WTHR |Suspect in state rep attack says old feud was motive

Suspect in state rep attack says old feud was motive

Chris Proffitt/Eyewitness News

Carmel - It was a brutal attack. Now the man who admits beating a state lawmaker with a pistol is talking about why he did it. Indianapolis Representative Ed DeLaney was beaten so badly he suffered five broken bones and a broken eye socket.

It was a 26-year-old legal battle that culminated in a bizarre seething fit of revenge for 38-year-old Indianapolis attorney Augustus Mendenhall.

"Mr. DeLaney, through his power and influence, has done a great injustice to my family," Mendenhall.

Legislator Edward DeLaney, 66, was alleged severely beaten over the weekend after he met with Mendenhall who, according to prosecutors, represented himself as a representative for a Russian client interested in buying real estate. What DeLaney didn't know is that Mendenhall's family was involved in a 1983 court case where the city of Indianapolis was cracking down on adult bookstores, including one on property owned by Mendenhall's father.

The bitter case wound up in the US Supreme court with the elder Mendenhall losing the battle. Ed DeLaney was an attorney in the case.

"We lost everything because of him and those around him," said Mendenhall.

"Your father's porno place is shut down and that somehow justifies attempted murder is very difficult to understand," Ann DeLaney said.

She called Mendenhall a desperate man.

"By the time this is over, I'm sure he'll try to convince everyone he took my husband's money and wallet to give it to the Little Sisters of the Poor," she said.

According to witnesses, Delaney was sitting with Mendenhall in parked car in Carmel. An acquaintance recognized DeLaney acting strangely and then called police who found Mendenhall on top of DeLaney, who'd been beaten badly.

The couple thought something was amiss when DeLaney flashed an obscene finger gesture as a warning.

"I said to him, 'Why didn't you do that, make a motion like a gun?'," Ann DeLaney said. "And his answer to this was he was afraid that they would get too upset and say something, in which case there would be three dead people."

Prosecutors say that Mendenhall ran but was captured by police, who recovered a .25-caliber handgun. DeLaney told investigators Mendenhall tried firing the gun but it jammed and then there was a struggle.

Mendenhall told reporters on Monday that he never intended to hurt DeLaney. But according to a statement released by DeLaney's wife, he has five broken ribs and broken bones around his eye socket that will require future surgery.

"He's doing remarkably well. He's in a lot of pain, moving very gingerly because of the broken ribs and broken bones in his eye socket," Ann DeLaney said.

"Things went very wrong. I tried to frighten him as close as I could to let him feel he was going to lose everything," said Mendenhall.

Now Augustus Mendenhall faces attempted murder charges over what appears to be revenge for a bitter decades long standing grudge.

Ed DeLaney was back home Monday night after a hospital stay.

"There's no question there are two miracles. But for the good Samaritans who stopped and the jamming of the gun, I wouldn't have a husband anymore," said his wife.

(Eyewitness News reporter David MacAnally contributed to this story.)