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| Chase Espy |
Chase Tristian Espy, a former Balch & Bingham attorney now facing a child solicitation charge, was fired at the firm last September, according to a report at banbalch.com. Adding to the growing intrigue around the story is this: Balch & Bingham last summer, reportedly in June or July, changed its wireless IP address and computer operating system, just weeks before Espy was terminated.
Espy went on to work as a staff attorney for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey before being fired there after his arrest last week. The incident that led to Espy's arrest occurred around midnight on March 25 of this year, according to Ban Balch. From Publisher K.B. Forbes' report at banbalch.com, under the headline "Alleged Balch Pedophile Scandal Grows; Is Federal Probe Next?":
With embattled law firm Balch & Bingham admitting they fired attorney Chase T. Espy last September after eight years at the firm, advocates have reached out to federal law enforcement authorities requesting a probe.
Espy was arrested last week for allegedly seeking to have sex with a child online. However, according to news reports, the alleged criminal incident occurred on March 25 near midnight.
The bottom line is children need to be protected from pedophiles and sexual predators, no matter what powerful positions or connections they may hold or have.
Balch & Bingham appear to be habitual liars who look like they may have obscured the ugly truth.
Balch admits they terminated Espy last September. What did Balch uncover and why would an eight year veteran of the firm be abruptly fired?
Did Balch fail to report despicable behavior or criminal acts to law enforcement authorities?
Espy worked for former U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) before starting an eight-year run at Balch & Bingham (one of Sessions' longtime financial backers). After Balch fired Espy last September, he landed at Gov. Ivey's office, which raises one of many questions surrounding this matter: Did Balch know about problems with Espy and fail to alert the governor's office about them?
This leads to Balch's change in its Internet and computer set-ups, which reportedly took place in summer 2020 and raises its own set of questions. Writes Forbes:
Espy used the internet and online resources as he allegedly sought sex with a child.
Now sources at Balch tell us that the wireless IP address at the Balch offices in Birmingham was allegedly changed last year just weeks before Espy was fired.
Was this simply a coincidence or is there more to the story?
Balch sources also tell us a Balch VPN was utilized at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic for employees working remotely, and that in the fall of 2019, Balch had upgraded their computer systems in Birmingham from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Forbes and the non-profit public charity he leads, Consejo de Latinos Unidos (CDLU), have dealt with these kinds of issues before. He writes:
Failing to report criminal acts or not investigating them is not unheard of when sex crimes are involved.
Several years ago, we, the CDLU, fought on behalf of the victims of sexual assault at an adult day care center in California known as Healthy Start.
Healthy Start owners allegedly discouraged a traumatized employee from reporting a rape that she witnessed to law enforcement.
Putting her job at risk, she ignored their commands and went to local law enforcement and courageously reported the atrocious sex crime.
Sadly, these developmentally disabled adult children were raped and sodomized by sexual predator Juan Fernando Flores while inept government agencies did nothing for these children, even though parents complained that something was wrong for almost a full year. Adding to the horrific acts, Flores spread a sexually transmitted disease to his victims, both male and female.
If federal law enforcement officials are investigating the Espy fiasco, our sources at Balch say that they must first go to Level 3 Communications, Balch & Bingham’s internet service provider to track and see if any dark websites were visited or utilized.
Our duty is to protect children regardless of Balch’s apparent utter lack of honesty or integrity.
If Balch is asked again about Espy by the media, will they finally tell the whole truth or will Balch hide behind the cliché that “personnel decision are strictly confidential” including those of an alleged sexual predator.
God, this story is getting uglier by the minute.
ReplyDeleteDid Balch pawn a known child predator off on the governor's office? If I'm Kay Ivey, I want to know the answer to that. And if the answer is yes, I'm a highly p.o.'d governor.
ReplyDeleteBalch has managed to more or less sweep a few issues under the carpet, but I think this one could be hard to sweep away.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point, @11:09. Having the phrase "accused child predator" associated with your law firm is a pretty serious PR problem. Kind of hard to massage that one away.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a computer expert, but if I were an employer wanting to cover up evidence that a child-predator employee had engaged in unlawful activity at work, I probably would change the IP address with my Internet provider and change operating systems. Sounds like that's exactly what Balch did.
ReplyDeleteMy brain would operate the same as yours in that situation, @1:21. That, of course, doesn't mean Balch did anything improper in this situation; much still is not known about the whole Espy matter. It just means you and I would be thinking on the same wavelength.
ReplyDeleteIn light of what we've learned today, perhaps it should be noted that Balch apparently took steps during the pandemic to help employees work from home. That seems to suggest that Espy could have used Balch equipment and/or upgrades to engage in the offenses of which he now stands accused. In other words, he might not have engaged in this alleged activity while at the office, but from home.
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