A drug dealer in the AL Statehouse
Take a few minutes to read this article by Markeshia Ricks in the Montgomery Advertiser.
Here’s the intro:
Former state Rep. Bobby Humphryes, R-Pleasant Grove, was leaving the Legislature to become a Jefferson County commissioner and had stopped by to clear out a few more things from his office when he found a black backpack with a scale, a box of plastic bags and a two-pound block of marijuana.
He immediately called House security. After reviewing security camera footage, law enforcement officials saw Lorenza Hooks, a maintenance worker, carrying the backpack into the office just a few hours before Humphryes found it.
That was on Dec. 1, 2006.
Hooks was never charged with a crime in connection to the drugs, and he remained a House of Representative employee for nearly two years after that incident. In May 2008, he was suspended after being arrested as a suspect in a shooting.
Even with a felony arrest hanging over his head, Hooks was promised that he would get his job back with back pay if he was not convicted. In fact, he might still be a House employee if this December 2006 drug incident had not resurfaced this year.
Hooks is now in jail on $1.5 million bond for an unrelated charge — illegal trafficking of crack cocaine. But instead of bringing closure, his most recent arrest has only raised questions about the drugs that were found in the State House nearly three years ago.
Now just pretend this happened in the US Congress. It would be front page news everywhere. If Dems were implicated then Rush & Co. would be beating the story to death and if it were Republicans then the Daily Kos types would be doing the same. But this happened in the Alabama state legislature. And nothing has happened and very little has even been mentioned. This should be a major story.
Was Hooks just storing his product in the House before selling it elsewhere? Or the Statehouse the final destination for the weed? Considering Hooks had enough pot to keep Cheech and Chong busy for at least a few hours it isn’t like he had it for personal use. The way this incident seems to have been swept under the rug makes me think someone in a position of power wanted to keep it quiet. That bothers me.
According to the article, Hooks spent time in federal prison before starting working at the Statehouse as a janitor. I have to say, there is a fair amount of poetic justice in having a felon clean up our state’s legislature! I’m curious if there are more past felons cleaning the floors than there are future felons making our laws.
If it had been reported on , the headline would read:
“Drugs found in Republican legislator’s office”
IIRC 2.2 pounds (kilo) is felony pot possession.
Alvin Holmes (D) seems to be one of the good guys (”…we would likely have fired him,” Holmes said. “They didn’t want him fired, and in my opinion, he was providing drugs to some high level people in the House of Representatives”).
Bad guys:
“Documents obtained by the Advertiser show that when the marijuana was discovered that day, House security, administrative assistant to the clerk Don Ladner and Clerk of the House Greg Pappas were all notified.”
“Cpl. Steve Jarrett …said he could not confirm the nature of the ABI’s investigation that began on Dec. 1, 2006, but said there was an investigation, and it was determined that there was not enough evidence to prosecute.”
“Pappas said he never notified Hammett or the House Legislative Council because Hooks was not charged with a crime.”
“Hooks’ most recent arrest is for trafficking crack cocaine … a federal offense… Hooks was in possession of 127 grams, or about 4.5 ounces, of crack cocaine.”
Kind of funny to read some of the comments on the article: the photos apparently pictured low quality pot (”bunk schwag”) and one guy made fun of the legislature for “smoking dirt weed”.
Alabama is too apathetic. Re-tweeting.
i could swear I heard about this when it happened.
This just goes to show that most Republicans are hypocrites. But this guy is not the only one. Most Repubs. will go on and on about “values”, but they ignore the fact that they do the things they get mad at other people for. I could site numerous examples.
Jim, what led you to that conclusion?
Brian – remember how I said “Drugs found in Republican legislator’s office” – Jim must have read just that far – I wonder if reporter Ricks put Rep. Humphryes name and party affiliation in the lead-in just for that effect…