Indy councilor denies groping woman on second date

(MIRROR INDY) — A woman has filed a police report alleging that Nick Roberts, a Democrat on the City-County Council, held her against her will and groped her while they were on a second date in Fishers.

“I tried pushing him away multiple times. I had my hands on his shoulders. I’m not the strongest girl, but I was using all of my might to push him off,” the woman, 18, told Mirror Indy. “I was telling him, ‘Hey, stop. I don’t like this,’ but his grip would just get tighter and tighter.”

Roberts, 24, told Mirror Indy that he went on two dates with the woman but denied groping her and holding her against her will.

“Anyone that knows anything about me, I very much believe in consent,” said Roberts, who was elected to represent the northeast side in 2023 at the age of 23. “If somebody was resisting in the slightest way, I would never push back on that.”

Mirror Indy agreed not to publicly identify the woman because the newsroom does not typically name people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.

Roberts has not been charged with a crime. Fishers Police Department Major Mike Janes confirmed to Mirror Indy that someone reported an incident involving Roberts on July 12. Janes declined to provide any specific information beyond that, saying it could compromise an ongoing investigation.

The allegations come just weeks after IndyStar reported that Keith Graves, an eastside Democrat on the council, was accused of physical and sexual assault. Graves stepped down as chair of the Education Committee following the news.

The news also comes as Democrats on the council consider making widespread changes to the city’s human resources policies in response to Mayor Joe Hogsett’s handling of harassment claims against Thomas Cook, his former top aide.

Roberts, who became the second-youngest person to serve on the City-County Council, has been described by some political observers as an up-and-comer in the Indiana Democratic Party.

Roberts also is the director of community relations for the Lawrence Township Trustee’s Office and does freelance work on data analytics, according to his LinkedIn profile and campaign website.

Council President Vop Osili and Majority Leader Maggie Lewis, both Democrats, did not respond to Mirror Indy’s requests for comment on Monday, July 28.

The first date

The woman, who met Roberts on the dating app Hinge, said their first date together at a coffee shop in Carmel “went really well.”

Before they parted ways, she said he gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek. When she texted him later that day to thank him for the gesture, he said, “It was my pleasure :)” and “You can get another (and maybe more) next time,” according to text messages reviewed by Mirror Indy.

She said the remark left her feeling uncomfortable.

Roberts said he interpreted her next text message, though, to be consent. She wrote, “I hope so, I’d like that :)”.

Roberts told Mirror Indy he interpreted that remark to mean that she had given him consent to kiss her on the second date.

The woman, though, said she thought Roberts was referring to giving her another kiss on the cheek.

“I’m not used to flirting. I’ve been homeschooled all of my life,” she told Mirror Indy. “This is all new to me.”

The second date

The woman said she was walking with Roberts along the Nickel Plate Trail on the evening of Saturday, July 12, when Roberts pulled her off onto a side trail and said, “Let’s have a proper kiss.”

She said Roberts then held her and began kissing her and grabbing her breasts and buttocks.

She said she tried to pull away, but the more she resisted, the tighter his grip became. She believes the only reason he let go was because someone walked by along the main trail.

“I don’t know if they saw, but he saw them, and so he sort of loosened his grip on me, and I was able to step away,” she said.

She said Roberts tried again to get her to return to the side trail, but she told him she needed to get back to her car, and he eventually agreed.

“I was very clearly uncomfortable,” she said. “I just wanted to get home. I was freaking out. I was shaking. My brain wasn’t thinking straight.”

Roberts denies the woman’s account of what happened.

He said the pair did walk onto a side trail, but that they only shared a brief kiss and that he put his hands on her hips for a few seconds.

“There’s really nothing that gave me any indication that she was uncomfortable at all,” Roberts said. “Had she done anything, I would have stopped immediately.”

Roberts shared his comments during a 30-minute interview with Mirror Indy on July 23. He was accompanied by an attorney who encouraged him to answer the interview questions.

Roberts speculated that the woman is lying about what happened because, he recalled, the woman told him that her stepmother did not like that they were going out together.

“I know her stepmom had a personal vendetta against me,” Roberts said. “She did not like that (her stepdaughter) was going on a date with me because of my politics, unfortunately.”

The woman told Mirror Indy, though, that she never discussed her or her stepmother’s politics on the date.

“I hate that he’s trying to make me (out) as a liar,” she said. “It’s very frustrating. I don’t see what he thinks I would get out of this.”

A report is filed

When the woman got back to her car, she called her dad to tell him what happened. When she returned home to her stepmother’s house that night, her stepmom remembers seeing her daughter “shaking and scared.”

“You could tell it was very traumatic for her,” her stepmom told Mirror Indy. “I said, ‘There’s nothing you could’ve done that could justify that after you made it clear you didn’t want it.’”

Mirror Indy is not publicly identifying the woman’s stepmother, either, because doing so could identify the 18-year-old woman.

They decided they would file a police report, though her stepmom isn’t confident that any criminal charges will be filed.

“Nothing ever comes of this when you file a police report because it’s all ‘he said, she said,’ and the system is set up to fail women,” she said.

The stepmom also posted a photo of Roberts, along with a paragraph about her daughter’s experience, in a private Facebook group “to let other moms know,” she told Mirror Indy.

Roberts replied to the post, saying the comments were untrue. He later messaged the woman to say he was “really sorry for kissing on the date” if she wasn’t comfortable with that.

Fishers police officers showed up to his house a few hours after the Facebook post was made, Roberts said. He said he answered their questions.

Karen Celestino-Horseman, Roberts’ attorney, said she encouraged police to look for any trail camera footage.

It’s unclear if there are any cameras nearby, though, and Fishers police have declined to answer Mirror Indy’s questions about the case.

The woman said she’s telling her story to make sure what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I want this to be a warning to other women,” she said.

Council plans harassment policy reforms

Roberts has largely remained silent on the issue of sexual harassment since the council voted to investigate the Hogsett administration’s handling of harassment accusations against Cook.

Roberts posted a video on June 10, though, the day after a former Hogsett campaign worker was thrown out of a council meeting while trying to describe her experiences. Roberts said: “There’s still a lot of work to be done” when it comes to improving the city’s human resources policies.

“There needs to be an independent system that people feel like they can trust 100%, and also too for elected officials, I think there needs to be reporting systems against elected officials so there’s true accountability,” the councilor said in the video.

The council’s investigation, which was conducted by the Fisher Phillips law firm, recommended that councilors make legislative changes to the city’s human resources division to make it independent of the mayor’s administration.

Democrats on the council are expected to release public information about their policy proposals in the coming weeks.

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.

Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.

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