Attorney: Ex-MSD official Barton wants to be sentenced last

Douglas Walker
Muncie Star Press

MUNCIE, Ind. — A U.S. District Court hearing scheduled for next week — at which former Muncie Sanitary District official Tracy Barton was set to plead guilty to a corruption-related charge and be sentenced — has been postponed.

The Delaware County man has signed an agreement calling for him to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson granted a request from Barton's attorney — Michael Donahoe of Indianapolis — to cancel the guilty plea hearing, which had been scheduled for Feb. 4.

In his motion, Donahoe said he had consulted with federal prosecutors, and "the parties believe it is best that Mr. Barton be sentenced after the cases of all co-defendants have been resolved."

In all, nine people have been charged as a result of a years-long federal investigation of corruption in former Mayor Dennis Tyler's administration and the sanitary district.

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Three of those defendants — Tyler, former city building commissioner Craig Nichols and local businessman Jeffrey Burke — have entered guilty pleas and received prison sentences.

Barton officially has four co-defendants: Nikki Grigsby, who is also a former MSD official; retired Muncie police officer Jess Neal; contractor Tony Franklin and Phil Nichols, former local Democratic Party chairman.

They are accused of participating in a conspiracy, between 2015 and 2018, to award bids for Muncie Sanitary District projects "in exchange for cash bribes and kickbacks, benefits or property."

Neal is scheduled on Feb. 2 to plead guilty, also to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and be sentenced.

Franklin and Grigsby have also signed agreements with the U.S. Attorney's office, although hearings at which they would enter guilty pleas have not yet been scheduled.

Phi Nichols is the only defendant in the federal probe who to date has not struck a plea deal with prosecutors.

His trial — on counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and witness tampering — is set for June 6, in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.

The hearing at which Barton would plead guilty and be sentenced is now scheduled, at least tentatively, for June 24.

Barton also was a player in the events leading to former Mayor Tyler's 2021 conviction for theft of government funds.

Authorities said Barton delivered to the then-mayor a $5,000 cash payment, in December 2015, from a local business owner who had been awarded city contracts.

Evidence in the case also included a later phone conversation — recorded by FBI agents —between Barton and Tyler.

Tyler — sentenced to a year in federal prison after pleading guilty in November — reported in late December to the Morgantown Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia.

A website operated by the federal prison system indicates Tyler is scheduled to be released on Oct. 29.

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Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.