Negangard To Become Second-In-Command At Ind. Attorney General’s Office

(Dearborn County, Ind.) – After 10 years in the role, Dearborn and Ohio Counties Prosecutor Aaron Negangard is leaving the job.

Negangard told members of Dearborn County Council on Tuesday that he will take a job as the chief deputy attorney general for Indiana Attorney General-elect Curtis Hill.

Negangard, who has been heading Hill’s transition team, will start his new gig in Indianapolis on January 9, but told Eagle Country 99.3 he plans to continue serving as the local prosecutor up until about January 6.

“I love being a prosecutor. It’s a wonderful job and I’ve loved the opportunity to serve the people of Dearborn and Ohio counties,” he said. “I think my experience here can be taken to serve at the state level and help bring Curtis Hill’s vision to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office.”

As chief deputy, Negangard will be the second-in-command at the 400-plus employee attorney general’s office. Negangard had helped Hill, the current prosecutor in Elkhart County, during his campaign. He eagerly points out that Hill gained more votes than any statewide candidate in Indiana history.

Hill and Negangard met in the early 2000s. They became close friends and colleagues over the past years, working together on criminal justice reform issues at the state level together.

“I’m excited to work for him. Together we’ll be able to do great things for the state and develop programs that can serve as a model nationwide,” said Negangard.

The one-time Lawrenceburg High School student was first appointed prosecutor in 2006 when former prosecutor Sally McLaughlin was appointed by then-Governor Mitch Daniels to become the judge of the new Dearborn Superior Court II. Negangard was later re-elected to two more terms in 2010 and 2014.

A formal letter of resignation has not yet been submitted to the clerks of court in each county, he said. The prosecutor is leaving in the middle of a four-year term that runs through 2018. That means the Republican parties in Dearborn and Ohio counties will have to caucus to select a new prosecutor.

His father, Dick, was once principal of Greendale Middle School and Lawrenceburg High School. His grandfather, Ernest, was Dearborn County’s longest serving sheriff from 1946 until 1959.