A former Mobile County circuit judge whose career was upended by allegations that he coerced sexual favors from young men under his authority has advanced to a runoff election for a seat on the Mobile City Council, reviving questions about a scandal that has followed him for two decades.
Herman Thomas placed second in last week’s municipal election for the council’s District 1 seat, setting up an Oct. 5 runoff against Cory Penn, a political newcomer who led the field. A third candidate, Chamyne Fortune-Thomson, captured roughly 23 percent of the vote, a bloc large enough to tip the outcome toward either remaining candidate.
Thomas resigned from the bench in 2007 and was indicted nearly two years later on 180 criminal charges tied to allegations that he abused his authority as a judge. Prosecutors accused him of having sexual contact with inmates, paddling them in his chambers, and improperly pulling cases from other judges’ dockets so he could preside over them himself. The criminal case ended in 2009 when a jury deadlocked and the charges were dismissed. Even without a conviction, disciplinary authorities in both Alabama and Florida disbarred him, and his law license has remained suspended ever since.
The former judge has tried repeatedly to return to public life since leaving the bench. In 2010, he challenged incumbent state Sen. Vivian Figures for the Alabama Senate District 33 seat and lost badly. Figures had testified against Thomas during his criminal trial regarding corporal punishment her son received. Thomas ran again in 2018 for the Alabama House District 99 seat but finished a distant second to Sam Jones in the Democratic primary. Outgoing District 1 Councilman Fred Richardson effectively endorsed Thomas last week, calling him a familiar leader likely to continue his work on the council. Penn has declined to discuss the allegations, saying he intends to run a positive campaign, and Fortune-Thomson has not responded to requests for comment.
While the criminal case against Thomas is widely known, court records show the allegations first surfaced years earlier, in a 2001 civil lawsuit filed by Michael Dewayne Anderson, who was serving time for murder. Anderson alleged that in 1994, shortly after his release from prison on a robbery conviction, Thomas propositioned him for sexual activity. Anderson said he refused and that Thomas later retaliated against him after he was charged with murder in 2000. A state judge dismissed Anderson’s claims, but he refiled in federal court in 2003, alleging he had been subjected to what he described as intimidation tied to Thomas’ sexual advances.
That federal complaint included sworn statements from three other men describing similar experiences. One affidavit, from Gary Blunt, stated that Thomas repeatedly propositioned him for sexual activity while he was on probation, warning that he would need Thomas’ help down the road. Blunt said that after he rebuffed the advances, Thomas had him released from jail only to have him arrested again the next day and sent to prison following a probation revocation hearing. A second man, Nathaniel Agee, described a pattern in which Thomas gave him money, arranged for his release from jail, and showed up at his home early in the morning, growing angry when Agee’s children were present. Agee said that after he later testified against police officers friendly with Thomas, the judge warned him he would be going to prison. A third affidavit, from John Richardson, relayed accounts he said he gathered from other men held at Mobile Metro Jail describing similar treatment.
A federal magistrate judge, Kristi Dubose, ultimately dismissed Anderson’s federal complaint, ruling that its legal basis was not clearly established and that the court lacked jurisdiction to compel state prosecutors to act.
The allegations resurfaced again last year when Corey Diamond filed a lawsuit against Thomas. That case, too, was dismissed as frivolous, but Diamond maintains the underlying claims are true. He said Thomas ordered him to pull down his pants so he could be paddled, and that he reported the incident to both state and federal investigators without ever hearing back. Diamond described a broader pattern of favoritism within the local justice system extending well beyond Thomas, saying attorneys, judges and police were selectively deciding who faced arrest and who did not.
Anderson, reached by phone this week at the Red Eagle Community Work Center in Montgomery, where he is serving a 24-year sentence for murder, said he is currently focused on an upcoming parole hearing but has not ruled out filing a new lawsuit against Thomas if he is released. He said he was surprised to learn Thomas remained a viable candidate for elected office given the history between them, arguing that Thomas should not be allowed back into public life while the men he says were harmed continue to face the consequences of their own cases. Anderson said he gave a statement to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about his allegations years ago but was never contacted by any other investigators.
With the runoff just weeks away, District 1 voters will decide whether Thomas’ political comeback continues or ends for a third time, as the decades-old allegations remain unresolved in the public record.