Future of Southern Company, Recusals and the RICO Suit
Never did Drummond Coal Company imagine that their executive, David Roberson, would be indicted, tried, convicted, and thrown in prison for two and a half years after receiving the best legal advice from Balch & Bingham.
With the Vogtle Nuclear Plant billion-dollar cost overruns and Kemper Natural Gas Plant debacle in Mississippi, Southern Company surely does not need to be in the middle of a civil RICO case.
And Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, and Mark Crosswhite CEO of its subsidiary Alabama Power, are smart enough to get ahead of this debacle caused by Balch & Bingham’s foolishness.
In September, State Farm paid a whopping $250 million to settle a civil RICO suit in Illinois over allegations that the insurer installed a hand-picked justice on the Illinois Supreme Court by leveraging its influence over and financial contributions indirectly to the justice.
And what was the legal basis for the civil RICO suit against State Farm?
In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in a lawsuit involving the coal-mining company Massey Energy Co., found that judges have to recuse themselves in some cases involving their top campaign contributors.
Alabama Power, Southern Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, has now been directly linked to the Newsome Conspiracy Case, presided by Judge Carole Smitherman.
Alabama Power provided $2,500 to Judge Smitherman’s husband, State Senator Rodger Smitherman on July 26, 2017. The PAC was run at the time by a former Balch & Bingham partner, Alexia Borden.
On July 31, 2017, Balch filed a motion to strike the amended Newsome case from late June. A hearing was set for August 31, 2017, but Judge Carole Smitherman, without a hearing, approved the motion to strike on August 2, 2017 – before Newsome could even file a responsive pleading and 29 days before the hearing she had scheduled on the motion, a miscarriage of justice.
In between the Alabama Power contribution and the signed order to strike, Smitherman apparently joined her husband on a junket to Biloxi, Mississippi. According to his expenditure reports, he spent the Alabama Power contribution in order to attend the Southern Legislative Conference between July 29 through August 2, 2017.
A review of the photos on the SLC site seem to show that neither Smitherman attended any of the events.
In addition, Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., Balch’s lead attorney on the Newsome Conspiracy Case, donated thousands of dollars to BIZPAC, a political action committee funded in part by Balch partners. BIZPAC has funneled over $15,000 in campaign contributions to Judge Smitherman.
Since July of 2017, Judge Smitherman and Senator Smitherman have received over $30,000 in questionable political contributions linked to Alabama Power, Balch & Bingham or affiliated with the co-conspirators of the Newsome Conspiracy Case.
Judge Smitherman belligerently refused to recuse herself from the Newsome case this past spring.
Never did Drummond Coal Company imagine that their executive, David Roberson, would be indicted, tried, convicted, and thrown in prison for two and a half years after receiving the best legal advice from Balch & Bingham.
Assurances from Balch & Bingham partners or defenders, understandably, cannot be trusted as they used to be.
Southern Company and Alabama Power should ignore the lip service. Time Fanning or Crosswhite took the reigns and stop the galloping horse from riding over the cliff.
