Alabama Supreme Court blocks lawsuit over Chickasaw bingo hall

MOBILE, Alabama 
The Alabama Supreme Court today tossed out a lawsuit seeking to block Mobile County prosecutors from permanently seizing 2 dozen bingo machines confiscated from a Chickasaw gambling hall last year
The court ruled that a circuit judge in Montgomery attempted to interfere with a criminal proceeding in Mobile by ordering that the machines be moved to his jurisdiction and threatening prosecutors with arrest.
The ruling quoted the judge, Johnny Hardwick, declaring, “I’m not going to let anybody — you can tell the governor, the chief justice, district attorney for Mobile County — I’m not going to let anybody run roughshod over me. And I do think I’ve got the authority to hold the governor in contempt if we need to go there.”
The now-defunct state Task Force on Illegal Gambling took the machines from the Chickasaw Municipal Auditorium in a nighttime raid in February 2010.
The machines were temporarily transferred by law enforcement to a secured location in Montgomery. Bingo hall operator Jesse Griffin then sued in Montgomery County Circuit Court, claiming the property was wrongly seized and asking a judge to decide whether the machines were, in fact, legal.
Today, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the civil lawsuit would interfere with a criminal proceeding in Mobile, constituting a violation of the separation of powers of the judicial and executive branches of government.
The ruling reversed Hardwick’s decision in a March 14 hearing to order the machines back to Montgomery and to proceed with the lawsuit.
Prosecutors argued that Hardwick lacked authority to take such action.
At that hearing, Hardwick threatened to send prosecutors to jail for contempt of court while they tried to explain their case, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The judge was apparently perturbed that the machines had been returned to Mobile.
At one point, Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Martha Tierney tried to explain that the Chickasaw raid occurred at night, and Montgomery had the only available law enforcement warehouse where evidence could be stored.
“You think the Mobile (district attorney) will come and get you out of jail?” the judge asked Tierney, according to the transcript.
“Well, I don’t expect to go to jail, judge,” she replied. “I will obey your orders.”
Earlier in the hearing, Hardwick also threatened Solicitor General John Neiman Jr. and Assistant Attorney General Henry Reagan.
“I’ll hold one, two, three in contempt this morning, and if you think I’m playing, you need to ask somebody,” he said.
After the hearing, Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich appealed to the Supreme Court, challenging Hardwick’s decision to move forward with the lawsuit.
The Supreme Court ruled “that the machines were temporarily stored in Montgomery County after they were seized is immaterial in this case.”
Hardwick’s actions — including “threatening the attorneys for the executive branch with arrest” — constituted an attempt to interfere with prosecutors seeking to enforce state laws, the Supreme Court wrote.
The court ordered Hardwick to dismiss the lawsuit.
This afternoon, Rich said that her office would now seek to have the machines forfeited and destroyed.
Rich said that Tierney was an effective advocate in the courtroom that day, and “in the end, we prevailed.”
No one associated with the bingo hall was charged with a crime, Rich said. The prosecution’s forfeiture case, similar to having illegal drug property seized, is viewed as a criminal proceeding, Rich said.
According to the ruling, the Supreme Court asked Hardwick for a formal response, but the judge “did not favor us with an answer or brief.”