Byron Alston, an employee of Rev. Charles Harrison's Ten Point Coalition, had been scheduled to go on trial beginning this past Thursday on criminal charges of income tax evasion and perjury the Marion Co. Prosecutor's Office brought against him last year following a raid of his home. On Monday, a Marion County superior criminal court hearing his case cancelled the trial and scheduled a change of plea hearing for Alston on August 25. An order for pre-sentence investigation report was also signed by Judge William Nelson, and Alston was ordered to report for probation on July 16. Publicly-accessible online records don't state the terms of Alston's plea agreement.
Howey Politics first reported on Tuesday, July 14 that Rev. Charles Harrison, facing a July 15 deadline for filing paperwork declaring his candidacy, had decided to drop his independent campaign for mayor, which Rev. Harrison confirmed in a news release to the media early Wednesday morning and subsequent media interviews. Rev. Harrison attributed his decision not to run to family concerns and reservations church officials at his Barnes United Methodist Church had with his campaign.
When law enforcement raided Alston's home in January 2014, he told reporters investigator were asking questions about an alleged $3 million payment offered by an unnamed Republican. Mayor Greg Ballard had given the Ten Points Coalition over $340,000 in crime prevention grants before its funding was cut off. Alston also asked whether he had been the victim of an extortion attempt. Rev. Harrison denounced the investigation at the time as a "witch hunt" carried out by a Democratic prosecutor in retaliation for his support of Mayor Ballard's re-election in 2011. Rev. Harrison told Fox 59 News at the time that Alston worked as a street outreach coordinator for the Ten Point Coalition and was paid a salary of $961.53 every two weeks
2 comments:
The more I read about Mr. Harrison the less confident I am of his abilities and qualifications to lead the City of Indianapolis as its mayor.
When it comes to the current crop of mayoral candidates in toto hungering for the political power of the office and all the bennies that flow from it, I remain steadfast in my conviction to never again waste my time at the polls dithering between the least of poor offerings.
I heard that a certain talk show host and his friends are upset that Reverend Harrison won't run! Gary do you know if Harrison is as noble as he claims he is?
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