Paul Bateman To Plead Guilty?

Advance Indiana hears that former Indianapolis City-County Councilor Paul Bateman is planning to enter a guilty plea rather than face trial next month on charges of defrauding an Indianapolis physician out of $1.7 million by convincing him to donate the money to the Russell Foundation he and his co-conspirators established as part of a ruse to line their own pockets. One of Bateman's co-conspirators, Michael Russell, agreed to plead guilty this past week to 20 countes of wire fraud and money laundering. According to U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett, Russell, Bateman and Manuel Gonzalez used the money donated to the foundation by the physician for entertainment, clothes, jewelry, travel, vehicles, rent and more instead of the charitable purposes for which they claimed the money was being sought. Bateman would become the second councilor in recent years to be covicted of public corruption. Councilor Lincoln Plowman was found guilty in 2011 on bribery and attempted extortion charges.