Candidate says criminal past not his
Ronald Wayne Blankenship, a candidate in the runoff for the Democratic nomination for Jefferson County sheriff, says it's coincidence that a man with a criminal past shares his name and birthdate.
It's strange but true, he says, that both he and a man who faked his own death in 1990 are married to women named Judy Ruth Green Stonecipher Blankenship.
Blankenship calls himself an underdog. The Bessemer shoe shop owner received 12,218 votes or 25.9 percent in the June 6 primary last week. He did little campaigning and spent little money. He is vying for the Democratic nomination for sheriff with Ron McGuffie, a former sheriff's deputy and dispatcher. Blankenship, 63, beat out veteran lawman C.D. Horton to make the runoff.
Little was known about Blankenship during the campaign. He refused to release personal information and declined to be interviewed, citing fear of identity theft.
Blankenship, who said he's a former policeman, 20-year Ford Motor Co. worker and U.S. Navy veteran, said he's never been in trouble. "I stand before the Lord," he said. "I've never been convicted of anything."
Vestavia Hills police Lt. Rick Miller said he's surprised Blankenship is running for public office because he knows Blankenship is the man he arrested in 1990.
"I will be happy to meet him at the county jail and take his fingerprints and compare them," Miller said. "I want to get to the bottom of it, too. If Mr. Blankenship says that's not him, that way we'll know once and for all."
Police say a Ronald Blankenship, living in Vestavia Hills in 1990, was involved in faking his own death and funeral in a failed effort by his wife to get $340,000 from an insurance company.
Bad check charges
Miller said Vestavia Hills became involved when a Bessemer Cutoff district attorney investigator asked Vestavia Hills police for help locating Blankenship on a bad check charge. Miller said state park rangers also called him with questions regarding a camper trailer fire involving the man.
That's when police were told he'd been killed and they ferreted out the faked death story.
In April 1990, a Jefferson County SWAT team - called in to assist Vestavia Hills on a theft warrant - stormed a condominium where Blankenship lived.
Officers didn't find him, but found a cache of weapons inside a mattress box spring, officers said. Police believe a trap door in the condo leading to a storage area allowed the occupants to elude them.
"It was a very strange case," Miller said. "There were a lot of out-of-the-ordinary happenings. You kept shaking your head thinking, `Is this guy in the witness protection program or what?'"
Vestavia Hills and Hoover police ended up arresting Blankenship in May 1990. Vestavia Hills wanted the man on a warrant of second-degree theft of property. Bessemer had a second-degree assault warrant, and the man was wanted in Atmore on burglary, theft of property and forgery charges.
Cremated remains stolen
The Atmore charges stemmed from a home burglary in which an urn with cremated remains and a death certificate were stolen. There were three copies of the death certificate in the car when Blankenship was arrested, police said.
Court records showed the Blankenships were $100,100 in debt to creditors and had filed for bankruptcy.
Miller said it turned out the ashes and death certificate belonged to a Blankenship uncle in Atmore. Ron Blankenship wasn't charged in the faked death because the insurance claim was denied, Miller said.
His wife, however, was charged with forgery. Her trial was set for 1991 but was postponed after she suffered a brain aneurysm and was not expected to recover. Several years later, however, federal authorities issued a fugitive warrant for her after they learned she was no longer in a coma at a Florence hospital.
The Blankenships were taken into custody in Killen in April 1995. A Jefferson County judge dismissed the forgery charge against Judy Blankenship in June 1995 because he determined she was incapacitated and couldn't stand trial.
Different birthdates
In an interview last week, Blankenship was shown the news clippings, one of which bore his picture. He said it was the first he'd heard of the story. "It looks like me in a way, but all Blankenships get to looking alike," he said. He also gave his birthdate, then said it was a different date. He had earlier given a third birthdate.
His wife, Judy Ruth Green Stonecipher Blankenship, was in the shoe shop during the interview. Blankenship said she's disabled because of a brain stem injury.
According to Jefferson County jail records, Ronald Blankenship, who listed his occupation as shoe repair, was booked into the jail on June 2, 1987, on a bad check charge, and released that day. On Feb. 8, 1989, he was jailed on a second-degree assault charge and bonded out the same day.
On May 3, 1990, he was jailed for second-degree assault and failure to appear, with bond set at $20,000. The victim in that case, records show, was Terry Armstrong.
Blankenship later testified that he beat Terry Armstrong after discovering Armstrong and Blankenship's 19-year-old stepdaughter, Christe Stonecipher, together at Armstrong's mobile home on Overton Mountain.
Blankenship was convicted on a misdemeanor third-degree assault charge and sentenced to a year in jail, court records show. He remained in the county jail until Dec. 18, 1990, when his sentence ended.
Many with same name
Blankenship says he is not the man described in police reports and court documents.
"Do you know how many Ronald Blankenships there are?" he asked. "That's why I started going by Ron." He said he's also been the victim of identity theft, leaving him with a checkered credit history.
Calvin Biggers, Blankenship's lawyer, said Blankenship was the victim of identity theft in Madison County in 1990. Biggers said someone bought a truck in Blankenship's name and defaulted on the loan. The bank tried to sue Blankenship.
The matter was cleared up a couple of years ago, Biggers said.
Biggers said he knew nothing of Blankenship being in jail or other run-ins with the law.
"I don't know anything about that," Biggers said. "In fact, he's one of the finest men I know. What about him spending no money and getting 26 percent of the vote? That's the story.
"If Ron Blankenship said it wasn't him, I believe him, dear."
Biggers said Blankenship has no felony convictions.
"If he got into a fight, so what? That does not affect his eligibility to serve."
Blankenship could be removed from the ballot if his candidacy is challenged by a qualified voter, said Robert Yarbrough, chairman of the executive committee of the Jefferson County Democratic Party.