White Case To Be Presented To Grand Jury In February

This item went largely unnoticed in the media. A few weeks back, the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette's Niki Kelly reported special prosecutor Dan Sigler plans to present evidence that Secretary of State Charlie White committed voter fraud while serving as a member of the Fishers Town Council to a grand jury in February.

Dan Sigler – a Democrat and former Adams County prosecutor – is one of the special prosecutors appointed to investigate White. He said he and his Republican colleague will present the case to a grand jury in February. Those citizens will ultimately decide whether to charge White with felony vote fraud.


“We want to make sure the decision is based on legal reasons and not political ones,” Sigler said.

The last time Sigler presented evidence to a grand jury concerning a public figure it returned an indictment against Fort Wayne Republican mayoral candidate Matt Kelty for campaign finance fraud. Kelty later pleaded guilty to felony campaign finance charges. This does not mean the grand jury hearing evidence in White's case will necessarily return an indictment against him, but the special prosecutor could have concluded his investigation without convening a grand jury if he did not believe the evidence supported an indictment. The special prosecutor could also present evidence to the grand jury even if he has personally concluded there is no evidence of voter fraud to allow citizens to reach that conclusion independently. A separate report conducted by former Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office has remained under seal pending the conclusion of the special prosecutor's investigation.