By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY—Recently, the State’s Attorney General’s Office terminated an investigator with ties to alleged wrong-doings by former Deputy Attorney General Henry “Sonny” T. Reagan.
Howard “Gene” Sisson, an investigator with the Attorney General’s Office since 2007, has been removed from his position after it was believed he conspired with Reagan to produce false allegations against Special Prosecutions Division Chief Miles Mathew Hart. The Special Prosecutions Division is leading the felony prosecution of Speaker Mike Hubbard, (R-Auburn), who has been charged by the State with 23 felony counts of public corruption.
Sisson, who has worked closely with Reagan on gambling raids and prosecutions, was reportedly involved in a complex scheme to discredit Hart in an effort to allow Hubbard to escape justice, according to those with background knowledge.
Sisson is a Montgomery native who graduated from the prestigious Trinity private school and served on the Montgomery police department for over 20 years. Like Reagan, he has had a long history with prosecuting gaming operations in the State.
Reagan was not fired by the Attorney General, but was allowed to resign his position after it was discovered that he had “engaged in misconduct related to the Special Grand Jury, investigating Hubbard,” according to an internal memo by Attorney General Luther Strange.
The memo further states that, “by his own personal interest in undermining the grand jury’s investigation,… [Reagan betrayed], the duty of loyalty that he owed the State of Alabama and this Office.”
The memo, as well as court documents show, that Reagan shared attorney’s with Rep. Barry Moore, who was accused of lying to the Hubbard Grand Jury and also shared an an attorney with Hubbard. Reagan shared attorney Bill Baxley who represented Moore, and Rob Riley who represented Hubbard all simultaneously. Rob Riley, son of former Gov. Bob Riley, also represented his father and sister, Minda Riley Champbell, before the Grand Jury investigation of Hubbard.
This matrix of overlapping attorneys seems to have allowed a free flow of secret information between Hubbard and individuals who have been named as material witnesses in the Hubbard indictments.
In what increasingly appears to be a desperate attempt to avoid a criminal trial, Hubbard has offered memos by Reagan, to show prosecutorial misconduct. Even though it has been revealed in court documents that Reagan was leaking Grand Jury information to Hubbard and the Rileys as early as 2013.
A personnel complaint filed by Reagan against Hart, is seen as a coordinated effort to paint Hart as a rogue prosecutors and perhaps show prosecutorial misconduct.
However, court records show that Baxley advised Reagan to write the report and later he had Moore subpoena the same report, in an effort to show untoward actions on Hart’s part. Here is a case of an attorney advising one client to make accusations against a prosecutor and the other to ask for the records to make the documents public in an effort to claim misconduct.
The internal struggles at the Attorney General’s Office show a pattern of attorneys with ties to Hubbard, using Reagan and perhaps others in the office to work in concert to derail the case against Hubbard.
Hubbard’s lead criminal defense attorney, J. Mark White, is currently attempting to use these internal memos as a reason to dismiss the case against Hubbard.
White reportedly has a long grudge against Hart and also newly-appointed Attorney General Chief Deputy Alice Martin. Some suggest that White is using the Hubbard case to extract a measure of revenge as well.
Reagan’s bogus complaint is believed to have been written with the assistance of Riley and/or Baxley.
It is believed that Sisson acted in concert with Reagan in at least some of these activities.
Sisson was intimately involved in the prosecution VictoryLand and GreenTrack Casinos.
Moore was acquitted of the charges against him.
