Ex-Clark GOP official pleads guilty in sex case

Murphy faces 2-year sentence in deviate-conduct plea bargain

By Harold J. Adams


Glenn Murphy Jr., former head of the Clark County Republican Party, pleaded guilty yesterday to criminal deviate conduct in a plea bargain that calls for him to serve a two-year prison term and then register as a sex offender.

Murphy wore dark glasses and kept his head mostly bowed as he walked in the second-floor hallway toward Clark Superior Court to enter the plea.

During a hearing, Special Prosecutor Stanley Levco laid out the facts of the case.

Murphy, 34, of Utica, and the victim, then 22, had been guests at a party in the Jeffersonville home of the victim's sister last July 28, Levco said.

Both men spent the night at the home. When the victim woke up, "Mr. Murphy was performing oral sex on him against his will. He (the victim) was asleep at the time," Levco said.

Superior Court Judge Vicki Carmichael asked Murphy whether those were the facts to which he was admitting.

"Yes," Murphy answered.

The plea bargain calls for a six-year prison term, with four years suspended. That means Murphy could serve only one year in prison under Indiana's policy of reducing a sentence by a day for each day of good behavior.

After leaving prison, Murphy would be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Carmichael scheduled formal sentencing for June 30, when she will announce her decision on whether to allow the deal.

Murphy, who remains free on $25,000 bond, had been fighting the charge of criminal deviate conduct.

But he entered plea negotiations after Carmichael ruled in April that the prosecution could present allegations from three other men that he had committed similar acts against them on separate occasions in the past, Levco told reporters after yesterday's hearing.

"I think that (ruling) was a factor in him deciding to plead guilty," the prosecutor said.

James Voyles, Murphy's attorney, declined to comment on the guilty plea.

Murphy was prominent in Republican Party circles before the incident. In addition to his position as Clark County chairman, he was chairman of the Young Republican National Federation.

He resigned both posts when the allegations were made public last August after being posted on the personal blog of Indiana Democratic Party spokeswoman Jennifer Wagner.

Reporter Harold J. Adams can be reached at (812) 949-4028.