Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas Indicted on Inmate Sex Charges, Lawyer Pulls Race Card, Cites "High-Tech Lynching"

The long arm of the law has caught up with another unscrupulous judge. Well, this one is of a different ilk. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas was arrested Friday after a grand jury returned the indictments against him. He was released on $287,500 bond later the same day. According to media reports Judge Thomas was slapped with indictments totalling 57 counts and charges ranging from ethics violations to kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and sodomy. If convicted of kidnapping, which is the most serious charge, he faces a prison sentence of 10 to 99 years in prison, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr.

Wait, it gets better. His attorney, Robert Clark, used a phrase uttered by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas about the scandal involving Anita Hill -- the accusations against the former judge amount to "a high-tech lynching." He then pulled the race card -- "Did you ever think of the fact that this is the only black circuit judge we've ever had in Mobile County and that the right-wing Republicans have gotten rid of him?" "This is racism at its very finest." Let me get this straight. The former judge has been accused of some serious charges and the best his attorney could do was get in the mud and scream racism? Did anyone force this judge to allegedly do these things? The Alabama State Bar said its disciplinary commission suspended Thomas' law license Monday.

"The South hasn't changed all that much," Clark, described by the Mobile Press-Register as "a longtime and flamboyant fixture of the Mobile defense bar," told CNN on Monday. He said Thomas denies all the charges, and he questioned the credibility of the alleged victims. "Everybody that's listed in the indictment is either serving life for murder or some other horrible crime." Some have already recanted, Clark said, adding, "None of this is new stuff." He pledged he would "fight till the last dog falls."

The indictment returned Friday, offers few details of the alleged offenses but makes several references to Thomas forcing people to expose their buttocks "to paddling and/or whipping." The posted indictment had names of the alleged victims blacked out. But each of the nine alleged victims was in Mobile County Circuit Court on charges ranging from criminal mischief to murder, according to the Press-Register, which cited court records.

One of the inmates, according to the newspaper, went before Thomas on multiple occasions and faced several felony charges. He was sent to prison for a short time, but Thomas ordered him released early, according to the Press-Register. He was sentenced in federal court and later released and has since been accused of murder and attempted murder.

During Thomas' judgeship, he had a storage room furnished like an office near his eighth-floor chamber at Mobile's Government Plaza, the Press-Register said. Several criminal defendants have alleged, in affidavits and in court, that Thomas asked to paddle their buttocks in the room, and some said he suggested sexual encounters there, according to the newspaper. Source: CNN

He resigned from the bench in October 2007 before this drama hit the fan. He left just before being scheduled to stand trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on ethics violations charges. The complaint was dismissed after Thomas' resignation and accused him of "extrajudiciary personal contact" with some defendants but does not refer to any sexual contact. The man is a pervert. No better than the scumbag running around among us with no good intentions. It is scary that this man could have been sitting on a bench and handing down sentences for any crime, when he has broken the law himself, and on such a grand scale.