What's the Matter With Alice?

Scott Horton, of Harper's, has a post today that is must reading for anyone who lives in Alabama and cares remotely about justice.

Horton presents a disturbing portrayal of Alice Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. The piece focuses on the investigation of Martin for possible perjury in an employment-discrimination case. The Alabama press has virtually ignored the perjury investigation, but Horton provides plenty of insight--not only on the perjury case itself but also on the mindset that Martin brings to her job as a federal prosecutor.

"Back when I started writing about the U.S. attorneys scandal, I got flooded with personal accounts of dealings and encounters with Alice Martin," Horton writes. "They came in from attorneys, businessmen, political figures, prosecutors who work for her, and even a judge. And not a single person had a positive thing to say about Martin."

The perjury investigation stems from an employment-discrimination case involving Deidra Brown, a young assistant U.S. attorney in the Huntsville office who was fired by Martin in May 2002. Brown alleges in an EEOC complaint that she was fired as retaliation for assisting her former supervisor, H. Victor Conrad, who had also filed an EEOC complaint against Martin.

Well, you can add me to the list of folks who've had a disturbing encounter with Alice Martin. It involves her clear attempt to cover up my allegations of wrongdoing by Republican judges in Alabama. And I will be posting about it soon.

Why would Martin be anxious to cover up a case of Republican sleaze? Horton provides some insight: "Martin ran for public office as a Republican twice, and lost twice to her Democratic opponent. In an interview with the Associated Press after she lost one of the races, in November 1998, she expressed bitterness and resentment towards Democrats. She has made her aspirations to stand as a Republican candidate for statewide office in Alabama widely known."