Turning the page, Thomas leaves;
others to vie for a seat on the bench
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
Chaired by Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Charlie Graddick, a judicial selection committee will meet Friday to begin the process of replacing embattled former Judge Herman Thomas.
Thomas resigned earlier this week under the weight of a burgeoning ethics complaint as well as an ongoing criminal investigation.
Ironically, Thomas had been chairman of the judicial selection committee.
The judges met Wednesday and tapped Graddick to head the committee. Other members of the committee include attorneys Ken Nixon and Billy Bedsole, former Revenue Commissioner Freda Roberts and Sherry Moss.
"The committee will meet Friday to set deadlines for those interested in the appointment," said Graddick.
The committee will narrow the field to three finalists, one of whom Gov. Bob Riley will likely appoint to the position. In the unlikely event that Riley delays his choice for more than 90 days, the appointment goes to the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Sue Bell Cobb, a Democrat.
Among the attorneys being mentioned as possible prospects for the opening are:
- Mobile County District Judge George Hardesty;
- Randy Crane, an attorney in private practice;
- Ashley Rich Hurt, a veteran assistant district attorney;
- Mark Erwin, an assistant Mobile County Commission attorney and chairman of the local Republican Party;
- Joe Steadman, an attorney in private practice.(Steadman's interest was shortlived. He reportedly decided not to pursue the judgeship, informing Graddick, a former law partner, of his decision Thursday morning.);
- Shelbonnie Hall, a municipal judge;
- Matt Green, a part time municipal judge;
- James Brandyburg, in private practice. (With a number of pre-college children and a successful private practice, the ex-Spring Hill Badger basketballer might prove a hard sell.);
- Tom Harrison, a longtime prosecutor now in private practice (At 64 with state law blocking judicial candidates who have attained their 70th year, Harrison might see scant incentive in pursuing the judgeship.);
- John Williams, a recent GOP legislative hopeful;
- George Brown, a juvenile district judge (strange quirks in judicial salary schedules would probably discourage Brown's interest);
- Andrea Pennington, longtime referee at the Strickland Youth Center (Pennington has filed paperwork in the D.R.O.P. program thereby announcing her intent to retire at the end of the three-year, required commitment to the D.R.O.P. program.);
- Grady Edmondson, in private practice and a past judicial hopeful (Edmondson may have burned GOP bridges in a past try for the bench);
- Brad Kittrell, in private practice;
- Duncan Crow, who lost an earlier GOP bid for a circuit judgeship;
- State Sen. Ben Brooks (despite continuing reports to the contrary, sources say Brooks' rookie session in the state Senate only whetted his appetite for legislative battle, particularly with his coastal insurance reform bill on the horizon, so that despite a previous interest in the bench, his immediate political future remains in Montgomery);
- Ronnie Williams, in private practice, (If appointed by a Republican administration, Williams would seek election as a Republican, according to sources close to Williams);
- Walter Honeycutt, a former GOP district attorney nominee;
- Pam Millsaps, a Republican former juvenile circuit judge.
- Stuart Luckie, an attorney in private practice who played a leading role in Edmond Naman's successful campaign for the juvenile judgeship. Luckie also managed the legislative campaigns of state Rep. Jim Barton.
Suspended since the spring when the JIC undertook its investigation, Thomas stepped down Monday just as the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission was poised to add on to the existing 30 charges of ethical misconduct against the veteran jurist.
However, it is believed that state and perhaps federal authorities have not finished with Thomas, who stood accused of using his office to favor friends, relatives and the politically connected as well as poaching cases from the dockets of his fellow judges in order to alter their rulings. Alienated from Thomas, his disgruntled brethren called on the JIC not to privately mediate any resolution with Thomas but to air all the charges in a public trial.
Thomas had been set for trial Oct. 29 before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.
Thomas, 46, will be eligible to begin collecting retirement benefits at 60, according to Marc Reynolds with the Retirement Systems of Alabama. Thomas has a total of 20 years, three months in state service -- 17 years and six months on the bench and two years and nine months as an assistant district attorney. He continued to draw pay and contribute toward his retirement during his suspension.
Whomever is appointed to the opening will have to run in 2008 for election to remaining four years of the six-year term that Thomas won in 2006. Former Democratic Circuit Judge and District Attorney Chris Galanos is strongly rumored to be planning a campaign to return to the bench. An effort to contact Galanos Wednesday was not immediately successful.
In what perhaps may influence the process of choosing a successor to Thomas, the Mobile Bay Times also learned Wednesday that another vacancy on the bench is likely to occur before year's end.
