Troy King
Alabama Attorney General

(MONTGOMERY) ”Attorney General Troy King announced today that the Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered Hale County Circuit Court Judge Marvin Wiggins to recuse himself from a case involving an investigation of voter fraud in Hale County. Attorney General King stated in his motion that Wiggins “who has a history of obstructing voter fraud investigations*, has revealed his personal bias against the State and its investigation and/or his commitment to impede this investigation and thereby protect members of his family.”

Attorney General King is investigating voter fraud in Hale County with suspected violations during 2004 and 2005 involving illegal absentee voting. Part of the investigation is comparing examples of the suspects’ handwriting with that on the affidavits. Judge Wiggins had blocked a search warrant and subpoenas to obtain handwriting samples, and took other actions that delayed and impeded the investigation.

The Attorney General’s investigation has resulted in indictments returned by a Hale County grand jury against two individuals, and an investigation continues that involves numerous other suspects, including relatives of Judge Wiggins. The particular case in which the Attorney General seeks to have Wiggins removed is Millarstine Coleman v. Troy King, Attorney General, which involves a search warrant and subpoenas for handwriting. Attorney General King asserted that Judge Wiggins’ actions in this matter were detrimental to the investigation and demonstrated that Judge Wiggins could not be considered impartial.

Among the obstacles encountered by the Attorney General’s Office was an incident during the early stages of the investigation involving Gay Nell Tinker, who is Judge Wiggins’ sister. Tinker was the Hale County Circuit Clerk and absentee election manager. In her capacity as a magistrate and acting on a complaint by her (and Judge Wiggins’) first cousin Carrie Reaves, Tinker issued an arrest warrant charging an Attorney General investigator with harassment for serving a subpoena on Reaves. The charge against the investigator was later dismissed.

In the case involving Millarstine Coleman, a Hale County District Judge had approved a request from the Attorney General to issue a search warrant ordering Coleman to appear on September 20 to provide a handwriting sample, and the Attorney General’s Office also had issued subpoenas in the matter. Without having received notice that anything had been filed or any orders issued in the case, the Attorney General’s Office learned a half-hour before Coleman had been scheduled to appear and give samples that Judge Wiggins had granted a motion to quash the search warrant. At no time prior to Wiggins’ order was the State notified or given an opportunity to be heard.

Judge Wiggins scheduled a hearing regarding the quashed search warrant for October 10. On October 3, the Attorney General filed a motion asking him to recuse himself, supported by a sworn affidavit of the investigator outlining the investigation and the relationships of Judge Wiggins to three suspects.

The investigator’s affidavit was entered into evidence and unrefuted, but Judge Wiggins did not rule on the Attorney General’s motion. The affidavit was also made an exhibit to the Petition for a Writ of Mandamus. Rather, he set a new hearing for November 13 to allow Coleman to amend and refile pleadings that were deficient.

“The end result is that the order quashing the search warrant and the subpoenas remains in place and the investigation of Judge Wiggins’ (relatives) is at a standstill,” the Attorney General stated in his Petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Attorney General King further noted that for the alleged violations from 2004 and 2005 elections, “the statutes of limitations are continuing to run, a fact that was pointed out to Judge Wiggins in the October 10, 2007, hearing.”

*Note: Judge Wiggins is the same judge who tried to jail the Probate Judge for seeking to turn over election materials to the District Attorney for voter fraud investigation. In 2002, the Alabama Supreme Court acted to stop Judge Wiggins from returning that evidence to his sister, Circuit Clerk Gay Nell Tinker.