Warnock criminal trial moved to October

Former Madison County engineer Rudy Warnock’s federal bribery and wire fraud trial was rescheduled again last week, this time to Oct. 2, following a fourth continuance approved by U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate.

Warnock’s attorneys say they need more time to examine the evidence provided in discovery. 

The U.S. Department of Justice had no objection to the continuance. 

Former Canton Municipal Utilities Chairman Cleveland Anderson and former Canton aldermen Andrew Grant and Eric Gilkey have all pleaded guilty to bribery charges stemming from Warnock’s one-year stint at Canton Municipal Utilities from 2016 to 2017. 

Warnock, who has been charged with bribery and wire fraud that allegedly occurred during his brief stint at CMU after he was fired by Madison County, was most recently scheduled to go to trial on June 5 before U.S. Judge Henry Wingate granted the two-month continuance.

Indictments against Warnock and the others were unsealed in November 2022. 

The sentencing hearings for Grant, Anderson and Gilkey, originally scheduled for May 24, have also been continued indefinitely, presumably until Warnock’s trial is completed, observers have said.

Warnock was indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of wire fraud.

Warnock was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2021, but the indictments were sealed until November 2022.