Posted on 02/07/2004 6:26:58 PM PST by TankerKC
Edited on 05/07/2004 5:12:19 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Authorities stopped state Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, for suspected drunken driving Wednesday night, but instead of arresting him, a Montgomery County sheriff's supervisor drove him home.
The Sheriff's Department followed state law that prevents law enforcement officers from arresting or citing legislators for a crime -- except for felonies, treason or breach of peace -- during attendances of a legislative session or going to or from a session.
(Excerpt) Read more at montgomeryadvertiser.com ...
The officer should have arrested him anyway. Since when do does the assembly serve drinks? He sounds like he was coming from a bar and not the session.
Antiquated law from a time when the only way one could travel 100 mph was in a tornado. Today, any drunk skunk "law-maker" can aim and fire a multi-ton weapon in any direction with immunity, and at taxpayer expense.
Past time to change the law and make clowns like Holmes accountable.
Sheriff disputes lawmaker's racism claim
One week after a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy pulled him over for suspected drunken driving, Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, claims he is a victim of racial profiling -- an allegation the sheriff calls "ridiculous."
On his way to the House chambers Tuesday afternoon, Holmes said he planned to file a harassment complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Racial profiling? That's what Alvin Holmes always says," Sheriff D.T. Marshall said Tuesday.
"The next time Mr. Alvin Holmes is stopped by deputies and is found to be drinking -- if the session is in or not -- he will go to jail," Marshall said. "That's not a threat. It's a promise."
Holmes claims he was targeted by the deputy last week because of his race and that the incident with the officer was also an act of revenge by Marshall.
"D.T. Marshall assumes that I'm not going to support him as sheriff for re-election," Holmes said Tuesday. "He's trying to do something at this point that could discredit me among the black community."
Holmes said Marshall has sought to taint him for political reasons and because the two have had differences in the past -- including an instance in which Holmes publicly accused Marshall of making his black employees work longer hours than white members of the department.
Marshall scoffed at Holmes' allegations Tuesday, saying last week's incident was not racially motivated and noting it was a black deputy who pulled Holmes over.
"Mr. Holmes didn't support me in the last election, and I don't expect him to support me in the next election. It's a ridiculous allegation."
Holmes was stopped shortly before midnight Feb. 4 when an off-duty county deputy spotted him weaving in and out of his lane on Interstate 65 near South Boulevard, Marshall said.
The deputy, Gil Robinson, reported that he used his patrol lights to pull Holmes to the side of the road. He said that when he approached Holmes, he noticed that the representative's speech was slurred and that there was the smell of alcohol on his breath.
"Mr. Holmes also had liquid on the front of his britches," Marshall said. "It appeared that he may have urinated on himself, but he could have spilled something on himself."
Holmes was not arrested that night because the state constitution provides legislative privilege to lawmakers from an arrest in all cases "except treason, felony, violation of their oath of office and breach of peace."
While Holmes fired back at authorities Tuesday, his legislative colleagues sounded off on the constitutional provision of legislative privilege.
They were reticent, however, when asked whether they had ever benefited from the same law.
Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said "those exclusions are meaningless" and legislators aren't immune to being ticketed or arrested.
"They (police) can give you a speeding ticket on your way to a session," Guin said Tuesday. "They can give you a speeding ticket going home. There is nothing that can keep them from doing that."
Sen. W.H. "Pat" Lindsey, D-Butler, said he heard about the controversy on a recent sports talk show on which Holmes appeared to defend himself.
"The officer said he thought he had been drinking and Alvin said he hadn't, so who's telling the truth? I don't know," Lindsey said. "I've known Alvin a long time, and he never has told me a lie."
Holmes continued to deny the authorities' report Tuesday and said he had noticed the off-duty officer also had the smell of alcohol on his breath.
"His eyes were glossy-looking, and I smelled liquor on him," Holmes said Tuesday. "He was off duty. He could have stopped and had a couple of drinks."
Again, Marshall denied the claim.
"Another ridiculous allegation coming out of the mouth of Mr. Alvin Holmes," the sheriff said. "Anything he says is baseless. This has gotten to the point that what Mr. Holmes says has gotten ridiculous."
Marshall also said that Holmes openly admitted on videotape to officers that he had been drinking and had consumed some "bourbon and a beer."
He also said Holmes was a man who "can't admit he made a mistake," and that the next time the representative is caught in a similar situation, he won't be given a break.
Alvin is on tape with his pants wet...but it is all just racial profiling.
Alabama black politics at it's best. (barf alert).
He has compared attempts to protect marriage in the state to Nazi war crimes.
He is also talking up his hatred for the confederate flag on this thread...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1421793/posts?q=1&&page=501
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