Mobile County Sheriff Jack Tillman planned to step down the following week, cutting short his third term in office, sources close to the matter reported. Gov. Bob Riley, who held the authority to fill the vacancy, was aware of Tillman’s plans and intended to name as his successor whoever won the Republican nomination for sheriff, according to sources close to the governor. The GOP primary was set for June 6.
A Departure Tied to Legal Troubles
Tillman’s retirement appeared linked to a plea arrangement in connection with charges pending against him, though efforts to confirm that were unsuccessful, and neither Tillman nor the district attorney’s office would comment. A Mobile County grand jury had indicted the sheriff the previous April on two counts of perjury, one count of using his office for personal gain and two counts of theft.
The charges grew out of a long and rancorous dispute between Tillman and the office of District Attorney John Tyson Jr. over the sheriff’s handling of the jail’s food-fund monies and a law-enforcement seminar managed by Tillman’s sister-in-law, Brenda Pate, who also worked in the department. Among the allegations was an illegal withdrawal of nearly $13,000 from the jail food fund that Tillman was said to have placed in a personal retirement account. A former professional boxer, Tillman had been elected sheriff in 1994 after 16 years as a resource officer in the Mobile County Public School System.
Ten Seek the Office
Tillman’s earlier announcement that he would not seek a fourth term had opened the floodgates. Ten candidates entered the race: among Republicans, Deputy Chief Mark Barlow, Deputy Kyle Callaghan, former Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran, ex-deputy Rick Daves and Deputy Bobby Hartmann; among Democrats, Billy Ray Stroups, businessman Matt Tew, Prichard magistrate supervisor DaVon Grey, detective Donald E. Lunceford and bondsman Clint Ulmer. The office carried an annual salary of nearly $111,000 and a four-year term.
A Party Loyalty Challenge
Elsewhere on the political calendar, a subcommittee of the state Republican Party prepared to hear a challenge to Mobile attorney Jeff Glidewell‘s candidacy for juvenile judge in the GOP primary. Longtime Mobile Republican Terry Lathan filed the challenge, citing Glidewell’s 2004 run as the Democratic nominee for the same judgeship and his past membership on the county Democratic executive committee. Glidewell acknowledged the history but noted that many prominent figures had switched parties over the years.
Comings and Goings
At the Mobile County Community Corrections Center, director Joe Mahoney, a retired FBI agent, and assistant director David Thomas Sr., a retired federal inspector, both retired effective March 31, according to presiding Circuit Judge Charlie Graddick. Steve Green, formerly of the state Pardons and Paroles Board’s regional office, was hired to lead the center. And Mobile attorney Claude Boone was engaged to defend Gordon Waller, who had resigned as director of the Alabama Safety Institute amid charges that he extorted sex from a young man in exchange for keeping him out of jail.