After more than two years of investigations, pre-trial hearings, a month-long trial and post-trial appeals, former House Speaker Mike Hubbard's days in Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker's courtroom are done.
Hubbard's lead defense attorney Bill Baxley said his defense team is now operating under the assumption that a post-trial motion filed by the defense in early August requesting a new trial was automatically denied last Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Walker had only 60 days from Hubbard's date of sentencing, which was July 8, to rule on his motion for a new trial. He let the 60 days lapse, effectively ending Hubbard's trial in Lee County.
"No motion for a new trial or motion ... shall remain pending in the trial court for more than 60 days after the pronouncement of sentence," according to the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure.
There are no remaining motions for Walker to decide.
"By our count, the 60 days ran the Tuesday after Labor Day," Baxley said.
The automatic denial last week, which was first reported by the Alabama Political Reporter, began a 42-day countdown for the former House speaker and Auburn Republican to file a request for appeal with the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
Now, Baxley said, his defense team is preparing for the appeal.
"It happens," Baxley said about the denial. "We're looking forward to our appeal. We feel super confident that Mike's going to be vindicated completely. ... We think we're pretty strong that he didn't get a fair trial and some errors were committed."
The deadline for the defense to file their appeal will be in early October. If Sept. 6 was the official date of denial, as Baxley and others have suggested, Hubbard's defense team must file its appeal by Oct. 18.
Hubbard was found guilty in early June of 12 felony violations of state ethics law. He led the effort to pass, during his first special session as speaker in December 2010, the same ethics law he was found guilty of violating.
The jury ruled that Hubbard illegally obtained "consulting" contracts with several trade organizations and businesses. He was also found guilty of voting on a state General Fund budget despite a conflict of interest — the conflict being his contract with the American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc.
Three of the guilty counts, 16–19, found that Hubbard illegally solicited investments from several prominent Alabama businessmen, who were also principals (people who hire lobbyists), including Jimmy Rane, the state's richest man and CEO of Great Southern Wood.
Hubbard was also found guilty of illegally obtaining contracts with, and then lobbying for, CV Holdings and the company's CEO Bobby Abrams.
The former speaker, who still has a boulevard in Auburn and a building on Auburn's campus named after him, was sentenced in July to four years in prison. However, Walker granted an appeal bond, allowing him to stay free until the conclusion of the appeal.
Hubbard maintains his innocence and has said all of the contracts and investments were legal.
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