After nearly four years of investigations and court proceedings, the high-profile felony ethics case of former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard has come to a close — a temporary one at least.
Friday afternoon, Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker sentenced Hubbard to 4 years total in prison. Walker's sentence follows a historic verdict almost a month ago in which Hubbard was found guilty on 12 of 23 felony ethics charges by a Lee County Jury.
In total, Walker — who has has been on the bench over Hubbard's case since 2014 — set his base sentence at 12 years. Four years of that sentence will be served in a state penitentiary, and the remaining eight years will be supervised probation.
Hubbard will remain free on the bond issued last month until post-trial hearings conclude. Once Walker rules on the post-trial motions, the defense will have 42 days to appeal.
At that time, Walker suggested he would grant Hubbard an appeal bond, allowing him to remain free until the appeals process is complete — a process that could take many more years.
Earlier this month, prosecutors submitted a motion requesting Hubbard serve a 18-year base sentence. They wanted Hubbard in prison for at least five years, with the remaining 13 years on probation.
Instead, Walker chose to sentence Hubbard more mercifully, perhaps setting a precedent in a case the prosecution has dubbed "incomparable."
But Walker's 12-year sentence does not begin to compare to the summation of the minimum sentence of each individual charge if they had each been served consecutively — at least two years per charge.
The total minimum sentence, if Walker had chosen it, could have been 24 years in prison. Instead, Walker chose to split each charge and then allow Hubbard to serve many of them concurrently with one another.
In total, ignoring the concurrent state of many of the charges, Hubbard was sentenced to about 96 years, but will only serve four. Additionally, Hubbard will owe about $210,000 in fines.
Prosecutors said Hubbard directly enriched himself and his businesses to the tune of $1.1 million. In doing so, he violated the same ethics laws he himself helped pass only 6 years before in the Alabama House of Representatives during his first special session as speaker in December 2010.
Today, prosecutors said this case was very difficult but also very important. According to lead prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Matt Hart, Hubbard did not "slip up" — he purposefully broke the law.
"We can calculate the monetary loss and we can calculate the ill-gotten gain," Hart said. "What is incalculable is the damage to the confidence of the citizens of this state. ... He wanted the money, and everything he did was to get the money."
Hart said white collar crimes like Hubbard's could be deterred by significant sentences. Unlike violent criminals, white collar criminals "know when people are watching."
"People are watching this case," Hart said. "Public officials are watching this case, and the public is watching this case."
Before being removed from office immediately upon becoming a convicted felon almost a month ago, Hubbard served in the Alabama House for almost 18 years. He was first elected in November 1998 as the representative for House District 79, which covers most of the City of Auburn.
In 2010, after helping to orchestrate an historic takeover of the Alabama Legislature from his position as Alabama Republican Party chair, Hubbard was elected by the members of the House to serve as speaker — an office he held for more than five years.
Hubbard has maintained his innocence since he was first indicted on the 23 charges back in October 2014.
"My family and I are working to come to terms with the disappointing verdicts, and I continue to steadfastly maintain my innocence," Hubbard told the Associated Press in a statement after the verdict in June. "We have every confidence that the coming appeals process will be successful."
Today, his attorneys reiterated his claims of innocence and said they will definitely appeal the verdict shortly after he is sentenced.
"We will exercise every right we have to appeal," Baxley said. "Mike Hubbard hasn't done anything wrong. ... I feel like at the end of the day he will be totally vindicated."
The defense also called four character witness including Auburn City Councilman Gene Dulaney, U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, his pastor and Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller.
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