Another Sheriff going to federal prison (AP)

The long arm of the law reached down into Pickens County, Alabama and caught the High Sheriff, DAVID ABSTON, doing what some Southern Sheriffs seem to do best -- committing crimes and covering them up. For 1000 years, in Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, we've been electing Sheriffs, many of whom are no doubt honest. Some are criminals, like the late Anderson County Sheriff Dennis O. Trotter in East Tennessee, who called me "the most dangerous reporter I ever met in ny entire life." (He went to prison from 1984-1988 and ended up paying me a five figure settlement out of his own funds, in recompense for having me sued for libel and served the morning of my first law school exam in Memphis).

Proud of the FBI and U.S. Attorney in Alabama for the successful prosecution and sentencing of former Pickens County Sheriff DAVID ABSTON.

More on corruption among Alabama Sheriffs from Walt Bogdanich from The New York Times here.

From the Associated Press:





Former sheriff sentenced to 18 months for food fraud
Nov 25, 2019
AP
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A judge on Monday sentenced a former Alabama sheriff to 18 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to scamming a food bank and his own small-town church to obtain inexpensive jail food and boost his personal income.

U.S. District Judge Liles Burke sentenced former Pickens County Sherriff David Abston to serve 18 months for wire fraud and filing a false tax return, federal prosecutors said in a news release. Abston was ordered to pay $51,000 in restitution.

Abston was sheriff for over 30 years until the accusations derailed his lengthy law enforcement career. He resigned and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return.


Prosecutors said Abston in 2014 got the West Alabama Food Bank to agree to provide low-cost food to his own church, Highland Baptist of Gordo. The food bank agreed to provide food to help feed the poor, including poor children. Instead, much of the food went to the Pickens County Jail which Abston ran.


The arrangement helped Abston boost his personal income, prosecutors said, because a state law at the time allowed sheriffs to pocket excess jail food funds. Legislators have since changed the law.

“Abston tarnished his office and his badge,” U.S. Attorney Jay Town said in a statement. “He found out today he isn’t above the law. Those who believe they are will find themselves in federal prison.”

Abston’s attorneys had asked for a sentence of home confinement and community service, citing his remorse and long history of public service.

“While Sheriff Abston is deeply disappointed in today’s sentence, he has accepted responsibility for the wrong he committed and respects the court’s decision imposing consequences for his actions. He will serve his sentence, do what good he can during his period of incarceration, and then return to the community he loves to continue his life of community involvement,” Abston’s defense attorneys said in an emailed statement.