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One Year Later, Criminal Convictions Still Sting Balch & Bingham
Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of when both Balch & Bingham partner Joel I. Gilbert and Drummond Executive David Roberson were found guilty on all six federal criminal counts. And the stigma still stings Balch & Bingham. The firm has refused to apologize to the North Birmingham African-American community for Gilbert’s misconduct. Worse, Balch appears to be still engaging in alleged unsavory and foolish conduct. Examples: Look at Balch’s lack of integrity when they spliced and diced the law in a briefing in May before a judge in Roberson’s $50 million lawsuit against the firm and his former employer. Look at…
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Drummond, Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, RICO, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Have Balch and Drummond Agreed to a Murder-Suicide Pact?
Let’s first talk about Drummond Company. We have no bones to pick with Drummond; we believe the company was given bad legal advice by Balch & Bingham; and before the criminal trial we even thought that David Roberson could be acquitted. Then six-months after his criminal conviction and Drummond’s vow to support a “man of integrity,” Drummond fired David Roberson and 12 days later his charity of choice. Roberson filed a $50 million civil lawsuit against Balch and Drummond. Roberson is now considering singing like a canary and he probably has a stockpile of dry powder that federal investigators would love…
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Bombshell: Balch Stooges in JeffCo Try to Screw Newsome with Incomplete Record of Appeal
In what looks like a deliberate attempt to carry out another unbelievable act of injustice in the Newsome Conspiracy Case, the Circuit Court Clerk of Jefferson County left out thousands of pages of responses and transcripts from Burt Newsome’s defense. In a motion filed today with the Alabama Supreme Court, Newsome’s legal team writes: In volume 30 of the record of appeal, document numbers 1358 to 2110 from the Circuit Court are missing. These records contain all of Appellant’s responses to the defendants summary judgment motions that were filed by the as well as some other pleadings. The transcripts from the…
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Merry Canary! More Alleged Corruption and Drummond Dollars
We called ex-Drummond executive David Roberson the Missing Link last week, and now there may be more acts of alleged corruption that Roberson can possibly confirm for federal authorities. As Josh Moon of the Alabama Reporter wrote in 2017: [In 2014, the] EPA wants to list the [North Birmingham] site on the NPL [National Priorities List]. ADEM [Alabama Department of Environmental Management], which is delegated to speak for the State, says it doesn’t object so long as the state doesn’t owe money. But then, in September 2014, after the EPA publicly announces its plans to move forward with listing the…
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Striking a Raw Nerve…
This weekend, our website was under fierce cyber attack with alerts coming multiple times. Yesterday, there were over 1,000 attacks in less than an hour. 257 attacks in 10 minutes from the Netherlands. We haven’t been under attack in over two years since June of 2017. What could have possibly spurred the renewed cyber attacks? Our reporting of Drummond Company’s cutting off David Roberson’s charity of choice only 12 days after firing him. The charity of choice was a school that helps special needs and autistic children. Besides the hackers, thousands of readers have also tuned in over the weekend.…
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Drummond’s Shameful Conduct: Dumping Support for Autistic Kids
Garry Drummond is flip-flopping and twirling in his grave. After firing their loyal Vice President of Government Affairs, David Roberson, on February 7, 2019, sheer vindictiveness and pettiness appear to have driven Drummond Company to allegedly dump their support of Dave Roberson’s charity of choice: Spring Valley School, a school that caters to developmentally disabled, special needs, and autistic children. Unsolicited, Mike Tracy, the CEO of Drummond Company dispatched a letter on February 19, 2019 alleging that a Contribution Committee had met and that the $5,000 annual support had been denied. In his letter, Tracy thanks the school for their…
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Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, RICO, Southern Company, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Is Alabama Power’s Crosswhite in the DOJ Cross-hairs?
