What’s happening Wednesday in Commissioner Michael O’Donnell’s trial
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell is being tried in federal court this week on wire fraud and money laundering charges alleging he misspent campaign funds. He’s pleaded not guilty to 26 felony counts. The trial kicked off Monday with jury selection and opening statements from attorneys.
Here’s the latest from Wednesday’s proceedings. For live coverage, go to www.twitter.com/amyreneeleiker.
5:35 p.m.: Jurors are breaking for the day after hearing from a key witness to the defense’s case, former Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission head Carol Williams. Williams spent 40 years working for the commission, which is responsible for enforcing the state’s campaign finance law. During her time, she handled 20 election cycles and worked with “thousands and thousands” of candidates and their campaigns, she told jurors.
Although the law prohibits using donor dollars to pay for personal expenses, Williams said candidates have a lot of discretion to decide how to spend it in connection with their campaigns. That includes how, when and in what amount to pay staffers and what sort of fundraisers to hold.
Under questioning by defense attorney Joshua Ney, she said there’s nothing in law that prohibits a candidate from using campaign funds to pay a person to be on stand by to a campaign — as the defense has suggested happened with some of O’Donnell’s friends — and that bonuses may be paid to workers.
She also said she doesn’t recall a single instance in her 40-year KGEC career where federal authorities questioned a state or local candidates’ use of campaign funds.
4:02 p.m.: The government rested its case a few minutes before 4 p.m. U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren told jurors this is a significant point in the trial because the government has the burden of proving guilt in a case, meaning they think they’ve presenting all evidence needed to secure a conviction.
The defense will start calling witnesses.
3:33 p.m.: Another friend of Michael O’Donnell’s told jurors that he didn’t do any campaign-related work to earn six checks paid out of O’Donnell’s campaign accounts.
“I don’t recall doing any work,” Jack Masterson said.
When Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith asked why he thought O’Donnell had written him the checks, Masterson responded: “I thought Michael was giving me money to get by until I got a job.”
He got checks — from $300 to $550 each — monthly from December 2015 until May 2016. At that time he was a Wichita State student studying economics and finance.
Masterson described O’Donnell as “a very generous and supportive friend” who understood that he needed to focus on school.
“My dad had passed and he offered to give me some money in exchange for working on his campaign,” he testified. But, he says, he didn’t do any work.
Defense attorneys have previously told jurors that Masterson fetched breakfast for an event, went to the Garth Brooks concert as a staffer and had attended a rally for then-candidate Donald Trump in downtown Wichita with O’Donnell’s campaign. They’ve attributed any lapse of memory Masterson has about his role with the campaign to his “being in a fog” following his father’s death.
But Masterson testified that he didn’t recall the breakfast and had gone to the Trump rally to volunteer for the Kansas GOP. He said he only recalls one discussion with O’Donnell about performing work — delivering a gift basket, which he said he didn’t end up doing. He went to the concert to “watch Garth Brooks and drink beer,” he said.
He denies ever being in a fog, saying that actually his school grade point average increased after his dad’s death.
Mentally, “I was there,” he told jurors.
Defense attorneys will cross examine Masterson after the court’s 15-minute afternoon recess. Prosecutors are expected to rest their case this afternoon. The defense will start calling witnesses and presenting evidence after that.
12:24 p.m.: U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren ordered court break for lunch a few minutes before noon.
Before the recess, a man described as one of Michael O’Donnell’s best friends was on the witness stand. David Jorgensen received several of the checks drawn on O’Donnell’s campaign accounts that are the subject of the government’s case.
He told jurors that he did do some work for O’Donnell’s campaigns for senate and county commission, including creating donor spreadsheets, walking in a parade and making signs. But O’Donnell continued to send him checks drawn on campaign accounts in months when he was living and studying in Kansas City and did nothing campaign related.
The total amount he was paid over two years was $9450.
Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith why he thought O’Donnell was sending him monthly checks that he didn’t think he’d earned, Jorgensen said: “He wanted to pay me. I asked for work to do. Sometimes I did work. Sometimes I didn’t. He paid me every month. I needed the money especially when I was an undergrad at Wichita State.” He’s now a medical school student.
