Alabama Judge Investigated For Spanking

Authorities are investigating allegations that now-suspended Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas periodically removed prisoners from Mobile County Metro Jail and spanked them in a room at the courthouse, according to courthouse sources involved in the inquiry.

Once inside the room, according to the sources, the judge would ask the young men to drop their pants and prepare to be spanked with what they described as a wooden or fraternity-like paddle.

These new allegations arise as Thomas prepares for an Oct. 29 ethics trial in Montgomery that could permanently remove him from the bench.

When contacted by telephone Tuesday by the Press-Register and asked about the alleged spanking episodes, Thomas simply said, "This is news to me. I don't have any comment."

According to sources, between a half-dozen and a dozen young men have shared their accounts with officials.

The Press-Register could not determine whether any of the young men knew each other or knew of the others' allegations.

Judges, prosecutors and police officers are often favorite targets of defendants and convicted criminals who make accusations in order to try to get themselves out of legal trouble.

At least one young man has alleged that as a prelude to the paddling, Thomas told him that if he had been spanked when he was a child, he would not have found himself in jail later, according to one of the newspaper's sources.

Investigating officials were able to reconcile jail logs noting when Thomas removed the young men from Metro Jail and when he returned them to custody later, sources said.

Not all of the young men making the allegations were in jail when they had their encounters with Thomas, according to the sources. At least one of Thomas' accusers told authorities he was out of Metro Jail when the judge summoned him to the courthouse on a Sunday night.

Alabama Register