Mobile County Commissioner Stephen D. Nodine could face ethics charges as early as Friday if a grand jury reported as expected, according to sources in the area’s law enforcement and legal communities.
The ethics inquiry was separate from the Mother’s Day shooting death in Gulf Shores of Angel Downs, 45, the woman with whom the married commissioner had a longstanding relationship. That death was under investigation by authorities in Baldwin County.
How the ethics investigation began
The Mobile County investigation was launched late in 2009 after a marijuana-like substance was found in Nodine’s county pickup truck during a service visit to the county garage. Escambia County District Attorney Stephen Billy was assigned as special prosecutor after Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. recused himself to avoid any appearance of political bias.
Over the following months the inquiry moved away from the marijuana and prescription pills found in the truck and toward ethical questions about the misuse of county property and travel-related expenses. County records were subpoenaed roughly two months earlier.
The Gulf Shores investigation
Nodine had been admitted to the psychiatric ward on the fifth floor of Mobile Infirmary, reportedly distraught after Downs was shot outside the townhouse she rented on Fort Morgan Road. Neighbors reported seeing a red Ford F-150 pickup leaving the scene shortly after the 7:55 p.m. gunshot that left Downs dying in her driveway with a head wound.
Authorities described Nodine as "a person of interest." He had not been charged as detectives and forensic scientists worked to establish whether the death was an accident, a suicide or a homicide. With his attorney, Matt Green, present, Nodine met with Baldwin County authorities late Sunday night and into Monday morning.
The missing bullet
In what sources described as a potentially critical gap, investigators had not recovered the bullet that passed through Downs’ temple and exited without lodging in her skull. A handgun reportedly registered to Downs, believed to be a Kel-Tec PF-9, was found at her side. It was not clear whether that weapon had been fired.
A sheriff’s gun recovered
A Mobile County Sheriff’s Office-owned .40-caliber Glock handgun had been issued to Nodine in 2004, not long after he joined the county commission. Sheriff Sam Cochran said he moved to recover the weapon as soon as he heard reports of Nodine’s mental distress, only to learn that the gun had already been retrieved and was in the custody of Baldwin County authorities. Cochran declined to say how the transfer occurred.
Cochran and former Sheriff Jack Tillman both said county commissioners have legitimate grounds to carry a firearm in the course of their duties. "It’s better to have a gun and not need one than to need a gun and not have one," Tillman said.
A pattern of concern
Friends and political associates said Nodine’s mental state was "not good." Sources in Mobile’s political and legal circles said his use of prescription painkillers for hip and back pain had escalated to a dependence they described as 25 to 30 pills a day, and that efforts to persuade him to seek treatment were rebuffed by the commissioner and some allies as politically motivated.
Baldwin County authorities were expected to disclose their thinking on the death within roughly 36 hours, sources said, though they cautioned that an announcement could take longer given the attention on the case. Billy, the special prosecutor in the Mobile inquiry, did not return calls, but was reported to have been at the Mobile County Courthouse on Wednesday.