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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama sheriff went on trial Monday before the Alabama Supreme Court on impeachment charges accusing him of corruption and neglect of duty, including that he let an inmate run a drug enterprise from within the jail.
Sumter County Sheriff Tyrone Clark Sr. has denied any wrongdoing and is not facing criminal charges, but he would be removed from the office he was re-elected to in 2014 if the justices rule against him.
Assistant Attorney General Megan Kilpatrick said in her opening statement that certain inmates were allowed to leave the jail unsupervised and return with drugs, contraband cellphones and cigarettes, the Montgomery Advertiser (http://on.mgmadv.com/OmMiVO ) reported.
A report from Attorney General Luther Strange's office said prisoner Rodney Coats, 39, was supposed to remain behind bars on $675,000 bond on charges including assault, methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking and receiving stolen property. Instead, Clark ordered staff not to shake him down, gave him access to firearms, enabled him to engage in human trafficking from inside the jail, and arranged an unsecured room where Coats had sex with visiting women who had not been searched or monitored.
Kilpatrick said Coats had his own unsupervised space in the administration building, "where people would bring women who were forced to have sex with him."
A lawyer for the sheriff called the case a political witch hunt rooted in allegiances between people opposed to the sheriff.
"This is simply small town politics blown up in this arena that has no business being in front of this Supreme Court," Chad Morgan, an attorney for Clark, said.
The county grand jury detailed numerous allegations against Clark in a report dated April 7, about a month after state and federal authorities raided the jail in Livingston, located near the Mississippi state line.
Other allegations involve an unauthorized work-release program; Officials said Clark allowed inmates out to do jobs such as sell watermelons on the side of the road on condition they paid him 25 percent of their earnings in kickbacks.
Information from: Montgomery Advertiser, http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com
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