As Southern Company scandal deepens, attention turns to Alabama's rotting "justice system," with major news outlets on a trail of Southern-fried corruption

 

What once was a story of alleged corporate malfeasance involving Alabama Power, Southern Company, and related entities is evolving into a story about Alabama's dysfunctional "justice apparatus." Our post on Monday (1/16/23), focusing on the criminal case against prominent black attorney and businessman Donald Watkins, showed the state's decaying judicial and law-enforcement systems are so broken they can produce outcomes that are tainted, even rigged. Is that a sign that victims of the Alabama Power saga stand little chance of achieving justice -- given Alabama courthouses (both federal and state) often are the places where fairness and the rule of law go to die?

The answer to that question might prove to be yes. But as we also reported on Monday, multiple sources state that national and international news outlets are investigating apparent corruption tied to Alabama's corporate titans. When those stories hit the streets, it might give rogue judges and prosecutors little place to hide -- suggesting that all hope might not be lost for victims.

How did we get to this point? K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group, has used his organization's blog, banbalch.com, to lead the way in exposing dubious actions that often center around the Matrix LLC consulting firm of Montgomery and Birmingham's Balch & Bingham law firm. It's a tale that Alabama's mainstream media (MSM) seems reluctant to touch, but Forbes has not hesitated to dive into the muck. His findings have been consistently distressing, even shocking. And in a post today titled "Tangled: Southern Company’s Criminal Enterprise, Law Enforcement Stooges, Compromised Judges, Paid-Off Media, and the Miscarriage of Justice, he reports that the whole sordid mess started because of -- surprise, surprise -- money:

Southern Company allowed their most profitable subsidiary Alabama Power to run free, like outlaws in the Wild West.

Why? Because Alabama Power’s excessive profits helped pay for the billion-dollar cost overruns at two Southern Company boondoggles: The Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia and the Kemper Plant in Mississippi.

Forbes then turns to possible avenues for victims to seek justice:

Ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite appears to have run a criminal enterprise that gives multiple victims of the misconduct standing to sue Southern Company with civil RICO lawsuits.

Civil RICO lawsuits against Southern Company, Matrix, Balch & Bingham, and others offer plaintiffs a solution to the rigged and corrupt system of justice and law enforcement in Alabama.

The acts carried out by Alabama Power, Balch, Matrix and others associated to the criminal enterprise are actionable. And the civil RICO statute provides triple damages to victims.

Now with Monday’s explosive post showing Southern Company’s law enforcement stooge and disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town authorized the subpoena of Alabama Media Group to find out the identity of an innocent, online commentator, the tangled web of law enforcement stooges, compromised judges, and paid-off media demonstrate a horrific enterprise engaged in acts of injustice.

While Forbes focuses on RICO as a possible civil remedy for victims of corruption, he also provides an example of how Alabama "crime fighters" can be incompetent, compromised or both. For this, we turn to the case of Shelby County attorney Burt Newsome, who has been the victim of a mysterious head-on vehicle crash that nearly killed him, plus a case of brazen identity theft -- not to mention Balch's apparent efforts to ruin a sizeable chuck of his banking practice, and the peculiar actions of a state judge who shows signs of being compromised. Writes Forbes:

When the Southern Company’s criminal enterprise sent two sets of outfits and travel bags to Newsome’s wife and each of his four children as a threatening message, local law enforcement had the audacity to blame his young twins who couldn’t read of ordering the items, picking correct clothing sizes, and inputting a stolen credit card number and home address on a website.

Fraudulently using a stolen credit card is a Class C Felony in Alabama. Why in God’s name did local Shelby County Sheriff Deputies ignore this crime and dismiss it as an act of his two young children?

Some of this might be too bizarre to grasp in one setting, so we will summarize the fundamental parts: Someone stole Burt Newsome's credit-card out of his wife's vehicle and used the card to charge items that were sent to the home to terrorize Newsome's family.

Did law enforcement take this seriously? Nope. Neither the Shelby County Sheriff's Office nor the U.S. Attorney's Office have taken any apparent meaningful action.

To top it off, Southern Company has been less-than-forthcoming about the Newsome case, writes Forbes;

In January of 2018, Jim Kerr, the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Southern Company told us unequivocally that Southern Company/Alabama Power was not involved in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.

But that was untrue, a lie.

A year later we uncovered that the staged arrest of Newsome in 2013 was done by the cop-son of a retired Alabama Power executive.

