Michael ODonnell has embarrassed himself and his constituents far more than a 33-year-old politician should have by this point in his career.
There was the 2011 violation of state ethics law, when he sent a campaign e-mail for a friend from a government computer while in a City Council meeting.
In the Kansas Senate, he was criticized for living rent- and tax-free during his City Council tenure in a home owned by a church where his father is pastor.
In 2016, ODonnell was investigated by Wichita police for bringing two cases of beer to a birthday party where underage students attended. ODonnell admitted giving the beer to a woman turning 21. Police closed the case because of a lack of evidence and elements of a crime.
Last August, a day before his 33rd birthday, the new Sedgwick County commissioner was seen in and around a Sunrise Christian Academy van that contained beer and whiskey in a Kansas City Royals parking lot. The private school in Bel Aire, once attended by ODonnell and where his mother works, said the vehicle had been loaned to someone and then loaned to another person without the schools knowledge or permission.
Now, ODonnell has reached major-league embarrassment: federal charges of converting campaign funds to ODonnells personal use or to give friends for non-campaign purposes. The allegations include 23 checks totaling $10,500, making beer in a Christian school van seem trivial.
So this is where we call for ODonnell to resign his seat on the Sedgwick County Commission. Except were not.
Innocent until proven guilty is more than a holier-than-thou line from a defense attorney in a courtroom drama. We assume guilt and move on far too often in an America dominated by 24-hour news cycles and social media.
That shouldnt be the case here. ODonnell gets a chance to defend himself, and since the allegations are not related to his work on the County Commission, he should remain on the commission if he chooses or District Attorney Marc Bennett can move to suspend him from office while a court case is active.
Make no mistake, the charges are abhorrent. An elected official is held to higher standards as someone who looks out for best interests of residents, and if ODonnells proven to have removed more than $10,000 from campaign funds illegally, he should not only be booted off the County Commission but should see jail time.
But lets get there through the judicial process.
Plenty of others have called for ODonnell to resign. Commissioner Richard Ranzau has been loudest, pointing out that the public has known for more than a year that ODonnell was the subject of FBI wiretaps and that it created a dark cloud over the commission. Ranzau has accused ODonnell of using his clout as a commissioner to help friends and campaign contributors.
ODonnell has not spoken publicly since the charges were made public Friday. His first court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Voters seem to like ODonnell, a conservative Republican, at whatever level of government hes aimed for. First a City Council member, he won a heated 2012 Kansas Senate primary over moderate Jean Schodorf at the height of former Gov. Sam Brownbacks conservative wave.
ODonnell then ran for Sedgwick County Commission in 2016, defeating four-term incumbent Tim Norton.
