Former Mobile County Commissioner Steve Nodine tasted freedom on Wednesday for the first time in almost a month, released from federal custody as he awaited trial on a murder charge in Baldwin County. His release, his attorneys cautioned, could prove short-lived.
How he was freed
Nodine’s release followed a decision by U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade, who affirmed an earlier order by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Cassidy allowing Nodine out of federal custody. Cassidy had attached rigorous conditions to Nodine’s movements and behavior, all of which Nodine pledged to observe.
The federal case accused Nodine of being a drug addict in possession of a firearm, an unusual charge that authorities invoked after he had already posted bond on the far more serious state count. A local construction firm had agreed to employ Nodine upon his release, according to Gordon Armstrong, his attorney in the federal matter.
Granade’s decision came as little surprise to those following the case. “It was the right ruling,” said Dennis Knizley, who along with associate John Conrad Williams is defending Nodine against the state murder charge. “I don’t think Nodine is a flight risk or a danger to the community. The judge doesn’t think either exists to any significant degree. Consequently, there’s no reason to reverse the ruling.” Knizley noted that a magistrate’s ruling in such matters is rarely reversed by the district judge.
The murder charge
Nodine faces a murder charge in Baldwin County in connection with the May 9 shooting death of Angel Downs in Gulf Shores. He has pleaded not guilty.
His freedom hinged in part on developments in that state case. Baldwin County authorities had asked Circuit Judge Charles Partin to reconsider his order reducing Nodine’s bond from $500,000 to $250,000 on the murder count. Partin set a hearing on the motion for Wednesday, June 23. According to legal observers, the judge was considered unlikely to reverse himself, given that little had changed since he entered the order, except that federal authorities had now deemed the defendant to be neither a flight risk nor a danger to himself or others.
A rapid fall
The developments marked another turn in a swift reversal of fortune for a man who not long before had been one of the most visible elected officials in Mobile County. Nodine resigned his District 2 seat on the county commission amid impeachment proceedings, and his departure left the commission a member short and set off a crowded special election to succeed him.
His legal troubles began with the federal gun and drug allegation and deepened with the murder charge out of Baldwin County. When federal authorities detained him on the firearm count, it was after he had already been released on a $250,000 bond in the murder case.
Court officials in the region noted at the time that the federal charge Nodine faced was one that could be applied broadly. State court officials said federal authorities could pursue as many as 40 such “drug addict in possession of a firearm” cases a month if agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Administration chose to bring them.
For the moment, Nodine was free, bound by the strict conditions the magistrate imposed and by the prospect of a hearing days away that could send him back into custody. Both the federal firearm case and the Baldwin County murder case remained pending, with trials still ahead.