An
Alabama gent named Herman Thomas, known in the national news as "The Spanking Judge," was
finally charged on Friday with a whopping 57
counts, including extortion, sodomy, kidnapping, and a host of ethics
violations. Several hours later, Thomas was out on bond and told to have no contact with young people.
So... how did ex-Judge Herman Thomas get his nickname?
According to various source, Thomas is accused of bringing prisoners from jail to a storage closet next to his office for "paddling sessions." (What, they weren't good enough to be paddled in judge's chambers?) How he got away with that once, let alone multiple times, is beyond us. After all, inmates will sue if their soup is so much as lukewarm one afternoon-- you'd think they would've all filed multimillion dollar civil suits by now.
On top of that, Thomas is accused of trading sex for lighter sentences to violent felons...
We began digging through court documents, one of Thomas's alleged
victims was tried and convicted of robbery. Records show instead of
locking him up, Thomas gave him probation. Then, that same man was
arrested for burglary. Thomas tossed that case out just weeks before it
went to trial. That man is now back in jail, accused of murder. Thomas
joined him behind bars this afternoon. [MSNBC]
Thomas resigned from the bench in October 2007
amid allegations that he manipulated a jail sentence for his cousin,
swapped cases on other judges dockets, and paddled prisoners from
Mobile Metro Jail. [WKRG]
[N]umerous individuals... claim Thomas used his position as judge to coerce them for sexual
activity, or would punish them for denying such activity. Kulakowski’s
investigation also uncovered individuals who claim Thomas engaged them
in illegal drug trade and actively used his office to protect drug
dealers working with him. [Lagniappe Mobile]
Now we understand why Thomas's bail terms bar him from having any contact with men under the age of 21... and it also sort of explains the paddling.
Here's the full, 57-count indictment.
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