The anonymous documents we received in November show that Alabama Power paid to have the Newsome family terrorized, paid to tar and feather Newsome falsely as a rapist, and, to add a cherry on top of this cluster of injustice, paid-off the media to attack Newsome.

Southern Company’s paid-off media, the discredited Alabama Political Reporter, wrote a long-winded article in 2021 attacking the merits of the Newsome Conspiracy Case while defending Alabama Power and making disgraced ex-CEO Mark A. Crosswhite sound like a poor victim of this blog. (Cry us a polluted river!) . . .

Alabama Power paid Alabama Political Reporter at least $120,000 a year according to documents we received anonymously.

In 2018, Kerr may have looked the other way and let Alabama Power act like outlaws. Or maybe Kerr was lied to by subordinates.

All that changed in 2022, when news report revealed that Alabama Power spied on Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017.

The outlaws had shot themselves in the foot.

While Southern Company is cleaning house and restructuring, the corrupt state of affairs and infrastructure in Alabama remains.

Donald V. Watkins, the Newsome Family, the Forbes Family, the CDLU, GASP, and others have one remedy to clean up this Alabama mess and detangle the corruption: a federal civil RICO lawsuit.

Newly obtained documents show that corporate thugs and Justice Department rogues teamed up to make the Donald Watkins criminal trial a sham proceeding

Donald Watkins

 

This marks the day Americans  celebrate the progress we have made on matters of race. It also, however, is the day a breaking story in Alabama reveals the disgraceful lengths the state's corporate power structure -- which is predominantly white, of course -- will go to destroy a prominent black attorney and businessman.

The story, which comes to us via the banbalch.com blog and the CDLU public charity and advocacy group, also shows that elements in our "justice system," which also is mostly white, hold little regard for constitutional concepts such as "due process" and "equal protection under law," especially as they should have applied to the 2018-19 trial of Donald Watkins.

In essence, this is a story about corporate power brokers and compromised justice officials working behind the scenes to ensure that the Watkins criminal trial of would be a sham proceeding. And that suggests, sadly, that America's progress on race still has a long way to go. It's another disgusting chapter for our blog, which since 2007 has written extensively about the rot that has settled in on our justice system at all levels -- state, federal; trial and appellate. 

K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU, shines a white-hot light on recently obtained documents that reveal the ugliness behind the Watkins case. In a post titled "Sealed Documents Show Southern Company’s Law Enforcement Stooges Silenced Critics and Media," Forbes writes:

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we expose the appalling lengths to which Southern Company stooges went to go after and destroy an African American leader and his supporters.

Southern Company’s criminal enterprise not only greased and corrupted the judicial branch in Alabama to protect their wholly owned subsidiaries, but also corrupted the executive branch and law enforcement to silence critics and the media.

From the Newsome Conspiracy Case to the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, obstruction of justice not only occurred in the court system, but some acts were sadly done by law enforcement officials.

The CDLU has anonymously received a bombshell: a sealed court document from the crimimal case against African American businessman and attorney Donald V. Watkins.

And the document is utterly devastating and demonstrates that the office of disgraced and now ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town was indeed in Southern Company/Alabama Power’s pocket.

Town, a Donald Trump nominee, was confirmed as U.S. Attorney in August of 2017. It did not take him long to target Watkins, on matters that seemingly had already been put to bed, writes Forbes:

In October 2017, Town’s office opened a new federal criminal investigation into the same business transactions between Watkins and a handful of investors in his waste-to-energy business that had been probed by federal prosecutors in New Jersey from July 2015 to February 2016. These prosecutors cleared Watkins on all allegations of wrongdoing.

The move came at the same month as Southern Company’s $2-million-a-year consultant “Sloppy Joe” Perkins hand-wrote a detailed outline of an orchestrated smear campaign against Watkins.

[Sloppy Joe’s secret, hand-written notes from October of 2017 were published four years later in September of 2021 causing a firestorm.]

Perkins’ notes, at page 3, specifically referenced his knowledge of “federal subpoenas” involving Watkins. At the time, the only federal subpoenas involving Watkins were those issued by Town’s newly empaneled grand jury.

 

This is from Watkins' 2021 post about Perkins hand-written notes:

Perkins' notes called for Atlanta Attorney Mario Williams to be investigated after Williams successfully convinced top-notch New Jersey-based federal prosecutors in January 2016 to end their six-month grand jury proceedings into various business transactions between former New York Jets football player Bryan Thomas and me (and a handful of other professional athletes who were my personal friends and business associates). The grand jury review concluded that the business transactions in question complied with all federal laws. In his notes, Perkins described his planned outreach to these athletes. In October 2017, Birmingham federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples, a homegrown bigot from Dothan, Alabama, commenced a new federal investigation into the same business transactions that were probed and cleared by the New Jersey federal prosecutors. Perkins specifically referenced the "federal subpoenas" in his notes. Unlike the polished career federal prosecutors in New Jersey, Peeples' grand jury leaked enough evidence to fill a water reservoir. In his notes, Perkins did not explain who leaked him information regarding "federal subpoenas."