Defense attorney Mark Schoenhofer’s cross-examination of Jorgensen, meanwhile, suggested that O’Donnell paid Jorgensen because he considered him an asset to the campaigns and because he was ready to assist in campaign-related matters “at the drop of a hat.” Schoenhofer also suggested that Jorgensen just didn’t remember all of the work he’d done because Jorgensen kept no records of his work.
Jorgensen met and befriended O’Donnell in 2014 while working on another lawmaker’s campaign. He told jurors that he wasn’t under the impression that he was working for O’Donnell’s campaigns when he attended sports games, social events and two country music concerts in 2015 — Garth Brooks and Jason Aldean — with O’Donnell.
“Michael asked me to go as a friend,” Jorgensen testified.
10:45 a.m.: Jonathan Dennill told jurors that before he went on a two-day Aspen ski trip in December with a group of friends that included Michael O’Donnell there was no mention of it being a bonus for his photography work on O’Donnell’s campaign.
In fact, Dennill said, he only took pictures for O’Donnell one time for a fundraiser. Another time he worked for pay during a community document shredding event but not as a photographer, he testified. Prosecutors showed jurors two entries that documented his payments for those events on a campaign finance report of O’Donnell’s. The payments recorded on the report in October 2015 were $100 for “photography services” and $200 for “fundraiser worker.”
Dennill said when a friend, Colby Rankin, suggested going on the ski trip, Dennill thought “it was a good idea.” He said he rented skis in Wichita to help keep his costs down because it was his understanding that he had to pay for his portion of the trip.
Dennill says there was never any discussion in Aspen about how the expenses were to be shared or why O’Donnell was paying for activities for the group, including a movie, dinners, ski lift tickets and ski rental.
They stayed in a condo owned by a member of the Weigand family that was on loan to O’Donnell, real estate developer George Laham testified.
Dennill said about a week after the trip ended, he met O’Donnell at O’Donnell’s home, assuming he would be asked to settle up for his portion of the trip. Instead, he said, O’Donnell gave him a $1,000 check written out of his “Michael for Kansas” campaign account and asked Dennill to write him back a $1,000 check out of Dennill’s personal account.
He says he was confused about the transaction but didn’t question it. Asked why he gave O’Donnell a $1,000 check drawn on his personal account, Dennill said: “Because he asked me to.” He said he thought the checks were being swapped because he needed to pay for the ski trip, but there wasn’t any explanation or discussion that took place.
Asked by prosecutors whether he thought he got the $1,000 check for photography services, Dennill said: “No, I don’t think so.” On O’Donnell’s campaign finance report, the check was listed as a payment for photography services.
Later, under defense questioning, Dennill said he later thought of the payment as a likely bonus for his campaign work. But he said there was never any actual discussion with O’Donnell about the payment being a bonus.
He also said he was never reimbursed any money that he spent on the trip nor did he get to choose how he spent the purported bonus.
9:10 a.m.: Jurors have entered the courtroom. Assistant U.S. Attorneys call their first witness, Johnathan Dennill, one of O’Donnell’s friends who received one of the $1,000 checks at the center of the money laundering charges.
9:06 a.m.: Michael O’Donnell arrived in the courtroom around 8:30 a.m., dressed in a dark suit and bright tie. Attorneys currently are handling preliminary matters before bringing the jury in. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst told the judge she spoke with O’Donnell’s mother, Peggy O’Donnell, who is a prosecution witness, for the first time yesterday. Furst said she told her that she’s not allowed to discuss an investigation that involved her son during his time as a city councilman because that situation is supposed to be excluded from testimony by court order, but noted that she’s something of a hostile witness and might bring it up anyway.
Furst also questions the defenses filing of additional exhibits last night including photos and charts, as well as newspaper articles that appear on the defense’s exhibit list. One of the exhibits is a chart called “Summary of campaign bonus statements.” Two purported bonuses O’Donnell paid to friends who worked on his campaign are the subject of his money laundering charges.
The newspaper articles talk about issues like O’Donnell refusing pay raises.
Daily trial coverage
Background: A summary of the issues and what to expect during the trial
Day 1: Lawyers offer jurors differing views on O’Donnell’s reason for writing checks to friends
Day 2, updates: Friend says Aspen ski trip was “winter hang out,” not bonus payment
Day 2, wrap up: Trial gives glimpse of how much O’Donnell paid friends to work on campaigns
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 9:07 AM.
