O’Donnell loses first bid to get wire fraud and money laundering charges dismissed

Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell lost his first bid to have federal wire fraud and money laundering charges against him dismissed on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren said the O’Donnell defense team had not provided any reasons he could use to dismiss the charges under federal procedures.

He said there was a “very, very narrow window” for him to dismiss criminal charges and O’Donnell’s lawyers hadn’t addressed the applicable issues.

The judge also criticized the defense contention that the federal charges should be dismissed because O’Donnell could have been charged under state law regulating the alleged campaign finance violations that are at the heart of the case.

Melgren said those arguments would be appropriate in a debate or a law journal, but were irrelevant to the case at hand.

He said gun and drug cases make up the majority of his case load as a federal judge, although those same violations could often be charged under state law.

He said federal prosecutors have the discretion to file charges on what they think are violations of federal law, even if state laws could also apply.

O’Donnell’s attorney Josh Ney argued that the prosecutors overstepped and that at most, O’Donnell may have committed a “routine campaign finance violation” and “all of a sudden it turns into wire fraud and money laundering.”

He likened it to giving a street person $5 for McDonalds and the recipient spending it for alcohol instead.

“At some point the federal government’s reach has to stop,” he said.

O’Donnell is facing 26 charges, all related to alleged misuse of campaign funds. Prosecutors say he illegally converted campaign contributions for his personal use and/or gave campaign money to friends for non-campaign-related purposes.

Melgren also rejected a defense argument that the charges should be dropped because the alleged victims, O’Donnell’s campaign donors and the public, had not been adversely affected by any actions O’Donnell may have taken with his campaign funds.

O’Donnell’s lead attorney Mark Schoenhofer argued that once donors gave money to O’Donnell’s campaigns, “they have no control, literally no control over how that’s spent.”

He said donors gave O’Donnell the money in the hope that he would win his Senate and County Commission campaigns. And since he did, “there’s really no argument they didn’t get what they were hoping for.”

U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said he thinks the donors had “a good faith expectation” that the money would be used for the campaign expenses and not O’Donnell’s “personal piggy bank.”

Melgren ruled the critical issue is whether O’Donnell violated federal laws or not, not whether there was an identifiable victim.

After the hearing, Schoehofer said he was “mildly disappointed” in the ruling. But he said it was “the first step in a long process.”

He said the defense will probably file additional motions.

Those motions and a revised indictment filed by prosecutors this week are expected to delay the trial, which is currently set for Sept. 18, Melgren said.

O’Donnell continues to serve on the County Commission pending the outcome of the case.

This story was originally published August 17, 2018 at 4:45 PM with the headline "O’Donnell loses first bid to get wire fraud and money laundering charges dismissed."