Michael O’Donnell says he spent his retirement, savings on lawyer fees. He owes more.
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell says defending himself against a federal money laundering and wire fraud case cost him around $100,000.
“I’ve had to liquidate my 401K and my retirement investments,” he told The Eagle after a judge agreed to dismiss five counts that deadlocked a jury earlier this week. Jurors found O’Donnell not guilty of 21 charges.
The case accused him of misspending $10,500 in campaign funds — about a tenth of his estimated lawyer fees.
So far, O’Donnell said he has paid about half of his legal bill with the money from his cashed-out retirement accounts. But he’s planning to look to friends and family for help with the rest, he said.
“Frankly, I don’t have that money,” he said, adding that one of his attorneys, Joshua Ney, has started a legal defense fund for him.
“I’m talking to some of my friends and family members — people that obviously know details about the case and understand what had happened and are supportive of me. But (who are) also very concerned at the way that the government handled this.”
Jurors on Monday handed federal prosecutors a rare defeat when they acquitted O’Donnell of 21 counts of wire fraud alleging the 34-year-old Republican commissioner misspent campaign funds during his 2012 and 2016 runs for public office. Jurors failed to come to a unanimous consensus on five other charges that prosecutors ultimately asked the court to drop in a written motion Wednesday evening.
U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren granted that request Thursday morning.
The dismissed charges are two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering connected to a pair of $1,000 checks O’Donnell wrote to two friends who immediately returned the money via cash or personal check. The friends testified that they didn’t know what the money was for. O’Donnell told jurors the checks were bonuses for previously unpaid campaign work.
The counts have been dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning they could potentially be refiled at a later date.
On Wednesday night in response to prosecutors’ request to dismiss the remaining charges, O’Donnell said: “I’m glad that common sense finally prevailed. I’m just sorry that it came at such an expense to taxpayers and myself.”
He elaborated on the financial toll it’s taken on him Thursday afternoon.
“All my money — I was going to be buying a new house — but all that money went to my legal defense,” he said.
“But I don’t regret it because you have to fight for your reputation and your career and your ability to be hired after you leave public service. And having a felony on my record was going to be devastating for future prospects.”
His current annual salary as a commissioner is $93,567 — about $5,000 less than his commission colleagues because he’s turned down past pay raises, according to testimony given during his trial last week.
Because more than 90 percent of defendants charged with crimes in federal court take plea deals, trials are rare. Acquittals are even more uncommon.
O’Donnell had been in plea negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office prior to his trial, but he said he refused to accept any offers because “they weren’t deals that I could live with.” The negotiations stalled on Feb. 4, according to court records.
He says he now understands “that old adage that innocent people take plea deals.”
In total, prosecutors accused him of misusing $10,500 of the $527,000 in donations he raised during this “Michael for Kansas” senate and “Michael for Sedgwick County” commission campaigns.
“How can an average person afford to defend themselves when you’re going against the government,” O’Donnell said. “It’s very scary to me how they were able to do that to me and almost destroy my life. I had some money to start defending myself. What do people that don’t have an ability to liquidate a 401K do in a situation like that?”
