Fisher Tax Trial Delayed in Okla.

An Oklahoma County judge has moved the latest trial of former state Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher.

District Judge Susan Caswell agreed to delay the tax-charge proceeding after meeting with prosecutors and defense attorneys. The jury trial set to begin Dec. 11 will now start Feb. 12.

Another judge will preside over the case since Caswell wasn’t re-elected this month.

The state’s multicounty grand jury has indicted Fisher five times.

In this case, Fisher is accused of filing a false 1999 state tax return and of committing perjury when he declared the return was “true, correct and complete.”

Fisher allegedly should have paid $4,688 more in state taxes and $38,296 more in federal taxes.

Earlier this year, a jury convicted Fisher of embezzling his own state campaign funds when he deposited a $1,000 campaign check into his overdrawn personal checking account in May 2003. He also was found guilty of perjury because he didn’t disclose the donation on a 2003 campaign report.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000.

Fisher was impeached in the state House but resigned in 2004, rather than fight an ouster action in the state Senate.