Former Secretary of State Charlie White is still not eligible to run for state office after a ruling from the state Court of Appeals.
In a unanimous ruling, a three judge panel of the appeals court upheld three of White‘s six felony convictions that led to his ouster as Secretary of State in February 2012 and left in place his sentence of one year of home detention - the sentence had been delayed pending his appeal.
The appeals court judges also tossed out the crux of White‘s request for a new trial - that his trial attorney, former Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, did not provide effective counsel.
White accused Brizzi of failing to mount any argument in his defense at his trial, failing to introduce certain pieces of evidence and refusing to put White on the witness stand in his defense.
"White has not established any errors by..Brizzi, therefore, there can be no cumulative error," Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik writes in her opinion.
The panel ruled that White should have only been convicted of one count of perjury instead of three; the ruling said one perjury charge was identical to another of which he was convicted - that constitutes double jeopardy, Vaidik writes.
She says the panel also tossed out one of White‘s convictions for voting in another precinct for the same reason. The other count of perjury the court dismissed was for the address White listed on his marriage license to his second wife. Vaidik wrote that White should have been charged with furnishing false information.
"We are pleased that the court of appeals vacated three of Mr. White's counts. Mr. White fully intends to exhaust all of his remedies for a full reversal," says White's attorney, Andrea Ciobanu, who also says she'll petition the Indiana Supreme Court to hear the case.
White had been charged with continuing to accept pay as a member of the Fishers Town Council even after he moved outside his district and into a home with the woman who would later become his wife. He was also accused of continuing to vote in statewide elections in his old district, using his ex-wife‘s home as his official address when he was elected Secretary of State in November 2010.
White and Brizzi have lawsuits pending against each other, which also were placed on hold during White‘s appeal.