Bender residency case referred to Indiana Attorney General, Monroe County Prosecutor

By Marissa Meador marnmead@iu.edu | @marissa_meador

The Monroe County Election Board referred the case of David Wolfe Bender, an IU student and Democratic nominee for city council, to Monroe County Prosecutor Erika Oliphant and Attorney General Todd Rokita on Thursday, concluding the board's months-long investigation into Bender's residency.

During the hearing, Bender said he did not knowingly file a fraudulent report when he filled out his declaration of candidacy and voter registration form and apologized for the “chaos” of the past few months. However, board members voted unanimously to send his case to the Monroe County prosecutor.

The violations considered in the hearing were IC 3-14-1-13 and 3-14-3-1.1, which both refer to fraudulent reports. The first refers to a candidate who knowingly files a false report, while the latter refers to filing a false voter registration application. Both are Level 6 felonies, which is the least serious type of felony under Indiana law.

A Level 6 Felony requires a prison sentence, which ranges from six months to two and a half years. However, a court can enter a judgement of a Class A misdemeanor, particularly if it is a first offense. This does not require jail time but has a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

A history of the investigation into Bender’s residency

In January, Bender changed his voter registration from a residence in District 4 to a house in District 6. On candidate forms, he claimed the District 6 address as his residence, but an IDS investigation found Bender did not live there, according to residents of the address.

In March, the election board granted an official investigation into Bender's residency following a formal complaint from William Ellis, the vice chair of the Monroe County Republican Party. In the months since, questions surrounding Bender’s residency had gone mostly unanswered.

While planning for an official hearing, the board received correspondence from Manny Herceg, Bender’s former lawyer, implying the three-person board, composed of two Democrats and a Republican, had political motivations for investigating Bender. He also told the board Bender intended to withdraw from the race after the primary election.

In a letter to the board on April 6, Bender said he fired Herceg in part due to how the lawyer communicated with the board. Bender hired a new lawyer, Allison Chopra, and said he planned to continue to run by filing paperwork in a recently obtained separate address in District 6.

Bender takes the stand

Facing more than an hour of questioning from the board, Bender repeatedly said he believed his sublease was valid and that he complied with the law.

Bender claimed he believed a friend was a tenant for the property when Bender signed the sublease agreement with him. Bender said he found out after the fact – either in late February or