The Matrix Meltown is an ugly reality: two entities countersuing each other in two states, “Sloppy Joe” Perkins’ lawyers issuing worthless demand letters, internal Matrix documents being slowly leaked, media following the non-profit entities and money laundering trail, and allegedly federal investigators probing possible obstruction of justice and Civil Rights violations.

Matrix is closely tied to Alabama Power and its sister-wife, siamese twin Balch & Bingham.

The obscure political consulting group has a legendary if not a mythical reputation of engaging in alleged dirty tricks and alleged sinister if not criminal misconduct.

Is it true or fantasy?

Now everything is on the table and up for scrutiny. Will investigator connect the dots?

Since 2017, our blog has documented atrocious misconduct. As we have repeatedly said, in Alabama there are no such things as coincidences.

Let’s start with the Newsome Conspiracy Case. Burt Newsome, an innocent lawyer minding his own business who had no issues with Balch & Bingham, was allegedly targeted, falsely arrested and defamed by the once-prestigious, silk-stocking law firm in an alleged attempt to steal his business servicing banks.

Let’s review some of the alleged staged acts beginning with the Verizon mess.

• The half-baked deposition of an alleged Verizon employee who appears to have been an actor.
• The bogus deposition with Verizon appears to be a centerpiece in the alleged dirty work linked to disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town.
• And what law firm represents Verizon regularly? McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter in Morristown, New Jersey, just one mile away from Verizon’s Corporate Headquarters.
• And who worked for McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter before his career as a prosecutor? Jay E. Town

Then there were the alleged crimes of intimidation against Burt Newsome and his family.

• The smashing of his wife’s car window at a gym in which her purse was stolen. Law enforcement alleged she was targeted. Video surveillance of the incident shows the suspects driving around allegedly specifically looking for Newsome’s vehicle.
• The sick operatives who sent the Newsome family a threatening package: Five pieces of luggage and numerous clothing outfits. There were approximately three dozen outfits for mom and the four Newsome children. Was Newsome going to be injured, killed or murdered?  Or were the wife and children going to “disappear” on a permanent vacation?
• Exactly two years and a month later, Newsome was injured in a head-on accident. He was gravely injured and nearly killed. Some even claimed the act was an alleged act of attempted murder.

Now let’s look at the case of ex-Drummond executive David Roberson who filed a $75 million civil case against Balch and Drummond company.

• Roberson’s 90-year-old mother-in-law returned to her home in Jasper in 2019 after a hospital stay to find the windows of her home shattered, both in the front yard and backyard. Nothing was stolen from the home. Was it a message of intimidation and fear?
• As ex-Drummond Company executive David Roberson was driving along Highway 280 in Shelby County a year ago, someone apparently shot out his rear driver’s window. Roberson was shaken up, scared, and rightly so. With glass blown exclusively inside the car, the projectile was obviously aimed at the driver’s side and missed Roberson’s head by inches.

Then there is the orchestrated campaign against us, the CDLU, which utterly backfired, and has raised the eyes of investigators.

• Some buffoons attempted to smear and intimidate CDLU’s Executive Director but instead terrorized the wrong family at the wrong address in July of 2020. The family has since moved.
• An actor impersonated CDLU’s Executive Director and used the existence of his then-8-year-old daughter in an attempt to illegally obtain confidential financial information.
• The continued harassment of CDLU’s accountants by morons who demanded copies of our tax filings when they should have contacted us directly.
•  An embittered stalker and failed real estate agent was caught on security cameras at CDLU’s Birmingham offices (shut down at the time due to COVID-19) sitting in his black pick-up truck for 15 minutes before grilling the receptionist at the business next door, providing a false name and bogus cell phone number one-off from his real cell phone number. Idiot!
• The writing of several hilarious articles in the Alabama Political Reporter that included the idiotic defense of Balch & Bingham. The public ripped the publication to shreds.
• The public humiliation of a once-respected investigative journalist who allegedly amputated his brain for 30 pieces of silver.

Was Matrix, in anyway, involved in any or none of these dirty deeds?

Did Alabama Power (which pays Matrix millions) or its sister-wife Balch back any or none of these acts financially?

From what we have been told, investigators appear to be tracking down and interviewing the buffoons, idiots and morons involved in these alleged unsavory and criminal acts.

Disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town fled in the middle of the night after resigning. He could have been a current candidate for U.S. Senate, but the photos of him slamming back cocktails with Alabama Power CEO and former Balch partner Mark A. Crosswhite were political suicide.

Now with Sloppy Joe and the Matrix Meltdown; the Crosswhite Scandal and secret million-dollar contracts; and Balch’s internal strife, who else truly wishes to hang themselves… or are they ready to cooperate with criminal investigators about these acts?

Ex-Balch & Bingham partner Joel I. Gilbert has been assigned gardening responsibilities at the Federal Prison Camp located at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery.

Now that legacy Balch partner Rob Fowler dumped the once-prestigious firm for a job at a coal facility that currently is not operating, insiders are curious what internal strife is happening at Balch to cause Fowler to run to the emergency exit.

Sources tell us that Gilbert may have been intentionally screwed by his own law firm, just like ex-Drummond executive David Roberson appeared to be screwed as the “fall guy” by Drummond.

The “lone wolves” theory peddled by disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town appears to have been a line of crap.

And federal investigators agree.

The Ketona Lakes secret, the Miller Steam plant ash pond, and the alleged involvement of up to 20 other Balch lawyers may have been the hidden pillars of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.

Gilbert, the father of two beautiful young children, was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison, and Balch appears to have blamed him for the scandal after his conviction three years ago. Stan Blanton, managing partner at Balch, had the audacity to try to pivot the bribery scheme away from the firm, saying “our firm was not a party to the case.”

But is that the truth? Wasn’t the criminal scheme born at the offices of Balch & Bingham? Did other Balch attorneys and representatives lie or perjure themselves? Were documents manipulated or evidence destroyed? What did the executive committee at Balch know?

One of the items we discovered that has bothered us is the possibility of evidence tampering. We wrote at the height of the criminal trial in 2018:

On December 1, 2014, indicted Balch & Bingham partner Joel Gilbert dispatched a letter of intimidation to GASP, the health and environmental public charity that they tried to undercut by allegedly buying a politician for $360,000.

It appears that Gilbert may have been on vacation the week of Thanksgiving, because his last billing is for Friday, November 21, 2014. The letter is dated December 1, 2014, a Monday, but nothing shows up in the December billings.

Evidence tampering or we just can’t find it?

Then again, maybe prosecutors need to look at an example of the alleged alteration of evidence in the Newsome Conspiracy Case—Balch & Bingham’s other quagmire.

Nothing should surprise them. Nothing.

Now outsiders believe someone else could have paid for the letter of intimidation. Could it have been Alabama Power or a related entity?

And what about those alleged indemnity deals to cover-up and protect alleged unsavory if not criminal misconduct?

Michael S. Regan of the EPA needs to send his investigators to Montgomery and interview Gilbert. Then they need to knock on the door of embattled Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite and find out more about the Miller Steam Plant and the alleged toxic ash ponds. Finally, the investigators need to visit with the “confused’ General Counsel of Drummond Company, Blake Andrews.

In return, Gilbert should get time shaved off for his cooperation.

Inherent goodness needs to prevail. For the sake of the residents of North Birmingham and for the sake of Gilbert’s young children.