WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Opening remarks Monday in the trial of a former Kansas legislator offered jurors contrasting portrayals of his handling of campaign funds.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell is accused of fraudulently taking $10,500 from campaign fundsfor his personal use. He faces 23 federal counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering related to his state and county campaign funds.

Jury selection took up most of the first day of the proceedings. The trial before U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren is expected to last five days.

The prosecution’s opening statement outlined O’Donnell’s extraordinary access to resources through his elected position and his access to campaign donations through his state and county campaigns. Prosecutors say he was a great fundraiser.

The defense in its remarks focused on explaining the legitimacy of the campaign funds, saying nothing illegal occurred and the checks were for legitimate work done on behalf of his campaign.

The indictment alleges O’Donnell wrote a series of checks in 2015 and 2016 from his “Michael for Kansas” and “Michael for Sedgwick County” campaigns to various people who would cash the checks. Prosecutors alleged some of the money went into his personal checking account and some to friends.

O’Donnell, a Wichita Republican, was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 2012 for a term that ended in January 2017. He did not run for re-election and instead ran for and won a seat on the Sedgwick County Commission. His term began in 2017 and is set to expire in 2020.

He remains free on bond and continues to serve as county commissioner.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas legislator accused of fraudulently taking $10,500 from campaign funds for his personal use goes to trial Monday in federal court in Wichita.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering related to his state and county campaign funds.

Defense attorney Mark Shoenhofer said that his client was innocent of the allegations when the charges were initially unsealed in May. O’Donnell and his attorneys did not immediately return messages left this week seeking comment.

The trial before U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren is expected to last five days.

O’Donnell, a Wichita Republican, was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 2012 for a term that ended in January 2017. He did not run for re-election and instead ran for and won a term on the Sedgwick County Commission that began in 2017 and is set to expire in 2020.

The indictment outlines a scheme whereby O’Donnell allegedly wrote a series of checks in 2015 and 2016 from his “Michael for Kansas” and “Michael for Sedgwick County” campaigns to various people who would cash the checks. Prosecutors alleged some of the money went into his personal checking account and some to friends. The indictment identifies the people who cashed the checks only by their initials.

Defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully last year to get charges dismissed, saying “overzealous prosecution” sometimes occurs when prosecutors throw a wide net on criminal corruption. His attorneys argued O’Donnell came to law enforcement’s attention during an investigation of other people in Wichita suspected of illegal gambling. Prosecutors subsequently indicted several local residents, including law enforcement officials, stemming from that gambling probe.

Several people, including then-Gov. Sam Brownback and other state officials, received notification letters in 2017 from the U.S. Justice Department telling them that the federal government intercepted phone calls between them and O’Donnell’s phone number. O’Donnell, a conservative known in part for championing tougher rules for welfare recipients, was a political ally of Brownback who won his legislative seat in the 2012 purge of Senate moderates.

He remains free on bond and continues to serve as county commissioner.

Attorney Austin Parker held a news conference in November during which he claimed three commissioners tried to fire then-County Manager Michael Scholes after he cooperated in the FBI investigation of O’Donnell. Parker, who represents then-County Counselor Eric Yost, told reporters there is an FBI investigation into that effort and that Yost had been interviewed twice by FBI agents on that subject.

It is unclear whether that investigation is ongoing, but no charges related to Yost’s allegations have been filed. Kate Flavin, the county’s spokeswoman, said there have been no further developments.

Scholes and Yost left their county positions after reaching termination settlements with the commission.

Commission Chairman David Dennis said in a statement released through Flavin it was not appropriate to comment on O’Donnell’s case because the charges are not related to the county.

HUTCHINSON — A man who was extradited to Kansas from Florida and charged with three felonies entered a guilty plea Monday to one of the counts against him.

Charles E. Richmond, 57, was charged with rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child. He entered a plea for the aggravated indecent liberties charge and the other two charges were dropped.

The alleged crimes occurred over a period from Jan. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2017. The child told investigators she had been molested by Richmond more than 100 times.

The conviction falls under Jessica’s Law statutes, meaning he could face a life sentence. However, both sides will be able to argue disposition in the case.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 12.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The United Methodist Church teetered on the brink of breakup Monday after more than half the delegates at an international conference voted to maintain bans on same-sex weddings and ordination of gay clergy.

