MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Two of the three appeals court judges who stepped aside from former Sen. Lowell Barron’s case said Tuesday they did it because of family and staff connections to Barron and co-defendant Jill Johnson.
Three of the five judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals recused themselves Monday without giving reasons. On Tuesday, two followed up with written explanations.
Republican Judge Liles Burke wrote that his father’s wife, Sharon Barron Burke, was previously married to Barron, and that his two step-siblings are Barron’s children.
Republican Judge Michael Joiner wrote that his senior staff attorney’s cousin was married to Barron for many years. He also said his senior staff attorney’s brother is Johnson’s lawyer.
Presiding Judge Mary Windom also stepped aside from the case, She did not give a reason, but her husband, former Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, sparred with Barron when he was a leader of Senate Democrats.
Barron and Johnson, a former aide, face six charges accusing them of misusing $58,000 in campaign donations to Barron’s unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2010. Their case is at the Court of Criminal Appeals because the state attorney general’s office filed an appeal shortly before the case was supposed to go to trial April 14 in Fort Payne.
Attorney General Luther Strange’s office is appealing some pre-trial decisions by DeKalb County Circuit Judge Randall Cole, including one saying that prosecutors can’t present evidence about whether Barron and Johnson had a romantic relationship. Defense attorneys have said that the relationship was always professional and that no money was misused.
The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Republican Roy Moore, has been asked to appoint one or more replacement judges to hear the appeal in Barron’s and Johnson’s case because at least three judges must decide a case at the Court of Criminal Appeals.
The attorney general’s appeal has postponed the trial for Barron and Johnson indefinitely.
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