Almost a 12 months after a jury discovered him responsible of theft and abuse of energy, the previous sheriff of Limestone County in north Alabama is interesting his felony convictions and in search of a brand new trial.
In a short to the Alabama Courtroom of Prison Appeals, attorneys for Mike Blakely, who spent a long time as the highest legislation enforcement official within the fast-growing county, argue that state prosecutors didn’t show he acted with felony intent and allege the state didn’t disclose forward of the trial that one of many prosecution’s witnesses was beneath investigation on the time.
After a three-week trial final summer season, a jury in downtown Athens discovered Blakely responsible of stealing $4,000 from his marketing campaign account by funneling the cash via Purple Brick Methods, a Huntsville consulting agency owned by Trent Willis. The jurors additionally discovered Blakely responsible of acquiring $29,050 in curiosity free loans from a secure that held cash belonging to individuals incarcerated within the county jail he oversaw as sheriff.
Blakely was Alabama’s longest-serving sheriff till the felony convictions instantly eliminated him from the workplace he held for 10 phrases spanning 38 years.
[Read more: Convicted Alabama sheriff talks about jail time, his new book and looking for a job]
The jury acquitted him of eight different costs.
Within the enchantment filed Monday, Blakely’s attorneys argue that Decide Pamela Baschab, the retired decide specifically appointed to the case, ought to have declared a mistrial after state prosecutors disclosed that considered one of their witnesses was beneath investigation.
“As a result of the State suppressed vital info relating to an investigation in Trent Willis, Mr. Blakely ought to have been granted a mistrial when proof of the suppression got here to gentle at trial,” the enchantment says.
Willis, a Huntsville political advisor and the disgraced former proprietor of Purple Brick Methods, was the state’s key witness to the theft cost, for which the jury convicted Blakely. Prosecutors from the Alabama Legal professional Common’s Workplace alleged that Blakely had his marketing campaign account pay Willis’ Huntsville agency $7,500 for a $3,500 invoice, then deposited a $4,000 refund into his private account, somewhat than the marketing campaign account.
After Willis testified for the state, however earlier than the protection might cross look at him, prosecutors requested the decide to instruct Willis that he might plead the Fifth Modification to keep away from incriminating himself. However Willis didn’t stay silent when cross-examined.
Blakely’s protection was in a position to query Willis about allegations he stole $100,000 from the marketing campaign account of a state consultant, bought fired from Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle’s marketing campaign due to an “inappropriate sexual relationship,” did not pay taxes, loans and hire, and charged shoppers for work he by no means did.
Willis informed the jury he “vehemently” disagreed with the allegations.
He testified that he knew little concerning the nature of the investigation and informed the jury that the state had not provided him any offers or immunity in trade for his testimony towards Blakely.
Blakely’s protection group stated state prosecutors had not beforehand disclosed that one other division of the legal professional normal’s workplace was investigating Willis. State prosecutors denied the allegation and stated the protection group knew concerning the investigation a 12 months earlier.
The decide briefly paused the trial earlier than declining their request for a mistrial and resuming Willis’ testimony.
In his enchantment, Blakely’s attorneys additionally argue that the trial decide ought to have thrown out his conviction for abuse of energy.
“At no level did the State current legally adequate proof upon which a jury might conclude that Mr. Blakely deliberately used his workplace for private acquire within the type of acquiring interest-free loans from the Limestone County jail inmate fund,” the enchantment says.
The previous jail clerk testified that the sheriff routinely requested her to provide him money from a secure that held cash belonging to individuals incarcerated in Limestone County. She informed the jury that every time she gave Blakely the money, she scribbled an IOU onto a post-it word and put it within the secure.
Blakely finally gave the clerk 19 checks from his private checking account to switch the funds, in response to monetary data proven to the jury. However Blakely routinely requested her to carry the checks — generally for weeks — earlier than taking them to the financial institution, in response to testimony.
Louie Wilson, a particular agent within the public corruption unit of the Alabama Legal professional Common’s Workplace, testified that, there have been 271 days throughout which the clerk held Blakely’s checks to repay the inmate secure. The agent testified that had the clerk cashed these checks on the day Blakely gave them to her, his private checking account would have been overdrawn.
However within the enchantment, Blakely’s attorneys repeated an argument that they had made to the jury that discovered him responsible.
“The proof clearly demonstrated that no inmate was ever disadvantaged of his cash and that no cash was ever lacking from the inmate fund,” the enchantment says.
Decide Baschab sentenced Blakely to a few years in jail. However he stays out on $50,000 bond whereas he appeals the case.
Blakely, a Democrat, is only one of a number of public officers who’ve come beneath scrutiny for corruption prior to now few years in Limestone County, one of many state’s fastest-growing counties, and now house to greater than 100,000 individuals.
