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Judge Dismisses Five Remaining Charges Against Michael O'Donnell

Deborah Shaar
/
KMUW/File photo

A federal judge has agreed to dismiss the five remaining charges against Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell.

O’Donnell was acquitted earlier this week on 21 counts of wire fraud, but the jury was hung on five other charges against the former state senator.

Judge Eric Melgren on Thursday granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering without prejudice, giving the government the option to re-file the charges in the future.

O'Donnell, a Republican, was indicted last year on 26 counts of wire fraud and money laundering related to campaign expenses. Prosecutors said O’Donnell misused campaign contributions when he was a state senator and candidate for county commission.

Over the course of a five-day trial, his defense attorneys argued that there are no state laws regulating how candidates should pay their staff.

O'Donnell on Monday said he was "very relieved" at the jury's not guilty verdicts.

Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.