Alabama judge acquitted of sex charges (maybe)
Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas originally had 103 charges leveled against him involving paddling and sexually abusing inmates - most of the charges were dismissed either by the court or by prosecutors before trial. He went to trial on 23 charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy, sex abuse and second-degree assault, and Monday he was acquitted on 7 counts and the court threw out the remaining 14 counts which the jury couldn't reach a decision on.
Apparently, after the trial at least three jurors have told the district attorney's office that they believed the result would be a hung jury and that they did not intend to acquit the judge.
Just a day after the verdict, three jurors came forward to Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson with claims that their votes had been misrepresented and they had no knowledge of Neilson’s ability to declare verdicts on the charges upon which they could not reach a unanimous decision. Essentially, jurors have said they thought the end result would be a hung jury.
The district attorney is investigating - of course, it seems that they neglected to poll the jury immediately following the verdict, and there is that pesky double jeopardy clause in the Constitution. I predict the judge is home-free at this point.
