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Attorney found guilty but mentally ill in attack

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A Hamilton County jury found an attorney guilty but mentally ill on the five counts he faced following his attack on a state representative nearly a year ago.

Augustus Mendenhall was convicted of Class A felonies attempted murder and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury; Class B felonies aggravated battery and criminal confinement; and Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement.

Mendenhall attacked Rep. Edward Delaney, D-Indianapolis, who is also an attorney, in October 2009 in Carmel. Mendenhall arranged to meet with DeLaney, who believed Mendenhall wanted to meet to discuss a possible property purchase. A passerby saw the two in a car, knew DeLaney and thought he may be in trouble and called police.

When police arrived, they found Mendenhall on top of DeLaney hitting him. Mendenhall had a gun, but it didn’t fire when he pulled the trigger. DeLaney suffered numerous injuries in the attack, including broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Mendenhall had a long-standing grudge against the attorney, blaming DeLaney for his family’s legal issues. DeLaney worked on a 1983 case involving Mendenhall’s father, Burke, who owned a building that was going to be rented to an adult bookstore. DeLaney’s mall-developer client filed a suit to stop it. The Marion County Prosecutor filed a civil suit to seize the bookstore and the case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mendenhall ultimately won, but by then he had agreed to not rent to the bookstore.

Mendenhall, who was admitted to the bar in 2008, was suspended by the Indiana Supreme Court in June. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 15.
 

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  1. vagueness cannot challenged, so let's write all laws vaguely and throw the constitution out the window.Even if the court is operating under a particular law, if they don't it they will change it to their liking. What a joke!!!

  2. Two convictions becomes one conviction with exactly the same sentence, only it is not clear wheter or not that sentence will be 18 months, 120 months or 138 months. Actually if the guns were in a home, whether or not they were his, he is protected under the 2nd amendment. Jurors need to learn the law and the constitution before judging others. The cour5ts need to do this as well.

  3. With all due respect, Rick, I think you probably would be making a mistake by going to law school. The job market for attorneys is so saturated, you may well find yourself unemployed and with a lot of debt. You mention law would be a good supplement to your skills. True. But employers unfortunately don't value that. You will find that a law degree may well pigeonhole you into an attorney slot and limit career options. If you have a good job now I would hold onto that. As an attorney, you may well end up making less with the aforementioned debt.

  4. Jack, I was only responding to bill's comment of tying everybody in government together. I agree with you though, it takes one bad apple to ruin the bunch.. As in any profession. What's truly unfair is when somebody violates someone's trust and takes complete advantage of someone

  5. John’s comment is unfair. The majority of attorneys can be trusted. Unfortunately, all it takes is one greedy, unscrupulous, immoral attorney to jade the public.

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