After two years of pretrial hearings, delays and a 3-day-long jury selection, Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard's felony ethics trial is finally set to begin Tuesday, May 24, in Opelika. Hubbard is accused of violating a set of ethics laws he helped pass after he became the first Republican speaker of Alabama's House of Representatives in more than 136 years.
Hubbard was indicted by a Lee County Grand Jury in October 2014 on 23 felony counts of violating the state ethics law. If found guilty for any one, each of the 23 counts could carry a sentence of 2–20 years in a state prison or a fine of up to $30,000.
Hubbard maintains his innocence, and rumors of a plea deal between the state and Hubbard's defense have proven to be false thus far.
"Absolutely not, there has never ever been any thought or any talk or any hint of taking a plea, never," Baxley told The Plainsman. "That is a totally untrue rumor. I don't know how it got started. It is completely without any grain of truth to it."
According to the indictments against him, Hubbard used both his office as chairman of the Alabama Republican Party and Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives for personal financial gain and financial gain for his Auburn-based businesses. Hubbard is also accused of using his offices for financial gain by effectively lobbying for companies with business before the Legislature.
Hubbard used his position as Alabama Republican chairman to steer business and contracts during the 2010 election season to his printing company based in Auburn, Craftmasters Printing, and his radio and advertising company, Auburn Network Inc., according to the prosecution. The contracts he is accused of garnering with his position add up to more than $1 million.
Auburn Network Inc. operates three radio stations in the Auburn area including WANI NewsTalk, Wings 94.3 and ESPN 106.5. The company also runs a consultancy firm, Network Creative Media, and the quarterly magazine East Alabama Living.
Most of the violations concerning improper garnering of contracts occurred during the 2010 and 2014 election seasons, according to evidence submitted by the state, but Hubbard is also accused of voting on and lobbying for bills that would benefit several companies by whom he was reportedly being paid.
Southeast Alabama Gas paid Hubbard $12,000 a month as a consultant. The prosecution has accused Hubbard of improperly representing the company before Gov. Robert Bentley and the Alabama Department of Commerce.
Last week, Circuit Judge Jacob A. Walker and the two defense teams selected the jury charged with determining Hubbard's guilt or innocence. Nine members of the 16 jury members are black and seven are white. Nine are male and seven are female. Five were black men, four were black women, four were white men and three were white women.
Four of jury members are alternates, but the jurors won't know if they're an alternate until deliberations begin. Not only will Hubbard face prison time or a multi-thousand-dollar fine if found guilty on any of the felony charges, but he will also lose his position as House speaker.
Despite being indicted only weeks before his reelection bid, Auburn citizens reelected Hubbard in 2014 with almost 60 percent of the vote. His party caucus later reelected him resoundingly as speaker.
“I can’t talk about the specifics of it, but I can say that I’m not going to allow anything to be a distraction [during the legislative sessions],” Hubbard said in an exclusive interview with The Auburn Plainsman in March 2016. “I’m looking forward to having the truth come out.”
Many consider Hubbard to be the most powerful politician in the state, even more powerful than Gov. Robert Bentley. Hubbard has been serving in the Alabama House since his election in 1998, and he later became the House minority leader.
Hubbard has lived in Auburn since he moved to the city to work on Bo Jackson's 1985 Heisman Campaign at the University. He then built a media company that later won the rights to broadcast all of Auburn's sporting events. Those rights were later sold to another media group.
In 2010 as Alabama GOP chairman, Hubbard organized a monumental campaign to take control of the Alabama Legislature from the Alabama Democrats, who controlled both the House and the Senate since Civl War Reconstruction. During the campaign, Hubbard and his Republican colleagues stressed ethics and accountability.
Hubbard said Democrats raised their own pay by more than 60 percent.
He is also accused of soliciting lobbyist and former Gov. Bob Riley and Riley's daughter for assistance in obtaining clients for his businesses. Riley and Bentley are expected to be called as witnesses for the prosecution.
The trial is set to begin tomorrow morning at the Lee County Justice Center in Opelika.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
