Former Judge Herman Thomas Arrested
By Paul Cloos
March 27, 2009
MOBILE, Ala. -- Herman Thomas, while a Mobile County circuit judge, checked male inmates out of Metro Jail to exert control over them and force them into sexual activity, according to indictments released today.
About 1½ years after stepping down from the bench, Thomas was arrested today outside the same jail on charges of kidnapping, sodomy, extortion, sex abuse and ethics violations.
A special grand jury met for three weeks this month and returned 57 felony charges against Thomas. The indictment lists nine alleged victims, each of them current or former inmates.
"These are very serious charges," some carrying up to life in prison, said District Attorney John Tyson Jr. Thomas was taken into custody outside the jail as his attorney, Robert "Cowboy Bob" Clark, held an afternoon news conference amid reports of an impending arrest.
Clark suggested his client's indictment was motivated by racism.
"This is racism at its very finest. We ought to be proud we elected those bastards," said Clark in an apparent reference to Tyson and former Thomas colleagues on the bench.
As Clark was speaking, an investigator with the District Attorney's Office quietly walked up to Thomas, tapped him on the shoulder, whispered something to him and then accompanied Thomas -- without placing him in handcuffs -- to the jail 10 feet away.
There, Thomas was photographed and booked, with bail set at $287,500, according to the jail log. He was later released.
Each of Thomas' alleged victims at one time faced charges in Mobile County Circuit Court, according to online court records. The allegations against them ranged from criminal mischief to murder.
One of the inmates went before Thomas on multiple occasions over the years for several felony charges. He was eventually sent to prison for a short time, but Thomas ordered him released early.
Finally, he ended up sentenced in federal court and later released. He has since been accused of murder and attempted murder.
According to Friday's grand jury allegations, Thomas "knowingly" subjected the young men "to sexual contact, by forcible compulsion."
Thomas' resignation came in the face of a pending trial before Alabama's Court of the Judiciary, where he was charged with dozens of ethical violations.
Tyson said Clark's accusations that Thomas' troubles stem from racism at Government Plaza are "absolute nonsense."
Nicki Patterson, the chief assistant district attorney, later pointed out that all the alleged victims are black. Thomas is black.
Tyson said his investigation is not over and that the special grand jury could be called back into session at any time.
(Press-Register file/Bill Starling)Former Mobile Circuit Judge Herman Thomas and his wife Linda listen during a rally in support of him outside Mobile Government Plaza in downtown Mobile Saturday, April 4, 2009. Thomas surrendered to police Monday after new sexual misconduct charges were brought against him.
MOBILE, Ala. -- Even more damning charges against Herman Thomas surfaced Monday after indictments based on the testimony of six new alleged victims accused him of forcing male inmates to have sex with him while he was a circuit judge.
The 48-year-old former Mobile County circuit judge surrendered at Mobile County Metro Jail about noon Monday.
After being booked, he was released on his own recognizance.
A special grand jury, which issued the 46 new charges Friday, recommended that in light of Thomas' existing bail of $287,500, it would be proper this time to allow him to sign his own bond, officials said.
The new cases were added to the 57 counts involving nine accusers issued by the grand jury in March.
Like the previous charges, the new batch alleges that Thomas committed sodomy, sex abuse, extortion, kidnapping, assault and ethics violations.
Thomas' attorney, Bob Clark, described them as "the same old, same old."
But in one instance, Thomas is now accused of engaging in "deviate sexual intercourse" with a victim by forcing him to have anal sex -- an act he's not been accused of before.
In other cases, Thomas is accused of soliciting "sexual favors or services," including, as in the previous indictments, whipping the defendants.
Thomas did that in one case, according to the new indictment, by causing the victim to "with or without clothing, expose his buttocks to paddling and/or whipping and/or touching." The victim was also caused to expose "his penis to touching by" Thomas.
The special grand jury also issued "reindictments" involving the previous nine accusers. Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said that was done "as a housecleaning measure."
Unlike March's events, a circus-like atmosphere surrounding Thomas' arrest did not occur Monday.
Minutes before the March arrest, Clark -- with his client standing silently beside him looking off into the distance -- told a gaggle of media gathered at the jail that the charges were founded on racism against the black judge.
That racism, Clark said then, emanated from the courthouse on the part of white prosecutors and white judges on the circuit bench.
Even as Clark spoke, a representative from the district attorney's office quietly approached Thomas and took him inside the jail for arrest and booking.
District Attorney John Tyson Jr. held a news conference later that day to dismiss Clark's claims.
Clark was briefly taken into custody after causing a commotion but was not arrested.
On Monday, by contrast, there were no news conferences, although Clark, in a quieter vein, continued to suggest that Thomas' troubles stem from being black.
"If he had been white, this would have never happened," Clark said, referring to the criminal charges. "A resignation was not good enough."
Thomas resigned in October 2007 just before a civil trial was to begin in Montgomery in front of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which could have stripped him of his judgeship.
