Baltimore County Councilman Ken Oliver won’t have to wait until September to stand trial on charges that he stole money from his campaign finance account.

Oliver was scheduled to stand trial Sept. 28, but Assistant State Prosecutor Shelley Glenn, in papers filed last week, said changes in two high-profile city corruption cases has lightened the load on her office, allowing for an expedited trial date for Oliver.

The trial is now set for July 28 at 9:15 a.m. in Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson. The trial  is expected to last for three days.

Oliver was indicted by a Baltimore County grand jury in January on two counts of felony theft and six misdemeanor campaign violations.

In May, Oliver’s attorneys asked for a delay in the trial, originally scheduled for May 12, because they said they had not had an opportunity to review evidence turned over to them by Glenn. They asked for a trial date in July.

Initially, Glenn resisted  that date because she was scheduled to begin three months of maternity leave on June 22 and the trials of Ronald Lipscombe, City Councilwoman Helen Holton and Mayor Sheila Dixon were scheduled to begin in the fall. Glenn told Circuit Court Judge John Grayson Turnbull that the caseload and small size of her office made it impossible for Oliver’s trial to begin sooner than her return in September.

Robert Smith, one of Oliver’s two attorney’s, argued at the time that delaying the trial would continue to make it difficult for Oliver to find a job. Oliver has been unemployed since losing his job as vice president of small business lending at The Harbor Bank, based in Baltimore, in November 2008.

But time in the schedules of state prosecutors opened up as some high-profile city cases were resolved or thrown out. Two weeks ago, Lipscombe, a developer involved with Dixon, pleaded guilty to one count of exceeding limits on campaign donations related to his paying $12,500 for a poll for Holton in exchange for favorable votes for tax credits on a development.
 
Last month, a circuit court judge in Baltimore City threw out bribery charges against Holton and perjury charges against Dixon. Those decisions are being appealed by prosecutors.

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