Former Judge Herman Thomas Indicted on Sex, Ethics Charges
LINK

(MOBILE, Ala.)(AP) March 26 - Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas has bonded out of the Mobile County Metro Jail after he was arrested Friday afternoon.

Before his arrest, Thomas was indicted by a grand jury on 57 felony counts, accusing him of, among other things, sexually abusing Mobile County inmates in exchange for favors in his courtroom.

Thomas is charged with ethics violations, kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse and sodomy. The indictment against him includes graphic details of alleged paddling and other sexual favors.

Eight victims are named in the indictment. All of the alleged victims are men. Some still remain in Metro Jail.

"It's a high-tech lynching," said Thomas's attorney, Bob Clark. "This is racism as its very finest. We should be proud citizens of this county and proud we elected these bastards."

Friday, Mobile County District Attorney, John Tyson, Jr., asked for other possible victims of Thomas to come forward.

Thomas resigned from the bench in 2007 amid allegations that he took over other judges' cases without their knowledge, checked inmates out of jail and paddled them, and involved himself in cases where he had personal connections.

Thomas was let out of jail shortly after he was arrested Friday, on a $250,000 bond.

Tyson does not believe Thomas is a flight risk. Thomas's bond, however, has three conditions. Thomas is not allowed to have any contact with males under the age of 21 or contact with witnesses in the case or their family members. If Thomas has a passport, he must give it up.

Ex-Mobile Judge Herman Thomas arrested on new sexual misconduct charges
Posted by Gary McElroy, Staff Reporter August 11, 2009 7:06 AM
LINK


(Press-Register file/Bill Starling)Former Mobile Circuit Judge Herman Thomas and his wife Linda listen during a rally in support of him outside Mobile Government Plaza in downtown Mobile Saturday, April 4, 2009. Thomas surrendered to police Monday after new sexual misconduct charges were brought against him.

MOBILE, Ala. -- Even more damning charges against Herman Thomas surfaced Monday after indictments based on the testimony of six new alleged victims accused him of forcing male inmates to have sex with him while he was a circuit judge.

The 48-year-old former Mobile County circuit judge surrendered at Mobile County Metro Jail about noon Monday.

After being booked, he was released on his own recognizance.

A special grand jury, which issued the 46 new charges Friday, recommended that in light of Thomas' existing bail of $287,500, it would be proper this time to allow him to sign his own bond, officials said.

The new cases were added to the 57 counts involving nine accusers issued by the grand jury in March.

Like the previous charges, the new batch alleges that Thomas committed sodomy, sex abuse, extortion, kidnapping, assault and ethics violations.

Thomas' attorney, Bob Clark, described them as "the same old, same old."

But in one instance, Thomas is now accused of engaging in "deviate sexual intercourse" with a victim by forcing him to have anal sex -- an act he's not been accused of before.

In other cases, Thomas is accused of soliciting "sexual favors or services," including, as in the previous indictments, whipping the defendants.

Thomas did that in one case, according to the new indictment, by causing the victim to "with or without clothing, expose his buttocks to paddling and/or whipping and/or touching." The victim was also caused to expose "his penis to touching by" Thomas.

The special grand jury also issued "reindictments" involving the previous nine accusers. Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said that was done "as a housecleaning measure."

Unlike March's events, a circus-like atmosphere surrounding Thomas' arrest did not occur Monday.

Minutes before the March arrest, Clark -- with his client standing silently beside him looking off into the distance -- told a gaggle of media gathered at the jail that the charges were founded on racism against the black judge.

That racism, Clark said then, emanated from the courthouse on the part of white prosecutors and white judges on the circuit bench.

Even as Clark spoke, a representative from the district attorney's office quietly approached Thomas and took him inside the jail for arrest and booking.

District Attorney John Tyson Jr. held a news conference later that day to dismiss Clark's claims.

Clark was briefly taken into custody after causing a commotion but was not arrested.

On Monday, by contrast, there were no news conferences, although Clark, in a quieter vein, continued to suggest that Thomas' troubles stem from being black.

"If he had been white, this would have never happened," Clark said, referring to the criminal charges. "A resignation was not good enough."

Thomas resigned in October 2007 just before a civil trial was to begin in Montgomery in front of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which could have stripped him of his judgeship.

All of Thomas' accusers are black, Patterson pointed out Monday, and all were between the ages of 18 and 25 and involved in the criminal justice system when Thomas encountered them.

While most of the accusers are still incarcerated for various crimes, Patterson said, a few are now out of jail.

"I am looking forward to Oct. 5," Clark said Monday afternoon in a telephone call, referring to Thomas' criminal trial date.