All of Thomas' accusers are black, Patterson pointed out Monday, and all were between the ages of 18 and 25 and involved in the criminal justice system when Thomas encountered them.
While most of the accusers are still incarcerated for various crimes, Patterson said, a few are now out of jail.
"I am looking forward to Oct. 5," Clark said Monday afternoon in a telephone call, referring to Thomas' criminal trial date.
Alabama judge not guilty of sexual abuse of inmates
• Ex-Judge Herman Thomas acquitted of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy, assault
• Judge says he brought inmates to his office to mentor them
• Lawyer: "He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens"
RELATED TOPICS
• Alabama
• Judicial Ethics
(CNN) -- A former Alabama judge accused of checking male inmates out of jail and forcing them to engage in sexual activity was found not guilty Monday on charges of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy and assault, his lawyer said.
Attorney Robert Clark said former Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on several charges and the judge in the case granted a directed verdict of acquittal on all the other counts.
The Mobile County district attorney did not immediately return CNN calls for comment.
Thomas, 48, denied wrongdoing. Clark said on October 20 that the judge was trying to mentor the inmates and did not assault them.
The judge does not deny bringing the inmates into his office, Clark said last week. "He was mentoring them. He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens."
Thomas cried after the verdicts were read, Clark said Monday.
"He hugged me and he hugged his wife. And he had a courtroom full of supporters. It all worked out in the end," the attorney said.
One of the alleged victims testified October 19 that he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office by Thomas, according to The Mobile Press-Register newspaper. But he did say Thomas spanked him with a belt on several occasions, the newspaper reported, and that the paddlings took place inside a jury room, in the small office and at a Mobile, Alabama, fraternity house.
Another man testified that after he was charged with kidnapping and robbery in 2002, Thomas visited him in jail and urged the man to let Thomas decide the case instead of a jury, according to the Press-Register. Thomas convicted him of lesser charges, he testified, and sentenced him to a 90-day boot camp. He said Thomas also beat him with a belt on his bare buttocks about a dozen times at the courthouse, the newspaper reported. Neither man was identified.
"All of them [the alleged victims] were given preferential treatment at some point," Nicki Patterson, chief assistant district attorney for Mobile County, said earlier this month. "And ultimately, when some of them refused to continue participating [in the activities], they were given what I would view as excessive sentences. But certainly while the inmates were involved with the activities we allege, the state would say, it was extremely lenient sentences."
Clark said his client's next hurdle is the Alabama State Bar.
"They suspended him back in March because he got indicted. And we're fighting to give him his law license back," he said.
About 1½ years after stepping down from the bench, Thomas was arrested today outside the same jail on charges of kidnapping, sodomy, extortion, sex abuse and ethics violations.
A special grand jury met for three weeks this month and returned 57 felony charges against Thomas. The indictment lists nine alleged victims, each of them current or former inmates.
"These are very serious charges," some carrying up to life in prison, said District Attorney John Tyson Jr. Thomas was taken into custody outside the jail as his attorney, Robert "Cowboy Bob" Clark, held an afternoon news conference amid reports of an impending arrest.
Clark suggested his client's indictment was motivated by racism.
"This is racism at its very finest. We ought to be proud we elected those bastards," said Clark in an apparent reference to Tyson and former Thomas colleagues on the bench.
As Clark was speaking, an investigator with the District Attorney's Office quietly walked up to Thomas, tapped him on the shoulder, whispered something to him and then accompanied Thomas -- without placing him in handcuffs -- to the jail 10 feet away.
There, Thomas was photographed and booked, with bail set at $287,500, according to the jail log. He was later released.
Each of Thomas' alleged victims at one time faced charges in Mobile County Circuit Court, according to online court records. The allegations against them ranged from criminal mischief to murder.
One of the inmates went before Thomas on multiple occasions over the years for several felony charges. He was eventually sent to prison for a short time, but Thomas ordered him released early.
Finally, he ended up sentenced in federal court and later released. He has since been accused of murder and attempted murder.
According to Friday's grand jury allegations, Thomas "knowingly" subjected the young men "to sexual contact, by forcible compulsion."
Thomas' resignation came in the face of a pending trial before Alabama's Court of the Judiciary, where he was charged with dozens of ethical violations.
Tyson said Clark's accusations that Thomas' troubles stem from racism at Government Plaza are "absolute nonsense."
Nicki Patterson, the chief assistant district attorney, later pointed out that all the alleged victims are black. Thomas is black.
Tyson said his investigation is not over and that the special grand jury could be called back into session at any time.
Ex-Mobile Judge Herman Thomas arrested
on new sexual misconduct charges
on new sexual misconduct charges
By Brian Lyman
August 11, 2009
August 11, 2009
(Press-Register file/Bill Starling)Former Mobile Circuit Judge Herman Thomas and his wife Linda listen during a rally in support of him outside Mobile Government Plaza in downtown Mobile Saturday, April 4, 2009. Thomas surrendered to police Monday after new sexual misconduct charges were brought against him.
