Alabama Corruption Further Displayed

McGregor's attorney denies allegation in complaint against Warner
Written by
Staff and wire report

Joe Espy, an attorney for Vic­toryLand casino owner Milton McGregor, vehemently de­nounced an allegation in the 74-count complaint against Mont­gomery Judge Patricia Warner that said a lobbyist for McGregor contributed more than $20,000 to Warner's campaign while she was presiding over a custody battle in­volving McGregor's daughter.

Espy slammed the report Tuesday, saying the portion about McGregor was false and that there will be repercussions.

"Someone is going to answer for the irresponsible allegation," he said. "It's just false, and it's just wrong."

The complaint against Warner contended that during Warner's re-election campaign last year, McGregor lobbyist John Crawford used a political action committee he controlled to contribute $20,750 to Warner -- more than half of Warner's total campaign contribu­tions last year.

The complaint released Mon­day said Warner was the presiding judge in a case involving a child-visitation rights dispute between McGregor's daughter and his for­mer son-in-law at the time the con­tributions were made. It also con­tended that Warner refused to recuse herself even after the Judi­cial Inquiry Commission advised her that she should do so because a conflict of interest complaint had been filed against her because of the donation.

But Espy said McGregor nev­er contributed to Warner and that Crawford never worked for the VictoryLand owner.

Annual lobbying statements filed by Crawford with the State Ethics Commission don't list McGregor as a client, but his client list does include Inter­national Game Technology, which supplied games for McGregor's electronic bingo casino and the Country Crossing casino of Ronnie Gilley.

Crawford said Warner has been a family friend for many years, and he raised money for her campaign, in­cluding hosting a fundraiser reception at his house. But he said only $500 came from one of his political action committees in which McGre­gor had contributed.

He said the other PACs he used to support her cam­paign had no money from McGregor.

Espy said the allegation was wrong but wasn't ready to dismiss it as an innocent mistake.

He contended that the ac­tions alleged in the report are more than a year old, but just happened to pop up in the midst of a criminal trial in which McGregor is one of nine defendants in a federal corruption case.

Espy said the trial is going well for the defense and then someone "hits us from the backside."
The Alabama Court of the Judiciary will hear the com­plaint, which was released just days after Warner sud­denly stepped down as a family court judge.

Among its 74 counts were allegations that Warner:

•had a high reversal rate with 27 of the 29 cases a higher court heard on ap­peal being reversed.

•acted in bad faith when she disregarded the undisputed facts in a 2007 child support case, order­ing the father to pay thou­sands less than what he ad­mittedly owed the mother of his child.

•stripped a mother of custody of her children, "based solely on argument of counsel and without any evidence whatsoever," and then revoked her visitation with her special needs daughter and required all conversations between them to be recorded.
It contends Warner ultimate­ly awarded custody to the father, who was experienc­ing psychological issues.

Montgomery Advertiser reporters Sebastian Kitch­en and Jill Nolin and Asso­ciated Press writer Phillip Rawls contributed to this story.