In Alabama, the plantation mentality wants everyone to stay in their place and to accept the injustice or unsavory conduct—quietly. Even if you are a success story and not from the gentry class, the people with the plantation mentality won’t accept you, especially if you are African-American. If ex-Drummond Vice President of Government Affairs David Roberson sings to the feds, who will be hurt the most in this evolving Greek tragedy? Alabama Power. And who would be in the DOJ’s cross-hairs? Most likely Mark Crosswhite, the current CEO of Alabama Power and a former long-time Balch & Bingham partner. In…
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Sharper Focus on Alabama Power
[Yesterday, our Monday traffic broke a year-high record as readers read our post about the Scary Canary and allegations of bribes for official acts on government letterhead.The post below was originally published on November 26, 2018 and focused on Southern Company. Now that CEO Tom Fanning has brilliantly distanced Southern Company from Balch & Bingham, the same questions arise about their wholly-owned subsidiary, Alabama Power and its CEO Mark Crosswhite. Changes to the post are in purple.] When we, the CDLU, took on the powerful hospital sector for price gouging uninsured families, some hospitals arrogantly called us irrelevant, unknown, unimportant.…
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Scary Canary! Panic as Roberson–the Missing Link– Considers Singing to Feds
Our sources in Washington, D.C. tell us there has been panic since our post a week ago about ex-Drummond executive Dave Roberson who is now considering singing like a canary to federal investigators. Venable, the prestigious law firm out of Baltimore, that tried unsuccessfully to prevent the indictments of Balch & Bingham partners Steven McKinney and Joel I.Gilbert, is now out and about, hot on the trail. Our sources could not tell us who has contracted them (Balch? Drummond?). Our website traffic confirms the sheer depth of the panic: we had record traffic on Monday and Tuesday of last week,…
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Independence Day
Update from our post Tuesday about the shenanigans surrounding the over six-month delay in certifying the record regarding the Newsome Conspiracy Case appeal: In a swift and prompt rebuke of Balch & Bingham’s stooges, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order yesterday extending Burt Newsome’s time to file his appeal brief until the end of July. The Newsome Conspiracy Case is not only an embarrassment to the once-prestgious silk-stocking law firm of Balch & Bingham, but to the entire Alabama judicial system because the Newsome matter appears to demonstrate blatant corruption, incompetence, and sheer injustice. Yesterday, the Alabama Supreme Court…
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Alabama Supreme Court Shenanigans
At 1:02 a.m. on Saturday, June 29, 2019, Burt Newsome was officially notified that the Clerk of Jefferson County had certified the record of appeal, six-months past the 28-day rule. As we reported, Balch & Bingham stooge Judge Carole Smitherman had her corrupt hand in the cookie jar behind this scripted delay of the appeal of the Newsome Conspiracy Case. In March, Smitherman even foolishly signed an illegal order granting the Clerk of Jefferson County more time to compile the record even though she, as a Circuit Court judge, had no authority to grant orders in a Supreme Court case.…
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Drummond, Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, Southern Company, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Roberson Preparing to Sing like a Canary
Facing 30 months in federal prison, bankruptcy, the loss of the family home, and the insurmountable emotional toll he and his family have suffered, ex-Drummond Commpany executive Dave Roberson is prepared to talk with federal prosecutors about the intricate details of the North Birmingham Bribery Scheme. Roberson never testified in his criminal trial and has never told anyone outside legal counsel about the meticulous and unsettling details. Just a few months back, Balch & Bingham and Drummond Company were not concerned because Roberson’s criminal lawyers were paid by Drummond and Balch’s grip on Jefferson County including federal probes was solid.…
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Will Crosswhite Reform Balch & Bingham?
[This post originally appeared on October 29, 2018. Now that Drummond and Balch & Bingham are in the midst of a $50 million lawsuit that could expose the ugly truth, will Crosswhite lead or not?] When Mark Crosswhite, the CEO of Alabama Power withdrew from the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) early this past summer, creating headlines, he wrote: “[W]e have become concerned that membership in BCA has become a liability rather than a benefit….To be candid, BCA has needlessly alienated federal and state officials, failed to communicate with its own members, squandered our collective corporate goodwill, allowed its financial…
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Balch’s Wilted Flower Ripped to Shreds
During the criminal trial of Balch & Bingham partner Joel I. Gilbert last summer, Lance LeFleur, the Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), became le fleur fanée on the witness stand. As we wrote last year: The words from the [witness] stand shows a web of politicians and paid goons who appear to be all intimidated or controlled by Balch & Bingham. Balch ran the operation, called the shots, and appears to have had everyone’s undivided attention. Yesterday, Kyle Whitmire ripped the Wilted Flower a new one: When Drummond Co. and Balch & Bingham pressured the Alabama Department…
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Rule of Hypocrisy and Laffy-Taffyland
The pleadings filed in the Dave Roberson’s $50 million lawsuit against Balch & Bingham and Drummond Company appear to show a desperate attempt by Balch and Drummond to twist the rule of law into a mound of Laffy-Taffy. As we mentioned earlier this month, Balch & Bingham appeared to show a complete lack of integrity when they omitted a key phrase of law. In a nutshell, Dave Roberson was not their client, and both defendants admit it. Thus, the Alabama Legal Services Liability Act does not apply because there was no attorney-client relationship, no contract. More importantly the six-month statute…
