By the way, there is no doubt that I was fired at UAB because of my reporting--on my own time, with my own resources--about the Siegelman case. A university human-resources official named Anita Bonasera admitted that in a phone conversation I tape recorded after I had been placed on administrative leave. You can listen to it here:
Audio: UAB and the Cost of Blogging About the Siegelman Case
Acker Jr.'s arrest made the front page of last Friday's Birmingham News. The story is starting to show national and international legs, with reports in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, The Washington Post, and The Daily Mail of London.
Will there still be an effort to give Acker Jr. gentle treatment for what appear to be a series of hideous crimes? I suspect the answer is yes. We certainly can expect to see an effort to limit the damage to Acker Jr. himself, with no inquiry into the official inaction that allowed him to operate as a predator for 20 years or more.
Barry Alvis, of the North Shelby County firm W. Barry Alvis & Associates, is representing Acker Jr. Barry Alvis used to be a partner with Lindsey Allison in a firm that now is called Allison May & Kimbrough. Lindsey Allison is chairperson of the Shelby County Commission, where she serves with Dan M. Acker Sr. You can see that the Shelby County power structure is incestuous to its core.
Barry Alvis now has a firm with his wife, Lara McCauley Alvis, who used to work in the Shelby County District Attorney's Office. In fact, my wife and I consulted with her (she was Lara McCauley then) before filing a criminal trespass complaint against Mike McGarity, the troublesome neighbor who had ignored repeated warnings to stay off our property.
Lara McCauley signed off on the complaint against McGarity, never bothering to tell us that Shelby County judges go easy on the accused when he is represented by a favored attorney, such as the wildly corrupt William E. Swatek. Ms. McCauley also never bothered to tell us that we could be vulnerable to a malicious prosecution lawsuit if McGarity was acquitted, even if he confessed to the crime.
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