Ex-judge in Ala. sex case called a ‘Jekyll-Hyde’

MOBILE, Ala. — A prosecutor depicted a former Alabama judge on Friday as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” who had sex with jail inmates in return for leniency while claiming to straighten out their lives.

Former Mobile Circuit Judge Herman Thomas built a reputation for mentoring troubled young men while hiding his sexual abuse of them, Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson told the jury in opening arguments.

She compared the judge, prominent in community programs, to the famous Robert Louis Stevenson character with a dual personality, embodying both good and evil.

She said young male inmates liked it when he took a special interest in their cases and their mothers were sometimes supportive of it. But then he began trading probation or release on bond for sexual gratification, she said.

“It’s that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing,” she told jurors.

But defense attorney Jeff Deen said Thomas is an award-winning civic leader who is the victim of unproven jailhouse rumors. He said Thomas is also in court because of political enemies he made during a 17-year career as a judge.

“All of that became sinister because of bad apples at the jail,” he told jurors.

The 48-year-old Thomas is on trial on charges including kidnapping, sodomy, and sexual abuse. He resigned in 2007 after some of the allegations surfaced in a judicial ethics case, including claims of paddling inmates with their pants down, but he has denied any wrongdoing.

Thomas, once the Democratic Party’s choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama, is accused of sexually abusing or assaulting 14 inmates while serving as a circuit judge from 1999 to 2007. The charges of kidnapping, sodomy, extortion and sex abuse accuse him of having sex with some male inmates and beating the bare bottoms of others for sexual gratification.

The prosecutor said the judge would check inmates out of jail for meetings in his car or a private office in the county courthouse, where abuse allegedly included oral and anal sex. She said forensic scientists found semen from two of the inmates in Thomas’ private office.

The first witness, presiding Circuit Judge Charlie Graddick, said Thomas handled a heavy caseload as judge and still found time to serve in many civic capacities and mentor young men.

“I’ve never seen anyone with as much energy as he has,” said Graddick, a former Alabama attorney general.

Thomas was appointed to a district judgeship in 1990 and later won election to a full term before becoming a circuit judge. In 1997, Alabama’s presidential advisory committee recommended President Bill Clinton appoint Thomas as the first black federal judge in the southern district of Alabama, but the nomination never was made amid squabbling within the party.

His trial will resume Tuesday with Graddick back on the witness stand. Attorneys expect the trial to take three weeks. The jury of eight men and eight women is hearing the case. The panel includes four alternates.