s right-hand man Thomas Cook used his position and power to coerce and sexually abuse multiple subordinates, and how Mayor Hogsett, having learned of this behavior by at least 2017, covered for the misconduct and gave Cook multiple chances to offend again.

As an elected leader, Mayor Joe Hogsett has a duty to protect and improve the lives of every citizen in the city. Sadly, Hogsett has shown he has no such desire to protect even those in his own office. How can he be trusted to act in the best interest of his constituents? We have no confidence that he will.

Due to his complicity in covering up multiple instances of sexual abuse, we demand an immediate resignation from Mayor Joe Hogsett.

Knowing that Mayor Hogsett did not act alone, we demand a full and independent investigation of Mayor Hogsett’s entire administration, campaign staff, and all past Deputy Mayors to discover what other misconduct or corruption has been hidden from the public and who else was involved. The investigating entity must have no connection to or interest concerning the Democratic Party in the city, county, or state or any governmental office in the city or state.

In addition to multiple acts of sexual abuse, the city-county employees have issued a petition to address the toxic culture they experience in their workplace. We demand these concerns be taken seriously and addressed in an expedient manner to provide those workers with a safe and anonymous way to report mistreatment and plans to hold offenders accountable.

We demand that all leadership within this City-County Council and the Democratic Party at the state & local levels address this issue with all seriousness and urgency. Considering it has been ongoing for 8 years or more, now is well past the time to take action to ensure all parties receive the justice to which they are entitled. The silence on an issue of this gravity is alarming.

Finally, we demand fulfillment of all of Caroline Ellert’s and Lauren Roberts’s very modest and reasonable requests for documentation from past investigations, a third-party audit of the City/County human resource and sexual harassment policies, employee training on their rights and reporting options, access to an independent entity for safe reporting, and access to mental health services.

Sincerely,
Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America and the undersigned: