Federal Judge Accepts Former Chief Deputy Prosecutor's Plea Deal In Bribery Case

Federal District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker accepted a guilty plea for the former Chief Deputy Prosecutor in the Marion Co. Prosecutor's Office, David Wyser, on a single count of bribery. According to the stipulated facts in Wyser's plea deal, Wyser discussed the receipt of a $2,500 campaign contribution with the attorney for a woman convicted of hiring a man to murder her husband while discussing a modified prison sentence that would allow her to be immediately released from prison for the time she had already served. Weeks after the prisoner's father wrote the $2,500 check to Wyser's campaign committee in his race for Hamilton Co. prosecutor, Wyser signed a modified prison sentence agreement for Paula Willoughby, which was later approved by a Marion Co. superior court judge.

As part of the plea agreement, Wyser has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators in ongoing public corruption probes, which may include his ex-boss, former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who received $30,000 in campaign contributions from Willoughby's father, as well as the attorney for Willoughby, who hosted a political fundraiser for Wyser in her downtown condo and discussed receiving a campaign contribution from Willoughby's father the same day that he wrote out a check for $2,500 to Wyser's campaign committee. Jessie Willoughby, the sister of the murder victim, told the Star's Tim Evans that her family was never notified by Brizzi or Wyser concerning the proposed sentence modification of her brother's killer. They learned about it from media reports according to Evans.