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.
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.”
