By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY—In a hearing before Judge Jacob Walker on October 20, 2015, attorney and radio host Baron Coleman said, “Simply put, I know nothing about the Grand Jury.” He continued, “I didn’t testify in front of the Grand Jury. I didn’t — I have never spoken to a grand juror. I have never spoken to anyone who appeared in front the Grand Jury.”
This statement and others were given by Coleman in an attempt to have his subpoena quashed, prior to the first evidentiary hearing on prosecutorial misconduct in the Speaker Mike Hubbard felony case. Later in his testimony, he once again told Judge Walker, “I don’t know anything about a Grand Jury.”
In his testimony before the court, Coleman stated twice that he had no knowledge of the Lee County Special Jury, which indicted Hubbard on October 17, 2014, on 23 felony counts of public corruption. However, in an affidavit given to Hubbard’s legal defense team, Coleman claimed he had between 50 and 100 conversations with Matt Hart, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit. In his affidavit, Coleman stated, “These conversations were in reference to the Mike Hubbard investigation, and the Lee County Special Grand Jury.”
During his testimony in October 2015, Coleman repeatedly told the trial judge that nothing he could tell the court would rise to the standard on prosecutorial misconduct under Nova Scotia.
“…Nothing I can testify to is going to fall under the Bank of Nova Scotia standard under any circumstances.”
In an order issued December 2015, Judge Walker ruled that prosecutorial misconduct must be viewed under the “standards set forth in Bank of Nova Scotia vs. U.S.1, which requires that the behavior of the prosecutor affect a grand jury’s decision to indict.”
In his September 28, 2015 motion Coleman offered the court a carefully-worded argument as to why his subpoena should be quashed. He stated, “ If the Defendant [Hubbard] wants to accuse Coleman, an officer of the court, of aiding and abetting criminal activity on behalf of the prosecution, then he should come right out and say it.”
Coleman said he never engaged in or covered up criminal conduct, says the defense subpoena was “cowardly, disgusting, and one of the worst uses of a filing,” adding, “The Defendant should be ashamed, if that were possible.”
The defense never called Coleman to provide evidence at the November 2015 evidentiary hearing.
Judge Walker will hear arguments on Hubbard’s renewed motion to dismiss at 10:00 AM hearing today.
