INDIANAPOLIS — A Marion County constable has been arrested on several charges.
Center Township Constable Denise Hatch has been charged with official misconduct, assisting a criminal, resisting arrest and theft.
The charges stem from two different cases.
In August 2023, Hatch is accused of stealing produce from an east Indianapolis Kroger store after trying to exchange reportedly rotten broccoli.
In October 2023, an IMPD officer reported that during a traffic stop, the driver called Hatch, who requested to speak with the officer. The officer declined to speak with Hatch.
Later, as the officer placed the driver into custody and began an inventory of his vehicle, Hatch showed up at the scene of the traffic stop. Officers say she tried to open the rear passenger doors of the officer's police car while he was interviewing the driver.
According to police, a search of the vehicle uncovered a handgun in a toolbox on the passenger-side floorboard of the vehicle.
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Hatch also reportedly became hostile toward officers when she learned the driver was being arrested for gun charges. At least one officer told detectives Hatch asked police that the driver not be arrested and that once the officers learned she was a constable, the driver should not have been investigated further.
Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton has been assigned as a special prosecutor in Hatch's case.
In May 2023, Hatch was at the center of controversy for a video that was posted to YouTube showing a confrontation over a woman's eviction on the east side of Indianapolis.