We could find out where Rob Cypher lives and...

Quote:

In article <bf4e2$4aff8b1c$a6666830$24... at (no spam) ALLTEL.NET
"Orson Wells as CitizenCain" <noem... at (no spam) here.invalidd> wrote:

We could, you know

A former judge is facing life in prison after being charged with
sexually abusing male inmates in exchange for leniency.

Respected circuit judge Herman Thomas, who was once the
Democratic Party’s choice to be the first black federal judge in
south Alabama, is accused of bringing inmates to his office and
spanking them with a paddle.

His trial for charges of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse,
extortion, assault and ethics violations is set to begin today.

The 48-year-old insists he is innocent and claims he was trying
to mentor the inmates.

Herman Thomas is accused of sexually abusing male inmates in
exchange for leniency

Thomas’s defence lawyer Robert ‘Cowboy Bob’ Clark has branded
the accusers ‘lying felons’ who are trying to wreck the career
of ‘a prestigious member of the Bar for over 20 years.’

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
a leading civil rights group, has defended Thomas and claims
race is behind his prosecution.

Thomas and his attorney blame the charges on politicians who
don't like him.

‘There is no doubt that people assisted these inmates in telling
these lies on me,’ Thomas said in April.

In an echo of sex allegations made against black Supreme Court
justice Clarence Thomas, Thomas's lawyer called the indictment
‘a high-tech lynching’.

‘They don't like uppity black folks, and that's what they
consider Herman,’ Clark added.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said
authorities began looking at Thomas after he changed a jail
sentence in 2006 for his cousin, former Mobile County school
commissioner David Thomas, even though the case was being
handled by another judge.

Other cases that Thomas had taken over from other judges without
their approval soon surfaced, she said.

Some inmates in those cases described being checked out of the
jail for meetings with Thomas in his car or in his private
office in the county courthouse.

First, there were reports of inmates having to pull down their
underwear for spankings with a wooden paddle. Then came
allegations of oral and anal sex, according to court records.

Noting that each of the alleged victims is black, Patterson says
jail checkout records back up inmates' claims about trips to
Thomas' private office, and other inmates spotted marks after
paddlings.

There also is other evidence, according to court records,
including one inmate's seminal fluid on the office carpet.

The inmates also were able to describe in detail Thomas'
unmarked windowless office.

Thomas stepped down from the bench in 2007 after the allegations
of paddling surfaced and just ahead of a judicial ethics trial
that could have forced him out of office.

He was indicted on the more-serious charges this past spring by
a Mobile County grand jury. If convicted of the most serious
charges - sodomy and kidnapping - he faces from 20 years to life
in prison.

The oldest incident in the charges dates to 1999, his first year
as a circuit judge.

The first public claim against Thomas surfaced in lawsuits filed
by an inmate in 2001 in Mobile circuit court and in federal
court that claimed the judge offered to help him with his case
in return for sex.

Both lawsuits were dismissed, and Thomas' reputation remained
unblemished.

Retired Mobile County Circuit Judge Braxton Kittrell said people
thought Thomas' personal interest in the defendants was a
positive.

'Everyone thought he had a lot of concern for people who got
into criminal difficulty. All of this was a surprise to
everyone,' he said.

The case has shocked Thomas' friends and former colleagues.

'I've always had the highest regard for him. The allegations
were a complete surprise to me and everyone else who knew him,'
said Bob Edington, a prominent Mobile attorney and former
Democratic state senator.

Prosecutors say they have 15 current and former male inmates
lined up to testify in a trial that could take several weeks.

Thomas grew up in Mobile and returned home after law school at
Florida State University to become an assistant district
attorney.

At the time, the majority white county had no black judges, and
local officials were concerned that a federal judge might end
countywide elections for judges.

Local Democrats and lawyers recruited Thomas, and they got a
Republican governor to appoint him to a vacancy in 1990. Thomas
later won election to a full term.

He handled lower level cases as a district judge, but he moved
up to a county circuit judgeship in 1999 and started handling
the most serious crimes, including murder.

In 1997, Alabama's presidential advisory committee recommended
President Bill Clinton appoint Thomas as the first black federal
judge in the southern district of Alabama.

The nomination was never acted on after Thomas failed to get the
American Bar Association's top rating and amid some squabbling
within the party.

The fact remains that Thomas is black, and everybody knows black
guys like sticking they dicks up another black guy's butt.