Yes. Work at a prison. Not be in prison. Work at a prison.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

From the Courier-Journal:

The state has hired former legislator Dennie Oxley Jr. of English to be a program director at the Branchville Correctional Facility in Perry County.

Oxley, a former teacher and school administrator, is set to begin Feb. 8 and will be responsible for the development, implementation and coordination of programs and projects “to help meet strategic goals of reducing recidivism and preparing offenders for re-entry,” said Doug Garrison, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Correction.

Oxley, who will earn $52,000 annually, will also be responsible for helping to assist the medium-security prison in its accreditation process. Branchville has about 1,300 inmates.

Oxley did not return a call Friday seeking comment about the new position.

Oxley served in the Indiana House for 10 years, eventually moving up to majority whip, but did not seek re-election in 2008 after Democrats picked him to be the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor. He ran with gubernatorial nominee Jill Long Thompson but the pair lost to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman.

Later, Oxley ran into trouble with the law. Last month, he pleaded guilty to a charge of impersonating a public servant and was sentenced to three months probation in Crawford County.

That charge stemmed from an incident last summer in which police say he tried to avoid arrest on a public intoxication charge by pretending he was still a member of the General Assembly. The Indiana Constitution generally makes lawmakers immune from prosecution while the General Assembly is in session.

Police said they found Oxley walking away from a woman lying in the parking lot of a downtown Indianapolis gas station. The woman was a former Indiana House intern.

Earlier last year, Oxley was charged with drunken driving in connection with a minor traffic accident in Crawford County.

Corrections Commissioner Edwin Buss inquired about Oxley’s record before the hire but “didn’t believe it should disqualify him from state service,” Garrison said.

Because of a statewide hiring freeze, Oxley’s appointment also had to be approved by the State Strategic Hiring Committee. The committee determines whether positions meet requirements to be exempted from the freeze.

You can read a rehash of the Oxley saga here.

Bet you never thought you’d see the day that Speaker Pat “The Hair” Bauer loosened his iron fist enough to let the property tax caps pass out of the House.

It probably would have been the lead story in state politics, were it not for events down south (which got much more attention, at least in these parts).

From the Indy Star:

Lawmakers in the Indiana House voted this afternoon to place property-tax caps into the state constitution.

The 75-23 vote by the Democrat-controlled House was viewed as the most difficult legislative hurdle left to making the tax limits permanent in Indiana’s founding document.

Now, a vote before the Republican-controlled Senate is the only remaining step before voters would have the final say in the November election.

(Read more after the leap)

Twitter feeds of Mike Murphy and Jackie Walorski announced HB1001, the ethics “reform” package, passed the House 97-2.

Representatives Tim Brown (R-41) and Dave Wolkins (R-18) voted no on final passage of the bill. Dennie Oxley (D-73) was absent, due to his illness.

I’m sure some people won’t agree with all of these, but disagreeing is what these lists are for anyway. Just posting it like I see it.

Winners

Conservatives – If you had written one of these lists at the start of 2009, you would almost certainly have not predicted that conservatives (or Republicans, for that matter) would be looking ahead with hope to the 2010 elections. You also probably wouldn’t have predicted that public opinion on everything from health care to the generic Congressional ballot to deficits to the very role of government in our lives would now be tilted in favor of conservatives (and, to a lesser extent, Republicans).

Mitch Daniels – Despite his local government reform agenda stalling in the House during the legislative session, the Governor rolled over Pat Bauer in the budget fight. He went down to the wire to protect the state’s reserves. Those reserves are now going to be used to save the state from even deeper cuts in education and other services. Had the reserves been spent, as Bauer and the Democrats wanted, the cuts Indiana is looking at in 2010 would be even deeper. Did I mention that he’s getting a lot of presidential buzz for 2012 and his national profile has increased?

Richard Mourdock – You couldn’t have predicted the rise of Richard Mourdock at the start of 2009. The normally-quiet state treasurer from Indiana went to the Supreme Court to try and stop the Obama administration from seizing Chrysler and screwing Indiana pensioners out of millions. In the process, Mourdock has found his voice and has become a hero to the Tea Party movement. Provided he weathers the vengeance of Obama and his minions in 2010, Mourdock’s future for 2012 could be bright indeed.

Dan Burton – That Dan Burton would face a primary challenge again in 2010 could have been predicted. What could not have been so easily predicted was that he would face so many opponents that the “anti-Burton vote” would be so split as to make his primary victory (and thus reelection) almost certain.

(Read more after the leap)

Alliteration! It’s a word you haven’t heard since high school English.

Anyway, Tuesday’s Indianapolis Star outlines a proposal by Todd Rokita to change how Indiana draws its legislative and Congressional maps.

Don’t get me wrong. One look at the districts held by Steve Buyer or Dennie Oxley would be enough to tell anyone that Indiana needs a change in its redistricting process. But Rokita’s proposal doesn’t really change things.

The Star:

(Read more after the leap)

H/T to Frugal Hoosiers

As was reported this morning, former State Rep (but in his drunken mind a current state rep) and former LG candidate Dennie Oxley has turned himself in.

