Riley cleared, not the leak

Gov. Bob Riley has been cleared of accusations that he or one of his staff members influenced the state Supreme Court in a case between John Tyson, commander of the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling, and E. Paul Jones, district attorney of Macon County, and others representing VictoryLand in Shorter.

This acquittal came in a Sept. 27 report from former Justice J. Gorman Houston Jr., who was asked by the Supreme Court to investigate two accusations regarding this case.

One of the accusations was that “the executive department imposed its will upon the judicial department” by asking the case be given from one justice to another and for a time when the ruling would be released.

“After more than 100 hours spent investigating this as thoroughly as I could, I found no evidence that this occurred,” Houston wrote in his report.

In regard to the second accusation that someone at the high court had leaked information on this particular case while it was still pending, Houston said he was “reasonably convinced that confidential information … was leaked to the public.” But he could not determine the source of the leak and said he most likely would not be able to even if he extended the investigation.

“Justice Houston’s conclusion that there is no evidence to support the allegations should put to rest once and for all these baseless claims against the governor and the court,” Jeff Emerson, communications director for Riley, said in a press release.

“Justice Houston’s conclusion that confidential information was leaked to the public about the case is not a surprise,” Emerson said. “After all, one individual not associated in any way with the governor held a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court the day before the decision was released (July 30) and announced that the case had been reassigned from one justice to another.

“While that information was clearly leaked by someone, it was not leaked by the governor, his staff or anyone associated with the Task Force on Illegal Gambling,” Emerson said. (TAB)