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Muncie corruption defendants receive August trial date
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. While history suggests postponements are a possibility, no fewer than five defendants charged in a years-long federal probe of corruption in Muncie city government are set to stand trial Aug. 2.
The trials should they take place would be held in three courtrooms at the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in downtown Indianapolis.
In one courtroom, Phil Nichols, former Delaware County Democratic Party chairman, would stand trial with former Muncie Police officer Jess Neal and local contractor Tony Franklin.
They are charged in connection with big-rigging allegations tied to Muncie Sanitary District projects during the administration of then-Mayor Dennis Tyler.
INDIANAPOLIS Nearly three years after he was indicted by a U.S. District Court grand jury investigating local government corruption, ex-Muncie Sanitary District official Tracy Barton has agreed to enter a guilty plea.
A 29-page plea agreement signed last week by Barton, a 51-year-old Delaware County resident, details among other things his alleged delivery of a $5,000 bribe from a contractor to then-Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler in December 2015.
The deal calls for Barton who was the sanitary district’s superintendent of sewer maintenance and engineering for five years before his September 2018 indictment to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.