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| Jessica Taylor and Bob Riley |
Citizens already have ample reason to suspect the VictoryLand casino will not receive fair treatment in its application for a liquor license before the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC). That's because Hal Taylor, assistant enforcement director at ABC, used to serve as executive security officer for former Governor Bob Riley. And Riley and his associates have spent the better part of four years trying to shut down non-Indian gaming facilities, such as VictoryLand, while simultaneously accepting financial support from Indian gaming interests.
Concerns about fairness on the VictoryLand issue deepen when we learn that Hal Taylor's wife also has close ties to Bob Riley. In fact, Jessica Taylor's connections to Riley appear to be even stronger than those of her husband.
So a reasonable person can ponder this scenario: Imagine that you had an important issue before a tribunal that just happened to employee an official who used to work for your No. 1 antagonist. Imagine that your antagonist probably helped the official get his new job. Then imagine that said official was married to a woman who still works for your antagonist. Would that create, in your mind, what is often known in the legal world as "the appearance of impropriety"?
It would create more than that in my mind. In fact, I would say, "It looks like the fix is in."
How close is Hal Taylor's wife to the Riley family and all of their political machinations? Well, Jessica Taylor worked for Bob Riley in the governor's office. She now works as an associate for Bob Riley and Associates LLC in Montgomery. In that capacity, she serves as treasurer of Riley's Alabama 2014 PAC.
The PAC role helped land Jessica Taylor in the midst of a controversy in summer 2011. That's when reporters learned that Riley's political action committee had engaged in the kind of PAC-to-PAC transfer that he had pushed to ban as governor. According to an Associated Press report at the time, the Riley team admitted the $50,000 contribution was a violation and returned it after learning of the error.
Mark Kennedy, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, held a press conference to point out the flaming hypocrisy:
"Not only is it a clear violation of state campaign finance laws, it is a violation of the Republicans' promise to bring ethics and transparency to Alabama politics," Kennedy said at a news conference.
That's when Jessica Taylor stepped into the spotlight. From the AP report:
After Kennedy's news conference, the treasurer of Riley's Alabama 2014 PAC, Jessica Taylor, said the PAC mistakenly received the money in March from the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC).
"Once it was determined that these funds should not have been accepted, they were immediately returned on June 24, 2011," she said in a statement released by the governor's son, Birmingham attorney Rob Riley.
Taylor's name popped up in news reports again later that summer when Attorney General Luther Strange announced that he would recuse himself from an investigation of the Riley PAC's $50,000 illegal contribution. From the Montgomery Advertiser:
The RSLC and Alabama 2014 treasurer Jessica Taylor said the money was returned on June 24, three months after the transfer took place.
On Monday, the Democratic Party asked Strange to recuse himself from the investigation, citing the fact that Jessica Medeiros Garrison, Strange’s former campaign manager, had become director of the Republican Attorneys General Association, an affiliate of the Republican State Leadership Committee. . . .
Under the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, a violation of the state’s ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $6,000 fine.
Is the fix in on VictoryLand's application for a liquor license? Will Riley allies in key places help ensure that the Macon County facility is denied a license it has held, in one form or another, for almost 30 years?
A decision is expected within the next week. If the applications is denied, VictoryLand and its supporters will have strong grounds for crying foul.
36 comments:
What is is with the Riley folks and women named JESSICA? Maybe Patsy Riley wanted Hal Taylor to start dating Jessica so she would stop . . .er . . DATING Bob. I bet Mrs. Luther Strange wishes Luther would stop "dating" Jessica Medeiros Garrison. Jessica Garrison's former husband - Tuscaloosa city councilmad Lee Garrison - wanted them to stop dating while he was MARRIED to Jessica.
Wonder how close those ties really are between the Riley men and Mrs. Taylor. Is she interested in Bob or Rob? The cut of that dress is sending some interesting signals.
Roger do you know if Bryan Taylor is related to Hal Taylor? How long can a corrupt ex-governor continue to control politics in Alabama before he and his gang are brought down? It seems no matter what they are caught doing whether it's flat out lying, accepting illegal contributions, having extra marital affairs the main stream media protects them. If it wasn't for your boldness and desire to get the truth out there we would never know about the corrupt lives they lead the harm and injustice they can cause to other people. Thank you Roger.
Anon at 8:59--
That's a good question about Bryan and Hal Taylor. I don't know if they are related. Will do some checking. Welcome insight from readers.
Does anyone know what Hal Taylor did before he hooked up with Team Riley? Security/enforcement types usually have a background as a cop or sheriff's deputy.
Anon at 7:22--
The Riley bunch does seem to be infatuated with lasses named Jessica.
Of course, they also are deeply interested in Liberty.
That guy used to be our governor? Geez!
That picture is priceless.
Who is that woman with Gomer Pyle?
Whatever happened to the investigation of Bob Riley's PAC? Could Ms. Taylor be held accountable since she was the treasurer?
Gollllllleeeeee!
I wonder what credentials Jessica Taylor has to be treasurer of anything. She was a PR major at Auburn.
Guess this explains why it would take three weeks for the ABC board to make a simple decision to allow liquor to be served on the first level of Victoryland. Liquor is served in other areas and has been for thirty years. Maybe the board realizes their leader and his wife have been exposed as Rileyites. Maybe they have found themseves between a politcal rock and a hard place. This could be interesting!
Based on the photo, I would say young Jessica has at least two credentials that might interest Big Bob.
Have Hal and Jessica Taylor ever held a job that didn't involve Bob Riley?