Via the Indy Star:

A deputy cuffed a former state legislator this morning in a courtroom after he surrendered on a warrant to face charges arising from a drunken incident.

Dennie Oxley II will be held today until he posts a $500 cash bond on charges of impersonation of a public servant and public intoxication. Prosecutors filed the charges Wednesday on accusations that a drunken Oxley, 38, avoided arrest early Friday at a Downtown Indianapolis gas station by claiming to be a legislator working in the special session, a status that would give him limited immunity under the Indiana Constitution.

Oxley, who lives in English, Ind., turned himself in at the City-County Building about 8 a.m. at the Failure to Appear office, despite an earlier arrangement with prosecutors to surrender Wednesday at the Arrestee Processing Center.

Rick Kammen, Oxley’s attorney, told Marion Superior Court Pro-Tem Judge Steve Allen during a hearing this morning that he took responsibility for miscommunication Wednesday.

Kammen changed the plan after learning that media outlets were waiting for Oxley outside the APC, he said, and “my goal was to avoid unnecessary publicity.”

Allen set the $500 bond, then ordered that Oxley be taken into custody at the request of David Wyser, the prosecutor’s chief trial deputy, who said Oxley shouldn’t receive any special treatment.

But Allen denied Wyser’s request that Oxley be sent to jail without bond until a special prosecutor handling Oxley’s pending drunken driving case in Crawford County could decide whether to seek a revocation of his bond there. Those charges stem from an incident in February.

When Indianapolis police arrived at the Citgo station about 1 a.m. Friday, Oxley was walking away, carrying a pair of high-heeled shoes that belonged to a 21-year-old woman who had been working in the legislative session. She lay facedown on the ground at the station, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Police released Oxley to the custody of a friend amid the confusion about his legislative status. The Democrat left his Indiana House seat last year to run for lieutenant governor on Jill Long Thompson’s losing ticket.

“There are two sides to every story,” Kammen said after the court hearing, but he declined to elaborate on his client’s account. “The public will definitely see that there is more than what has been reported.”

The story of Dennie Oxley, one time middling State Rep who recently was a “special advisor to Pat “the Hair” Bauer continues to ge worse.  According to Frugal Hoosiers, Oxley is currently on the lam, after an warrant was issued for his arrest this afternoon.  This was after Oxley had promised to turn himself in by 1:00 today.

But we have been able to get a copy of the police report along with his probable cause affidavit.

(Images are clickable)(Read the rest after the leap)

The saga of Dennie Ray Oxley II is nothing new to readers of this blog, but it continues to unfold in ways both amusing and tragic.

In the wee hours Friday morning, the Democrats’ former lieutenant governor candidate–drunk out of his gourd and his speech slurring–was found in the parking lot of a downtown Indianapolis gas station trying to run away from a passed-out House intern (or former intern?) who was shoeless and face down on the ground.

When approached about the girl–reported to be one Kristin Dowlut, apparently the niece of State Rep. David Niezgodski (D, South Bend)–by the gas station attendant Oxley declared in slurred speech that he “wasn’t going to touch her.”

When police arrived, Oxley tried to hide behind a nearby car.

When police discovered his cunning hiding place, he declared that he was a member of the state legislature–he isn’t–which was currently in special session and that he therefore couldn’t be arrested and had immunity granted by the state constitution. Oxley is currently a staffer for Speaker Pat “The Hair” Bauer.

It was also reported that he was carrying the intern’s shoes and did not know where he was or how he got there.

Officers, who called the incident in, apparently believed that young Oxley was his father (also Dennie Ray Oxley, who won his son’s seat back last November while the son ran for governor). They were instructed not to arrest Oxley on the mistaken belief that he was a legislator.

This is, to put it lightly, not an auspicious stop on the Dennie Ray Oxley II Image Rehabilitation Tour, which began when Oxley was the speaker at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner of the Harrison County Democrats back in April. Since then, the Democrats have moved on (just as of this week) to hunt for a new Secretary of State placeholder; hopefully this turn of events did not drive young Oxley to drink.

Earlier this year, in February, Oxley was arrested for a DUI in Crawford County. His blood alcohol level in that incident was twice the legal limit. It was initially reported that he had a passenger with him, something reflected in the charges. The passenger later disappeared; it was claimed that they were never there in the first place. It has also been rumored that the car Oxley was driving during that incident had state representative plates.

That incident was not the first of Oxley’s run-ins while drinking. Many were rumored to have occurred before and been swept under the rug by the Democrats’ good old boy network. Similarly, this is not the first rumor I have heard about Dennie Oxley having way too much to drink in Indianapolis, nor the first rumor I’ve heard about him cavorting with young House interns.

He doesn’t appear to have learned anything from the February incident, and has now dragged a poor young girl into a tangled web created by his drunken behavior. Over at Blue Indiana, a commenter lamented:

Why is this a surprise to anyone?

This is the way he behaved while in office. Thank God the Dem ticket didn’t win last year, even though I voted for it.

