Heart of Dixie · Trouble on Goat Hill
Forty Years Behind the Badge
Blakely v. State (2022)
Charge: First-degree theft and use of office for personal gain - a $4,000 campaign refund and interest-free loans from the jail's inmate cashCourt: Alabama Court of Criminal AppealsDocket: Trouble on Goat Hill
Did the sheriff steal campaign money and use his office to get personal loans?
The facts
Mike Blakely was Limestone County sheriff from 1983. Prosecutors said he wrote a $7,500 campaign-fund check to a consulting firm and then deposited a $4,000 refund into his personal account. They also said he took 19 loans totaling about $29,050 from inmate money kept in the jail safe, leaving checks he told staff not to cash, with no interest or repayment schedule. The loans were repaid, and a state audit said borrowing from the fund had been common among office employees.
You have the facts the court had. Guilty or not guilty? Call it in the game with your friends, then see what the court actually decided. Wrong call, you drink.
Citation: Blakely v. State, Blakely v. State, No. CR-20-0904 (Ala. Crim. App. Sept. 30, 2022), cert. denied, Ex parte Blakely, No. SC-2022-1014 (Ala. Feb. 10, 2023); Limestone Cir. Ct. No. CC-19-476
Read more at acis.alabama.gov. The source reveals the outcome.