MOBILE, Ala. -- Even more damning charges against Herman Thomas surfaced Monday after indictments based on the testimony of six new alleged victims accused him of forcing male inmates to have sex with him while he was a circuit judge.
The 48-year-old former Mobile County circuit judge surrendered at Mobile County Metro Jail about noon Monday.
After being booked, he was released on his own recognizance.
A special grand jury, which issued the 46 new charges Friday, recommended that in light of Thomas' existing bail of $287,500, it would be proper this time to allow him to sign his own bond, officials said.
The new cases were added to the 57 counts involving nine accusers issued by the grand jury in March.
Like the previous charges, the new batch alleges that Thomas committed sodomy, sex abuse, extortion, kidnapping, assault and ethics violations.
Thomas' attorney, Bob Clark, described them as "the same old, same old."
But in one instance, Thomas is now accused of engaging in "deviate sexual intercourse" with a victim by forcing him to have anal sex -- an act he's not been accused of before.
In other cases, Thomas is accused of soliciting "sexual favors or services," including, as in the previous indictments, whipping the defendants.
Thomas did that in one case, according to the new indictment, by causing the victim to "with or without clothing, expose his buttocks to paddling and/or whipping and/or touching." The victim was also caused to expose "his penis to touching by" Thomas.
The special grand jury also issued "reindictments" involving the previous nine accusers. Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said that was done "as a housecleaning measure."
Unlike March's events, a circus-like atmosphere surrounding Thomas' arrest did not occur Monday.
Minutes before the March arrest, Clark -- with his client standing silently beside him looking off into the distance -- told a gaggle of media gathered at the jail that the charges were founded on racism against the black judge.
That racism, Clark said then, emanated from the courthouse on the part of white prosecutors and white judges on the circuit bench.
Even as Clark spoke, a representative from the district attorney's office quietly approached Thomas and took him inside the jail for arrest and booking.
District Attorney John Tyson Jr. held a news conference later that day to dismiss Clark's claims.
Clark was briefly taken into custody after causing a commotion but was not arrested.
On Monday, by contrast, there were no news conferences, although Clark, in a quieter vein, continued to suggest that Thomas' troubles stem from being black.
"If he had been white, this would have never happened," Clark said, referring to the criminal charges. "A resignation was not good enough."
Thomas resigned in October 2007 just before a civil trial was to begin in Montgomery in front of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which could have stripped him of his judgeship.
All of Thomas' accusers are black, Patterson pointed out Monday, and all were between the ages of 18 and 25 and involved in the criminal justice system when Thomas encountered them.
While most of the accusers are still incarcerated for various crimes, Patterson said, a few are now out of jail.
"I am looking forward to Oct. 5," Clark said Monday afternoon in a telephone call, referring to Thomas' criminal trial date.
Alabama judge not guilty of sexual abuse of inmates
• Ex-Judge Herman Thomas acquitted of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy, assault
• Judge says he brought inmates to his office to mentor them
• Lawyer: "He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens"
RELATED TOPICS
• Alabama
• Judicial Ethics
(CNN) -- A former Alabama judge accused of checking male inmates out of jail and forcing them to engage in sexual activity was found not guilty Monday on charges of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy and assault, his lawyer said.
Attorney Robert Clark said former Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on several charges and the judge in the case granted a directed verdict of acquittal on all the other counts.
The Mobile County district attorney did not immediately return CNN calls for comment.
Thomas, 48, denied wrongdoing. Clark said on October 20 that the judge was trying to mentor the inmates and did not assault them.
The judge does not deny bringing the inmates into his office, Clark said last week. "He was mentoring them. He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens."
Thomas cried after the verdicts were read, Clark said Monday.
"He hugged me and he hugged his wife. And he had a courtroom full of supporters. It all worked out in the end," the attorney said.
One of the alleged victims testified October 19 that he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office by Thomas, according to The Mobile Press-Register newspaper. But he did say Thomas spanked him with a belt on several occasions, the newspaper reported, and that the paddlings took place inside a jury room, in the small office and at a Mobile, Alabama, fraternity house.
Another man testified that after he was charged with kidnapping and robbery in 2002, Thomas visited him in jail and urged the man to let Thomas decide the case instead of a jury, according to the Press-Register. Thomas convicted him of lesser charges, he testified, and sentenced him to a 90-day boot camp. He said Thomas also beat him with a belt on his bare buttocks about a dozen times at the courthouse, the newspaper reported. Neither man was identified.
"All of them [the alleged victims] were given preferential treatment at some point," Nicki Patterson, chief assistant district attorney for Mobile County, said earlier this month. "And ultimately, when some of them refused to continue participating [in the activities], they were given what I would view as excessive sentences. But certainly while the inmates were involved with the activities we allege, the state would say, it was extremely lenient sentences."
Clark said his client's next hurdle is the Alabama State Bar.
"They suspended him back in March because he got indicted. And we're fighting to give him his law license back," he said.