I don’t think the LG gets a police driver now, does (s)he?

He’s a clod and a social misfit. Always was, always will be.

Here are the various stories about second Oxley incident (including video… yes, video). An archive of posts about the Int-Oxley-cated saga follows at the end.

The Courier-Journal:

(Read more after the leap)

Yeah, I told you so.

From the Courier-Journal:

Crawford County Prosecutor Cheryl Hillenburg filed a motion asking to withdraw from the case and for the appointment of a special prosecutor because of ties that she and her family have to Oxley and his family.

Hillenburg’s motion asking for a special prosecutor said she, her husband and her chief deputy “have participated in numerous fund-raising events” for Oxley. The motion also said the prosecutor’s husband, attorney Stanley Pennington, has represented Oxley and his family in a civil capacity.

Oxley is scheduled to appear in Crawford Circuit Court tomorrow. Hillenburg said her withdrawal means Oxley won’t be officially charged until a special prosecutor is appointed but the hearing may go on with Oxley being presented a copy of her motion for a special prosecutor.

Meanwhile, more on the infamous disappearing passenger (or the passenger that wasn’t, or whatever the story is now):

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Two more stories in the Courier-Journal today on Dennie Oxley’s drunken joyride over the weekend.

First:

Former state Rep. Dennie Oxley of English said yesterday that he “made an error in judgment” involving a car crash that resulted in his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving.

Oxley’s blood-alcohol concentration after the incident Friday night was 0.17 percent, more than twice the 0.08 level at which a person is presumed to be intoxicated under Indiana law, according to a report by the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department.

“I take full responsibility. I make no excuses, and I expect no special treatment,” Oxley said in a statement.

The 38-year-old Democrat, who gave up his House seat to run for lieutenant governor last year, expressed relief that no one was injured when his car struck a parked vehicle in Taswell.

“I know that I have let folks down,” he said. “I simply want them to know that I will work every day to earn back their confidence.”

Chief Deputy Andy Beals of the Crawford County sheriff’s department said Oxley, who was traveling with a passenger, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated with a blood-alcohol content of greater than 0.15 percent and driving while intoxicated with endangering a person.

Both charges are Class A misdemeanors.

Oxley, driving a 2007 Chevrolet Impala, struck a parked 1992 Ford Explorer, doing between $10,000 and $25,000 damage to the two vehicles, according to the report.

Oxley is scheduled to appear in Crawford Circuit Court on Thursday on the official charges, which had not been filed late yesterday.

Oxley was released from the county jail and did not need to be hospitalized. The crash report did not give any information on his passenger, and the sheriff’s department refused to release that information.

Where to begin?

I’d like to have a 1992 Explorer that could have $10,000 to $25,000 in damage done to it without being totalled. That must be some Explorer. And if the damage is that bad–on virtually any car–you’re talking not just some fender bender or light impact. You’re generally talking about a vehicle that has been rendered a total loss by a pretty significant encounter with another car (earlier speculation about a sporty luxury import can be dispelled; Oxley wrecked a Chevy Impala). One also has to logically think that the Impala, being a car, probably took even more damage than the Explorer, being an SUV.

I wonder how fast he was driving and if the airbag deployed on his car from the impact.

More importantly, the 0.17 level is over twice the legal limit (a legal limit that Oxley opposed in 1998 but voted to establish in 2001).

Notice the amount of discussion in the aforementioned article (and in prior articles as well, here, here, and here) concerning the passenger.

Well, in its second story, the Courier-Journal says that this passenger, well, was disappeared. Or never existed in the first place. Or something.

(Read more after the leap)

News is still coming in about former state representative and defeated Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Dennie Oxley’s drunk driving escapade back over the weekend.

If this were anyone else in the area (assuming it isn’t swept under the rug, which I guess could still happen even with the press and attention it has gotten), Oxley would likely face charges of reckless driving and public intoxication (misdemeanors), leading to a period on probation and some fines or fees being paid. Those charges could be upgraded depending on circumstance (prior history, minors in the car, et cetera; those don’t seem likely from what I hear). If it gets to a felony level and there is a conviction (or even a plea-down from a felony to a misdemeanor), Oxley would no longer be able to run for office in Indiana.

Oxley’s biggest loss, of course, will probably be in not being able to have Dan Parker hang him out to dry with the other Democratic statewide candidates in November of 2010.

However, Crawford County is a tight-knit community and Oxley is a public figure. Oxley is also a Democrat, as are nearly all elected officials in Crawford County, including (notably) the prosecutor.

For that reason (and others), it is entirely possible that the Oxley case would not be handled by the county prosecutor and county judge if charges are filed and could instead go before a special judge and special prosecutor (in the event of conflicts). If that happens, even a minor case like this might well drag on forever; Indiana could have a new Secretary of State by the time it is resolved.

Once the charges are filed by the prosecutor (assuming they are filed), the police report and associated documents will become public record. I will try to post copies of them when they are available.

In the meantime, in memory of happier days, enjoy these two videos of Dennie Ray II.

(After the leap)