Well it seems he's at it again. The Governors anti-gambling task force raided a White Hall bingo hall, packing up 'illegal' electronic bingo machines, that were permitted for use in the game of bingo by a special constitutional amendment for White Hall, which is located in Lowndes County in Alabama. In addition to the bingo machines, the officers also confiscated money considered to be the result of the illegal gambling. Where's all this money going'? There has been several recent bingo raids in Alabama, in fact, the Governor is now being lovingly referred to as Bingo Bob by many in the state.
Governor Bingo Bob
So all these gambling machines are confiscated. The matter goes to court next, all sides are to be heard by a judge. That's how justice works right? We all have our impartial day in court.
For some reason, the local circuit judge stepped down from the Whitehall case, and a retired judge presided over the preliminary matters involved. Now, Judge Sue Bell Cobb names a judge from Opelika to hear the rest of the case.
Judge Cobb later learns that there's a very similar case being heard in Jefferson County Circuit Court by Judge Robert Vance. Judge Cobb calls up Judge Vance calls the judge she'd previously appointed, the one from Opelika, asks him to step down from the case, and he agrees. The case is then assigned to the judge already ruling over the White Hall case, which was in essence much the same as this case, only coming from another county.
Now we have Judge Vance presiding over both cases, which downright ticks off Governor Bingo Bob who then accuses the chief justice of "Judge Shopping". Governor Bingo Bob then files motions with the court asking the high court to overturn Judge Cobb's appointment (can you hear the smack in the Cobb's face here?).
According to AL.com Riley's request was really out of pocket, and quite troubling to the judges involved.
If you're not really a political guru than the real big deal here might not make sense. Some see the motions filed by the Governors office as an attempt to lobby judges during an open case. See the federal constitution, as well as, Alabama's organic charter, include a section dealing with the separation of powers of the three branches of Government. What that means is, you don't lobby a judge about a case that's pending in their court.
Crazy story huh! This governor in my opinion is just really on a witch hunt. He reminds me of the dirty politician in movies that really meant to do good, but somewhere along the line he became sort of a mercenary vigilante. Can you see the plot, the crazy Governor goes off on a killing spree, but By God, he'll stop everyone in the state from gambling before it ruins the quality of life for them all!
Until we talk again, good luck and happy bingo'ing, and, don't worry Alabamians, you can still play bingo online, even the nasty electronic kind! Bingo sites like USA Bingo are more than happy to have you.
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