By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Although Alabama Department of Corrections (ALDOC) investigators feel they have a strong case against an Atmore pastor who was arrested Thursday, December 5, on charges of trying to smuggle methamphetamine, marijuana, weapons and other items into Fountain Correctional Facility Annex, the pastor’s attorney said the arrest raises more questions than it answers.
“My personal and professional opinion is, the whole thing smells of a setup,” said Mobile attorney Jerome C. Carter, who has been retained to defend Vincent Bernard Bishop, during a phone interview with Atmore News. “This doesn’t ring as anything other than a deliberate attempt by a third party to discredit him.”
The local church leader, who pastors Destiny Worship Center in Atmore and at least one Baldwin County church, also counsels inmates at Fountain Correctional.
He was taken into custody after agents with ALDOC’s Intelligence and Investigations unit charged him with one count each of drug trafficking, first-degree possession of marijuana, attempting to commit a controlled substance crime, attempting to promote prison contraband and possession of drug paraphernalia.
ADOC officials said in a press release that Bishop, who was released last Friday, December 6, from the correctional facility after a $500,000 bond was posted on his behalf, had come under suspicion after investigators and correctional officers noted “suspicious activity involving inmates attempting to access a parking lot near Bishop’s vehicle.”
Bishop’s truck was stopped at a checkpoint inside the prison grounds, and the drugs, weapons, tobacco, cell phones and other items of contraband were discovered inside a “prison-made package” that was wedged into the space beneath the truck’s bumper.
The package reportedly contained nearly four ounces of flakka (which is similar to the street drug commonly known as bath salts), as well as an unspecified quantity of marijuana, tobacco, cell phones and other items.
Bishop refused to resign from his position as an ADOC employee, so he was placed on mandatory leave and under arrest.
Carter said the fact that Bishop worked at the prison and was allowed full access inside the facility is one clue that leads away from the smuggling activities for which he is charged.
“He is an employee of the prison, not just a pastor,” the lawyer said. “Employees have all access to the prison, without screening. What sense does it make that he would tape up a package and hide it on his truck when he could have just put [any contraband] in his bag and walked through the door.”
The area where the package was found and Bishop was detained reportedly is under constant video surveillance, another fact that makes Carter doubt that his client committed the crimes with which he is charged.
“That whole area is surrounded by cameras,” he said. “My challenge to the DOC is to produce some evidence that shows my client putting something in the truck or taking something out of the truck. I plan to subpoena that video footage. It’s not going to exist.”
The defense attorney noted that Bishop cooperated with all requests from the officers who used a drug-sniffing dog in the search of the vehicle, still another reason to question his guilt.
“He participated in everything they asked of him,” Carter said. “He gave a statement, and he was calm while the dog was sniffing his vehicle. That’s not something that someone with something to hide would have done.”