And Riley and his associates have spent the better part of four years trying to shut down non-Indian gaming facilities, such as VictoryLand, while simultaneously accepting financial support from Indian gaming interests.
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Did the Riley clan learn their felonious ways from the Jack Abramoff cabal or vice versa:
http://www.takepart.com/casinojack
Her dress is falling off. Classy
Listen to this and you can hear Bob Riley congratulating Luther Strange on his wooing of the fair Jessica . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6QlbKt3qcE
The picture reminds me of a scene from the movie "Dumb and Dumber".
You made me spew coffee across the room, @11:07.
Jeff:
Riley has extensive ties to Abramoff. Riley's former press secretary was Michael Scanlon. And Riley doesn't even sniff the governor's office without the $20 m in laundered tribe money that Abramoff sunk into Alabama in an effort to beat Don Siegelman. Even then, evidence suggests they had to steal the election. It's a dirty, dirty bunch.
Jessica M. Garrison worked “under” Luther Strange as his campaign manager and for the RSLC. She was the conduit for the $100,000 Indian contribution to the RSLC that found its way into Luther’s campaign. Jessica Taylor works as treasurer for Bob Riley’s 2014 PAC that received a $50,000 dollar illegal contribution from the RSLC. Coincidence?
Anon at 11:50--
The Jessicas do tend to have curious connections to "funny money."
Jess went to Briarwood School. She would be incapable of having an impure thought.
I thought Gomer was gay. Why is he sneaking side glances at that chick's boobs?
This entire boondoggle is to the point of nauseating. If one cannot see that this is a witch hunt against McGregor/Victoryland then one is blind. The moat Riley built around his fortress is filled with greedy, corrupt, megalomaniac, power-crazy, self-important individuals. The mainstream media should be held accountable as an accomplice to these crimes. Their job is to investigate and report; not to cower. Possibly they have also been recipients of this dirty money? Who knows? LS, thank you for committing to your trade.
Speaking of gay, happened to see an episode of the TV show Scandal. WOW, appears Cyrus Beene is a gay character based on Karl Rove. First viewing for me of this series. Cyrus Beene character admitted stealing the election. Can't believe ABC is this bold to so blatantly expose Karl Rove!
Regarding PR majors; they seem to have the credentials to do most anything up to and including ingratiating themselves upon wealthy, capitalist, powerful, egomaniacal men. Holly Rollins majored in PR I think also- at some nothing college in N.C. They just zero in on their target and if one thing doesn't work another one does.......they just check that off the menu and try another. It's really not too difficult I hear.
It appears that everyone else is in formal wear and Bob is dressed up for an audition with the Village People.
Hah, Bob Riley with the Village People. Might not be able to get that image out of my mind for a while.
I "thank thangs" look a little suspicious here.. And I love that clown hat that clown has on. Complete with the ball on top! You know just think about it.. He was a truly embarassment to our state making a speech "I THANK THANGS are looking better for Alabamaer." Truly country redneck.
What do you expect from the same government agency that arrested my mom? My refusal to sign any of the papers they try to place in front of me is why those bastards hate me so. I think my mom & Bonnie Wyatt are the poster children for why you shouldn't sign just any papers the Legal Mafia tries to place in front of you. Don't make the mistake of paying for legal advice before you sign either. Your lawyer isn't your friend. He is a member of the same country club the opposing lawyer or prosecutor belongs to. They hunt and fish together. They screw the same women, and they buy their coke from the same dealer so they can work 12 hours a day and still have the energy to laugh at you while they are at parties picking up your ex-wives. When they are done with your ex, they will screw your daughters & you'll pay for all of it one way or another. More and more men are buying guns because they are getting ready to kill unethical lawyers and the judges and bar commissioners who enable them. It's why Blake Lazenby is dead. He was working in Talladega not far from where all that mess was going on with the local police and ambulance service that Judge Larry Ward was covering up.
Great comment, Rob. No truer words ever have been written than these:
Your lawyer isn't your friend. He is a member of the same country club the opposing lawyer or prosecutor belongs to. They hunt and fish together. . . .
Bank for International Settlements [BIS] is ALL global credit. This means our country has been, since the Nazi great heist by the BIS, owned by the primary owners of the BIS. The court system is operated by the BIS.
The Federal Reserve System [Fed] is in a cover-up, the BIS.
Fed is basically the same families that own the global credit and thus, there is not one "bank" in the U.S. for a long time.
BIS and Fed run the governments almost all, in earth.
We've been truly fooled by the greatest fraudsters in history.
Selling global credit for untold profits and fraudulently representing MONEY.
Whatever the BIS chooses, to boom or bust, making certain the Fed harvests the Americans for as long as the human capital can be traded and exchanged by simply pushing buttons. Slowly but, sure did get here: Victoryland is obviously not included in the predatory global one world gov scheme.
Hal Taylor & the ABC Board are hypocrites. Moonshine was being consumed in the basement filing rooms at the Folsom Building where state employees went to cheat on their husbands and wives as they had sexual relations behind the boxes full of sealed votes that contained the truth that Don Siegelman was the rightful Governor of Alabama . It has been the drug of choice at those Guntersville State Park getaways for high level state officials since the 1930s. I'll never forget the story of Montgomery Police Department Attorney John Papanastos getting hammered at Guntersville State Park suring the Guy Hunt era and ridiculing all the Young Republicans for their belief in a God while they drank liberally and had sex outside of marriage.
I wish being a lawyer was this awesome..
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