Publisher’s note: As Don Fletcher, Cindy Jackson, Ashley Fore and I have worked through the charges – all dismissed – against us, Atmore News has invited the other parties to write their stories. I wrote mine over a 10-part series. In this article, Don shares his thoughts. As is the case for all of us, these are our thoughts, as these are Don’s.
By Don Fletcher
Most people have moved on to some other topic or cause since all charges were dropped against Sherry, Ashley Fore, Cindy Jackson and me after we had become news in October 2023, but I still get asked from time to time how I feel about the few hours I spent in jail and the arrests of my three co-defendants.
I usually tell them right off that being in jail is not fun, whether you’re wrongfully incarcerated for just six hours, like Sherry and I were, or you stay behind bars for six years as a murder suspect until the District Attorney realizes he never had a valid case against you.
Of course, being in jail isn’t supposed to be fun. But to be put there on the whim of a politician who was apparently (a) trying to impress another person or (b) trying to show the world how little he actually cares about the law, made sure it was even less enjoyable. I think it was a little of both, kind of like “eye of newt and toe of frog” in a Shakespearean witch’s brew.
Anyway, getting back to the original subject, I’m relieved that the threat of incarceration is over, and I’m happy that we were all cleared (especially Sherry, who was wrongfully charged with every crime Steve Billy could think of).
I admit, though, that a little bit of anger lingers. It rears its head each time I think about how quickly our sheriff and DA, usually reluctant to furnish any information to the media, rushed out a press release announcing that Sherry, Ashley and I were arrested for “revealing grand jury secrets.” I was surprised to find that my child and my ex-wife, who live in Mobile, knew about the arrests before I ever made bond.
Disappointing DA
But mainly I feel disappointment. Disappointment with a lot of officials who showed their true colors as the scope of the DA’s “investigations” widened to bring Mrs. Jackson in, and the lunacy of his mission — coupled with his apparent ignorance of the law — became more evident to more people.
I could go on and on about my disappointment over the DA’s incredible claim, spelled out on phone-confiscation warrants, that a violation of the Alabama Open Meetings Act was a criminal action. It took me less than a minute online to discover that the law was changed nine years ago, making such a violation a civil action.
The DA also disappointed a lot of folks with his apparent disregard for the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, drawing negative attention to the county and national ridicule to his office for being the latest to go after anyone foolish enough to write newspaper stories that he (or the person he was trying to impress) didn’t like.
The most ridiculous aspect of our incarceration (mine and Sherry’s; I never met Ashley until later, and Cindy hadn’t yet been arrested) came when jailers tried to figure out what statute under which we should be charged. It took several phone calls and most of an hour just to settle that issue and complete the booking process.
Sheriff, too
I was disappointed, yet hardly surprised, when Sheriff Heath Jackson bragged that Sherry and I were going to stay in his jail and eat his hot dogs for the entire weekend. That’s why he and the DA waited until Friday afternoon to have us arrested.
The sheriff, a young man I admired and respected when he first ran for office, went into jackboot lockstep with the DA in order to vent their shared anger over Sherry’s vote against a new contract for former school superintendent Michele McClung.
I heard (and recorded) the disparaging remarks the county’s top lawman made about Mrs. Jackson for the same thing (voting to dump McClung), but he had no grounds (legally or illegally) to arrest her at that time. He and the DA fixed that later.
Brer Fox’s friends
What a disappointment were our three major judges — Circuit Court jurists Jeff White and Todd Stearns, District Court Judge Eric Coale — and their decision to recuse themselves from the case against the four of us.
These three paragons of our local judicial system claimed they stepped away from the cases because of their association as former assistant DAs in Steve Billy’s office. That fact, they indicated, could taint or appear to taint any decisions they might render in the case.
Hmmm. If that’s how things are, shouldn’t each of them recuse himself from hearing any criminal cases at all? The fact that they were former ADAs shouldn’t have had any more effect on how they ruled and how much attention they paid to the proceedings against us than they would have on any other defendant’s case.
At best, their claims made a weak excuse for recusal.
I think the real reason they recused themselves is their foresight. I believe they realized a lot quicker than the DA that they would be (as Joel Chandler Harris might say) “punching the tar baby” and becoming stuck even more securely in its anti-constitutional grasp each time they tried to wiggle free.
In other words, they weren’t going to go down with their former captain. They felt it would be safer to jump in the lifeboats before the ship started bobbing below the waterline.
No hometown help
Another disappointment was our state’s esteemed Attorney General, Steve Marshall. Although he was reared right here in Atmore, the state’s AG never once (at least not publicly) checked into the antics of our local DA, who for personal reasons filed bogus criminal charges against two journalists from Marshall’s hometown newspaper and two other individuals from his home county. Go figure.
With all the locals filing recusal notices, Marshall finally had no choice but to have one of his top investigators look the case over. That investigator found out quickly what everyone else already knew, that the case was little more than the prosecutorial equivalent of mushroom fertilizer.
So, wanting to make sure none of that fertilizer got on his highly polished shoes, the AG and his office filed a motion to have the charges dismissed. The “ink” was hardly dry on the electronic motion before Judge Ben Fuller (retired, 19th Judicial Circuit, appointed by Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker) granted it.
Above and beyond
Our only salvation, the only reason we didn’t spend the weekend in jail, sprung from the actions of Col. Charles Jackson and the guys from Alpha Bonding in Bay Minette. They went to the jail with a sizable chunk of cash in their pockets, and Sherry and I were released not much more than an hour later. That went above and beyond the call, especially since Col. Jackson only barely knew me, and the guys from Bay Minette had most likely never heard of me or Sherry.
Not deep enough
As I said, disappointment is the major feeling I have for the way the law was cast aside in order for the District Attorney to make points with a friend. But the eventual recusal didn’t go far enough.
Steve Billy has proven — not just to locals, but to the nation — that he should recuse himself from prosecuting any case against any citizen of Escambia County, not because of his relationship to the judges but because he weaponized his office in a failed effort to become the white knight who rescues a damsel in distress.
As Sherry has written before, if it happened to us, with our Constitutional protections as journalists, it could easily happen to any of you. To borrow a line from Forrest Gump, “and that’s about all I have to say about that.”