Trial hearing postponed for former Fort Wayne mayoral candidate

FORT WAYNE – A judge has postponed until early February a hearing on nine criminal indictments against defeated Fort Wayne mayoral candidate Matt Kelty.\nThe hearing scheduled for this Monday was delayed until Feb. 8, according to documents filed Thursday in Allen Superior Court.\nJudge Kenneth Scheibenberger granted a request by both sides for more time.\nSpecial Prosecutor Daniel Sigler had sought more time to respond to a defense motion to dismiss the charges that argued Kelty did not break any laws.\nKelty’s attorneys, meanwhile, asked for more time to respond to Sigler’s response.\nA grand jury issued the indictments against Kelty in August, alleging that he improperly handled campaign contributions and lied in his testimony to the grand jury.\nFive of the counts deal with how Kelty reported a $150,000 loan he received from Fred Rost, former campaign chairman and head of Allen County Right to Life, and another $10,000 he received from Steve and Glenna Jehl, his campaign managers.\nAlthough Kelty initially reported he loaned his campaign $140,000 and $8,000 in late December, after he defeated Nelson Peters in the Republican primary in May, Kelty disclosed the money originally came from personal loans from Rost and the Jehls.\nHis attorneys argue there is no Indiana law that says a candidate cannot borrow money from a personal acquaintance or friend, nor one that prohibits a candidate from loaning the proceeds of a prior loan to his or her campaign committee, according to court documents.\nKelty, a Republican, lost to Democrat Tom Henry in the Nov. 6 general election.