I read with interest Mr. Mitchell’s editorial entitled “Alabama’s War on Good Cops Must End”. As the District Attorney of Madison County, I was struck by the piece for a couple of reasons.
The first, and most glaring, is the perpetuation for political gain of the myth that there exists a war on cops in this State; and secondly, Mr. Mitchell’s confusion as to who the prosecuting authority is in these cases.
Mr. Mitchell attributes the prosecution of these two cases to the Attorney General’s Office, though he should know that they were handled by the District Attorney’s Offices in Montgomery and Morgan counties.
The Attorney General’s Office later fulfilled its statutory role of representing the State during the appellate process. The disparagement against the Attorney General’s Office in the editorial then, is logically imputed to the district attorneys involved.
As the Republican District Attorney and Chief Law Enforcement Official of Madison County for the last 17 years, I am all too familiar with the difficult decision of pursuing criminal charges against a law enforcement officer.
It is a possibility that nobody in my role wants to confront, but when you swear the oath of office as District Attorney, you are swearing that you will uphold the Constitution and the laws of this State, and they apply to everyone—no exceptions.
It is the criminal justice system, and it should be inviolate. It shouldn’t be driven by public perception or fear of political retribution. I was elected by the voters of my circuit to make tough decisions, even if my decisions don’t please everyone.
I believe those in the community that have disagreed with me still respect the professionalism and integrity I have tried to exhibit over my nearly forty-year career in the DA’s Office.
The same holds true for my friend, Scott Anderson, who has served as the District Attorney for Morgan County for the last 16 years. Scott is a staunch Republican and happens to be one of the most honorable and worthy men I have ever known. It is Scott’s office that is prosecuting the Decatur police officer mentioned in Mitchell’s op-ed.
Though Mitchell claims that the prosecution is “legally indefensible and fundamentally wrong,” it’s worth pointing out that, so far, Alabama’s Republican judges have upheld the continuation of the action. The case is currently pending in the Alabama Supreme Court, which Mr. Mitchell recently resigned from to run for Attorney General, and I find it disappointing that he would comment on a pending case that he knows the involved District Attorney cannot likewise comment on.
Ultimately, while there can be good faith disagreement on the law or the facts in a particular case, his forum for voicing his opinion is dead wrong—it’s a slap in the face to the oath of office he once took and aspires to take again.
This kind of uninformed rhetoric damages the sanctity of the criminal justice system and to impugn the integrity of the opposing side is irresponsible. We have a system in place for settling such differences. As for Scott Anderson, he has done his duty, he has adhered to the system he swore to uphold, he certainly made no decisions for political gain, and no matter the outcome, justice will be served.
Mr. Mitchell focuses on two instances where law enforcement officers were indicted and claims that there is a pattern of “coordinated, politically-motivated prosecutions of law enforcement officers” in the State.
He does not mention that the cases were pursued eight years apart, by district attorneys of different political parties, and during the tenure of two different attorneys general. He also doesn’t mention my own office’s case, so it is unclear to me whether I am part of the conspiracy or not.
Living in a State as conservative and supportive of law enforcement as Alabama is, no one has ever explained to me how it is politically advantageous for an elected DA to prosecute a cop.
I resent cheap attacks on our profession, on the folks who swear the oath and on the truth itself. Alabama needs an Attorney General that respects the rule of law, the duties of his office, the criminal justice system, and the district attorneys that he or she will be called to work alongside.
Appointed District Attorney of Alabama’s 23rd Judicial Circuit in May 2009, Rob Broussard has spent more than three decades prosecuting cases in Madison County, from routine drug offenses to capital murder. He is a Cumberland School of Law graduate.
