Former Rep. Sean Eberhart, center, exits the U.S. Courthouse in Indianapolis after a sentencing on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. He is accompanied by his counsel and a friend. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
INDIANAPOLIS — A former state lawmaker representing part of Bartholomew County was not taken into custody after being sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison on a corruption charge, court records show.
Former Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, was sentenced this week to one year and a day in federal prison, according to court records in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. Eberhart also was fined $25,000 and given one year of supervised release.
However, following the sentencing hearing Eberhart was “released on conditions previously imposed” and is expected to “self-surrender to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons,” according to court filings. Eberhart was released “pending further proceedings” following a change of plea hearing in November.
Currently, it is unclear when Eberhart is required to report to prison, where he will serve his sentence or why he was not taken into custody following the hearing. The former lawmaker was not listed in the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ database of inmates as of Friday afternoon.
“Sometimes the court can delay their report date based on certain circumstances, but typically it is 30 to 60 days,” said Kelsie Clayton, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
Eberhart, who represented Indiana House District 57 from 2006 to November 2022, was facing up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud last year.
The district included the eastern half of Bartholomew County until the district was redrawn following the U.S. Census.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors asked the judge to impose a sentence on “the low-end of the applicable guideline range determined by this court, a fine of $25,000, and impose a term of two years of supervised release,” according to a sentencing memorandum.
“This criminal’s former constituents, and all Hoosiers, rightfully expect elected officials to act on the public’s behalf, and not to line their own pockets,” Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said following Eberhart’s sentencing. “Legislation must not be for sale to the highest bidder, especially when they have such a tremendous impact on our state and its economy. Public office is a public trust, and those who break that trust by taking bribes will be identified and held accountable. The federal prison sentence imposed today demonstrates our office’s commitment to root out public corruption at all levels of government and uphold the law regardless offenders’ status or position.”
The charges stemmed from efforts by Spectacle Entertainment to purchase two casinos on Lake Michigan in Gary and their state licenses and relocate them to inland locations in downtown Gary and Terre Haute, according to federal court filings.
Purchases and relocations of casinos in Indiana must be approved through the passage of a bill by both chambers of the state legislature and signed by the governor.
In 2019, a bill was introduced in the House Committee on Public Policy and later the House floor that would allow Spectacle to purchase the casinos and relocate them.
Eberhart was a member of the House Committee on Public Policy at the time, which had jurisdiction over matters concerning casinos and gaming in Indiana.
Around that time, an owner of Spectacle, identified in court records as “Individual A,” offered Eberhart future employment at Spectacle with an annual salary of $350,000 in exchange for advocating and voting to pass the bill on terms that were favorable to Spectacle.
Those terms included, among other things, reducing the originally proposed $100 million transfer fee that Spectacle would be required to pay to acquire the licenses of the two casinos and favorable tax incentives, court records state. The transfer fee was ultimately reduced to $20 million.
In March 2019, Eberhart advocated for removing the $100 million transfer fee from the bill during a House Committee on Public Policy hearing.
According to coverage by The (Munster) Times in March 2019, Eberhart “questioned the need to attach a $100 million fee” to relocation of the casinos.
“To me that’s a tough one to swallow,” Eberhart is quoted as saying. “That’s an extreme amount of money. If we had a private company, whether that’s a manufacturer or some other private company, come to us and say, ‘Hey, we want to invest $300 million on the Borman in Gary and want to invest $150 million in Terre Haute,’ we’d get out our checkbooks as the state of Indiana. We would be writing them a check. We would be giving them incentives. We would be begging them to make that investment.”
In April 2019, Eberhart communicated with an unidentified individual regarding the status of the bill and efforts to “make it write for (Individual A).” That same month, Eberhart advocated for a 20% tax rate that would save Spectacle tens of millions of dollars.
Court filings include alleged text messages from Eberhart to an unidentified individual in which the former lawmaker states, “We’ve got work to do and 2 casinos to open.”
