Judge denies move to schedule Michael O’Donnell’s trial on county election day

A judge has denied an attempt by Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell to push back the date on his wire fraud and money laundering trial, but the trial is still likely to get pushed back anyway.

O’Donnell’s lawyer filed a motion Monday asking that the trial be moved to Nov. 6.

That would have put the first day of trial on election day, when voters will select three county commissioners.

O’Donnell is in the middle of his four-year term and not on the ballot this year. He continues to serve on the commission pending the outcome of the charges.

Richard Ranzau, who’s been O’Donnell’s No. 1 critic on the commission, will be up for a re-election on Nov. 6.

Ranzau is the only commissioner to have called on O’Donnell to resign after the grand jury indictment was handed up in May.

Judge Eric Melgren quickly turned O’Donnell’s request down, saying it didn’t follow the proper procedure.

“Counsel may seek a continuance of a period of time, but they may not condition the continuance upon hearings being rescheduled for specific dates without regard to the Court’s other scheduled matters, unless they have cleared those dates with the Court in advance,” Melgren wrote in an order denying the motion.

That doesn’t mean that O’Donnell’s trial won’t get delayed. It probably will.

O’Donnell’s lawyer, Mark Schoenhofer, almost immediately refiled the motion without specific dates, seeking to move the trial to “sometime in early November, on a date that meets with the Court’s calendar.”

The U.S. attorney’s office has filed a second indictment in the case and Schoenhofer indicated in court Friday that he would probably seek a delay to prepare to challenge it.

In the open-court hearing Friday, Melgren denied O’Donnell’s request to drop the charges.

The judge disagreed with the defense contention that the charges should be pursued in state court instead of federal court.

However, Melgren acknowledged that the second indictment, called a superseding indictment, would likely lead to more defense motions and that he expected that trial would not begin on Sept. 18 as currently scheduled.

O’Donnell faces 26 charges, all related to alleged misuse of campaign funds.

Prosecutors allege O’Donnell illegally converted campaign contributions for his personal use and/or gave campaign money to friends for non-campaign purposes.