Judge Allegedly Sodomizes Inmates

[Azathoth]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8290275.stm

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Judge accused of sex with inmates

Former circuit judge Herman Thomas has denied abusing inmates
The trial of a former US judge accused of having sex with male inmates in exchange for leniency is set to start in Mobile, Alabama.

Herman Thomas, 48, denies the charges, which include sodomy, kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and assault.

Up to 15 current and former prisoners are set to testify against him at the jury trial.

He was once the Democratic Party's choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama.

Mr Thomas resigned as a judge in 2007 following allegations that he spanked inmates in his private office at the county courthouse with a paddle.

'Private meetings'

In April this year, he was indicted on more serious charges.

If he is convicted of the charges of kidnapping, he could face a sentence of life in prison.

Court records show that some of the inmates involved said they were checked out of jail for meetings with the defendant in either his car or in his office.

They claim they were abused during these meetings.

However, Mr Thomas's lawyer, Robert Clark, has said the alleged victims were trying to ruin his client's career.

In April, he described the situation as a "a high-tech lynching" and said it was politically motivated.

He said: "They don't like uppity black folks, and that's what they consider Herman."

Mr Thomas's licence to practise has already been suspended.

'Surprise'

He has previously said he was trying to mentor the inmates.

A former Democratic state senator and colleague, Bob Eddington, said: "I've always had the highest regard for him.

"The allegations were a complete surprise to me and everyone else who knew him."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organisation, has said that Mr Thomas is being prosecuted because of his race.

The trial is set to last several weeks.

So, is he a rapist and predator or are the accusations untrue? What do you think?

[Rhyfelwyr]

Guilty.

A gay black judge in Alabama? Man, you couldn't make that stuff up.

[Hosakawa Tito]

I need a bit more evidence than the word of some convicts, and so far that is all that has been presented.

[Csargo]

I'd say 15 is a little more than enough...

[Beskar]

It's the mustache.

[AlexanderSextus]

I agree with the NAACP. I can just see the Aryan Brotherhood Inmate screaming "that ****** raped me!"

Unless it was a black inmate, that would throw me for a loop.

[Major Robert Dump]

A judge works long and hard for his or her position, and should be allowed perks the rest of us are not. To think that a "high tech lynching" by a bunch of inmates who don't have computers could derail this man's stellar career is quite simply just, well, rape. All judges, as well as all people in law enforcement, should have a rape license because what they do is ever so important because no one else has the cajones to do....I mean every cop and judge I've ever met doesn't t hang that Orson Wells quote in their office for looks, ya know....oh wait

[drone]

It's the mustache.

And the bowtie.

[Lemur]

I always wanted to point out that a mustache makes you 75% more gay, but I was afraid that Divinus Arma would beat me up and take my milk money.

As for the judge's innocence or guilt, impossible to say from the article or the evidence given.

[Monk]

Tsk Lemur, i would expect you to know better. The 'stache doesn't make the man, the man makes the 'stache!

Things don't look too favorable for the judge, i mean one or two people coming forward you might be able to discredit on account of them being convicted felons but fifteen?

[Ja'chyra]

So how did he manage to overpower and rape 15 different people, did he deliberately pick small guys or did they try to get let off, by providing favours, with their sentence and now they're crying foul?

It all sounds a bit fishy to me, I reckon the cons tried to buy lighter sentences with their asses and are now trying a new approach for either time off or compensation.

[Lemur]

Update: Found innocent. Hmmm.

One of the alleged victims testified October 19 that he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office by Thomas, according to The Mobile Press-Register newspaper. But he did say Thomas spanked him with a belt on several occasions, the newspaper reported, and that the paddlings took place inside a jury room, in the small office and at a Mobile, Alabama, fraternity house.

Another man testified that after he was charged with kidnapping and robbery in 2002, Thomas visited him in jail and urged the man to let Thomas decide the case instead of a jury, according to the Press-Register. Thomas convicted him of lesser charges, he testified, and sentenced him to a 90-day boot camp. He said Thomas also beat him with a belt on his bare buttocks about a dozen times at the courthouse, the newspaper reported. Neither man was identified.

"All of them [the alleged victims] were given preferential treatment at some point," Nicki Patterson, chief assistant district attorney for Mobile County, said earlier this month. "And ultimately, when some of them refused to continue participating [in the activities], they were given what I would view as excessive sentences. But certainly while the inmates were involved with the activities we allege, the state would say, it was extremely lenient sentences."

[rory_20_uk]

That's what I call hard justice... Screwed by the state...

Well, I think I'm funny...

[Lemur]

Frankly, I think any news report that includes the sentence "he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office" is automatically hilarious.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Tsk Lemur, i would expect you to know better. The 'stache doesn't make the man, the man makes the 'stache!

Things don't look too favorable for the judge, i mean one or two people coming forward you might be able to discredit on account of them being convicted felons but fifteen?

I think it'd be easy for a bunch of cons to come together and cook up such a scheme.

Course it does seem he did get off on spanking men, and that he abused the justice system to accomplish that. His law license ought to stay suspended for good.

CR

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Probably guilty, but can someone spot what's wrong here:

the charges, which include sodomy, kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and assault.

[Zain]

He looks like a nice guy, but most rapists and sodomizers do...

I'd say lock him up and send a gay model in there. If he doesn't fight it, he's guilty.

[A Very Super Market]

He looks like a nice guy, but most rapists and sodomizers do...

You mean that we keep our secrets to ourselves? Only truly disturbed individuals (On the Ed Gein level) display "obvious" homicidal symptons. Our whole lives are based on lies, some just take the next step.

[Zain]

You mean that we keep our secrets to ourselves? Only truly disturbed individuals (On the Ed Gein level) display "obvious" homicidal symptons. Our whole lives are based on lies, some just take the next step.

Aye, very true

My point exactly

[JAG]

This is the best story I have seen in years, has nearly made me cry with laughter. It has everything - you can just imagine these hard ass white southern boys, convicted of assault and violent crimes getting spanked by an overweight, academic, gay black man, who ownz their ass not only metophorically but, as it turns out, literally. Hahaha, brilliant, don't stop, lets get more details!!