Their favored plan, if formally approved, could drive supporters of LGBT inclusion to leave America’s second-largest Protestant denomination.

A final vote on rival plans for the church’s future won’t come until Tuesday’s closing session, and the outcome remains uncertain. But the preliminary vote Monday showed that the Traditional Plan, which calls for keeping the LGBT bans and enforcing them more strictly, had the support of 56 percent of the more than 800 delegates attending the three-day conference in St. Louis.

The primary alternative proposal, called the One Church Plan, was rebuffed in a separate preliminary vote, getting only 47 percent support. Backed by a majority of the church’s Council of Bishops in hopes of avoiding a schism, it would leave decisions about same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy up to regional bodies and would remove language from the church’s law book asserting that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Monday’s voting did not kill the One Church Plan but makes its prospects on Tuesday far more difficult.

As evidence of the deep divisions within the faith, delegates Monday approved plans that would allow disaffected churches to leave the denomination while keeping their property.

“This is really painful,” said David Watson, a dean and professor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, who was at the gathering. “Our disagreement has pitted friend against friend, which no one wanted.”

Formed in a merger in 1968, the United Methodist Church claims about 12.6 million members worldwide, including nearly 7 million in the U.S. While other mainline Protestant denominations, such as the Episcopal and Presbyterian (U.S.A.) churches, have embraced the two gay-friendly practices, the Methodist church still officially bans them, even though acts of defiance by pro-LGBT clergy have multiplied and talk of a possible breakup has intensified.

The strong showing for the Traditional Plan reflects the fact that the UMC, unlike other mainstream Protestant churches in the U.S., is a global denomination. About 43 percent of the delegates in St. Louis are from abroad, mostly from Africa, and overwhelmingly support the LGBT bans.

“We Africans are not children in need of Western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics,” the Rev. Jerry Kulah, dean at a Methodist theology school in Liberia, said in a speech over the weekend. “We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal church elite in the U.S.”

The Africans have some strong allies among U.S. conservatives, including the Rev. John Miles II, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, who opposes same-sex marriage and gays in the pulpit.

“I have a very difficult time even though I have gays in my family and in my church,” he said. “I know it grieves them and it grieves me to grieve them. But it’s just what we believe is the truth.”

In recent years, the church’s enforcement of its LGBT bans has been inconsistent. Some clergy members have conducted same-sex marriages or come out as gay from the pulpit. In some cases, the church has filed charges against clergy who violated the bans, yet the denomination’s Judicial Council has ruled against the imposition of mandatory penalties, which typically called for an unpaid suspension of at least one year.

The Traditional Plan would require stricter and more consistent enforcement.

Among the outspoken supporters of the more permissive One Church Plan was the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a pastor in Leawood, Kansas, who said it offered a way for Methodists “to live together — conservatives, centrists and progressives — despite our differences.”

For LGBT Methodists, it is a time of anxiety.

“For me it’s about who’s in God’s love, and nobody’s left out of that,” said Lois McCullen Parr, 60, a church elder from Albion, Michigan, who identifies as bisexual and queer. “The Gospel I understand said Jesus is always widening the circle, expanding the circle, so that everyone’s included.”

KANSAS CITY– A Kansas City man with prior felony convictions for child pornography was sentenced in federal court Monday for receiving child pornography over the Internet, according to the United State’s Attorney.

Travis E. Fleming, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Fleming to 20 years of supervised release following incarceration. The court ordered Fleming to pay $5,000 in restitution to each of three identified victims of sexual abuse portrayed in the images of child pornography that he possessed.

Fleming was convicted in federal court in 2010 of two counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography, for which he was sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison without parole. He was on supervised release at the time of this offense.

On Sept. 20, 2018, Fleming pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. Fleming admitted that he had 256 images of child sexual abuse (including bondage) on his cell phone. Some of the victim children ranged in age from four to 10 years old. A forensic examination determined that Fleming did the bulk of his viewing of child pornography in the dark web.

Fleming’s probation officer discovered the cell phone during a home visit on Nov. 16, 2017. Fleming admitted that he had been accessing the internet since at least February 2017. Among the conditions of Fleming’s supervised release was that he not possess any type of computer or electronic device with access to any on-line computer service.