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Indiana House Ethics Committee dismisses complaint against Speaker Brian Bosma

Posted at 6:26 PM, Apr 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-08 18:28:32-04

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana House Ethics Committee has dismissed a complaint against Speaker Brian Bosma, due to a lack of reasonable cause.

The committee received the complaint in October 2018, from former Democratic House member Linda Lawson. Lawson’s complaint stemmed from an Indianapolis Star story, which detailed allegations that Bosma used campaign money to investigate a former legislative intern. The intern said she had a sexual encounter with Bosma decades ago.

Bosma has denied the sexual encounter ever happened.

A letter from the committee states that it performed an investigation and hired legal counsel to investigate.
The committee sent a letter Monday to Bosma, saying “reasonable cause does not exist to support the alleged allegation.” Bosma’s spokesperson released the letter to media.

In a statement, Bosma called the complaint “politically motivated.”

“I am pleased with the unanimous and bipartisan decision from the House Ethics Committee to dismiss this politically motivated complaint after a thorough and months-long review,” Bosma said in the statement. “I have said from the start that the complaint was unfounded and baseless, and clearly timed to impact the November election. This is now two independent, bipartisan and unanimous decisions that this complaint is without merit.”

The second decision Bosma mentions is from the Indiana Election Commission. In January, the commission dismissed a complaint against him, regarding his use of campaign money and the allegations.