Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly Hit with New Gun Charge: Indiana Republicans Give Him the “Denise Paul Hatch Treatment”

FRANKFORT, Ind. — Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly is once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons. On Friday, Hamilton County prosecutors filed a new misdemeanor charge against him: unlawfully carrying a handgun. The allegation comes while Kelly already faces multiple felony counts of conflict of interest and official misconduct stemming from a 2021 state audit that uncovered more than $223,000 in questionable payments funneled from the county jail commissary fund to his family’s LLC and his wife, Ashley Kelly.

According to court documents, the latest incident occurred on April 9, 2026, while Kelly was working an off-duty armed security detail in Carmel. He allegedly called a Clinton County deputy to relieve him, appeared “visibly distressed,” and directed the deputy to a desk drawer containing a loaded personal SIG Sauer P365 9mm handgun. The deputy secured the weapon and later turned it over to Indiana State Police. A Marion County judge had previously ordered Kelly not to possess or be around firearms because of his pending felony cases.

Kelly’s initial hearing on the new charge is set for June 2. The filing also requests a no-contact order protecting the deputy who took possession of the gun.

The “Denise Paul Hatch Treatment”: A Familiar Pattern for Indiana Republicans

This latest chapter in Kelly’s legal saga is drawing sharp comparisons to another high-profile Indiana law-enforcement scandal — the fall of former Center Township Constable Denise Paul Hatch. Critics are openly accusing Indiana Republicans of giving Sheriff Kelly the same “Denise Paul Hatch treatment”: allowing an elected Republican official embroiled in official-misconduct and unlawful-firearm charges to remain on the ballot and continue drawing a paycheck while the legal process drags on.

Hatch, elected Center Township Constable in Marion County in 2022, faced a stunning series of criminal cases in 2024. Among the allegations:

- **Theft and official misconduct**: Hatch was accused of stealing broccoli from an Indianapolis grocery store while in uniform and wearing her constable badge. She reportedly told store employees that “only the Sheriff could arrest her.”

- **Interference with law enforcement**: She allegedly showed up at a traffic stop where one of her own deputy constables was being arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Prosecutors charged her with official misconduct, attempted assisting a criminal, and attempted resisting law enforcement.

- **Unlawful carry of a handgun**: Despite court orders prohibiting her from possessing a firearm, Indianapolis police spotted Hatch in uniform with a Glock holstered on her waist. She was arrested again in May 2024.

In October 2024, Hatch pleaded guilty in Marion Superior Court to felony official misconduct, misdemeanor unlawful carrying of a handgun, and misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Under Indiana law, the felony conviction automatically removed her from office. She was sentenced to 288 days in the Marion County Jail as part of a plea deal.

Hatch had claimed the charges were politically motivated after she challenged the Democratic Party’s slating process to win her 2022 nomination. Yet once the evidence mounted, accountability came swiftly — she was out of office within months of the plea.

Now, with Kelly — a longtime Republican sheriff — facing strikingly similar accusations of official misconduct and unlawful handgun possession, local observers say the GOP response has been far more hands-off. Despite felony charges, both Richard and Ashley Kelly remain on the Republican primary ballot for county commissioner and sheriff, respectively. Clinton County Council members have called for their resignations, yet the state and local Republican apparatus has not moved to remove them from the May primary.

One Clinton County official, speaking on background, put it bluntly: “It’s the Denise Paul Hatch playbook all over again — just with an R next to the name instead of a D. Let the courts handle it, keep them on the ballot, and hope voters don’t notice until after the primary.”

Whether Kelly ultimately receives the same swift removal from office that Hatch did remains to be seen. For now, Indiana Republicans appear content to let the legal system — rather than party leadership — decide his fate, a hands-off approach that has some Hoosiers wondering if the “treatment” is reserved only for officials who happen to wear the same team jersey.

The eyes of the state will be on Clinton County voters Tuesday as they head to the polls — and on whether the GOP’s patience with embattled officials finally runs out.