Forbes provides insight on how all of this played out in the murky waters that run through the Hugo Black Courthouse in the Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham):

Watkins did not become aware of any federal grand jury proceedings or subpoenas issued by Town until February of 2018.

Why would Sloppy Joe know about subpoenas coming out of the secret proceedings of a federal grand jury?

Why, one would ask, was Sloppy Joe in the know?

We believe Southern Company’s criminal enterprise took immediate action against Watkins after he published critical stories about Perkins and his firm Matrix in September of 2017.

Watkins accused Perkins of allegedly targeting the family of a rape victim, Meagan Rondini, who committed suicide after law enforcement and others allegedly dismissed or ignored her accusations against the son of a prominent family in Alabama.

Eventually, Watkins was indicted.

As for the CDLU's newly obtained documents, they show Jay Town's disregard for fundamental rights goes beyond due process and and equal protection; it also goes to matters such as free speech and privacy. Writes Forbes:

The sealed documents that we received are alarming to First Amendment rights and privacy.

During the height of the criminal trial, Jay Town’s office filed a sealed subpoena demanding to know who was making counter arguments and critical comments about the prosecution and trial on the AL.com website comments area.

TheTruthHurts48 burned up Town and his team. 

Ripping up First Amendment rights like mobsters wanting to break one’s legs, Town’s office filed the subpoena on February 25, 2019. Three days later, Alabama Media Group, owners of AL.com, filed a motion to quash. The issue, according to court records, was resolved shortly thereafter but details are unknown.

Because of guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press rights, U.S. Department of Justice guidelines are clear that there are mandatory consultation requirements and Jay Town and his office should have obtained authorization at least 30 days before issuing a subpoena to a media outlet like Alabama Media Group.

We doubt Town’s office did. Town was too busy sipping cocktails with Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, who resigned in disgrace this past November.

How did the recently obtained documents come light? Forbes provides insight -- and he does not intend to let the material just sit in a desk:

We received the anonymously sent, sealed court documents last spring. As whistleblowers, we have forwarded the documents to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Recently we learned who TheTruthHurts48 is, and the person told us that they attended the Watkins trial everyday and believe the trial was an absolute miscarriage of justice.

TheTruthHurts48, who works remotely, used an IP address and VPN associated with their employer. After the trial, the person was unexpectedly fired by their employer for no reason. They believe Jay Town caused the abrupt termination.

Exactly one year after Jay Town’s office filed that subpoena, on February 25, 2020, Alabama Media Group published an “End of an Era” story and announced, “Beginning Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 at 5 a.m. CST, we’ll eliminate website comments…”

As disarray continues to engulf Birmingham's Balch & Bingham law firm, solo practioner Burt Newsome keeps overcoming obstacles in pursuit of justice

From the scene of the Burt Newsome vehicle crash.

 

Birmingham's Balch & Bingham law firm continues to operate in a state of disarray, according to a report at banbalch.com, which operates under the banner of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group. 

Prominent entities in Balch's backyard have terminated the firm in recent weeks, reports K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU. Apparently struggling to hire and retain experienced attorneys with solid resumes, Balch resorted to promoting a lawyer who played a central role in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.

To top it off, Shelby County attorney Burt Newsome, whom Balch targeted for ruination via a dubious arrest on a menacing charge and distribution of his mug shot to clients, seems to be thriving. Writes Forbes:

Eight years ago embattled law firm Balch & Bingham declared in a pleading in the Newsome Conspiracy Case that they had the legal right to “ruin a rival.”

Instead, Balch ruined themselves, losing tens of millions in legal fees, 18 of 18 major lobbying clients, and dozens of seasoned and legacy partners.

Now that disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite was ousted, the once-prestigious, now egregious, law firm has been exposed as part of a criminal enterprise funded by the deep pockets of Southern Company and will be part of a highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuit.

So toxic Balch has become, the Jefferson County Commission terminated the firm last month, according to Politico.com, joining the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department that terminated Balch in 2019.

Signs of the toxicity do not end there, reports Forbes:

And this week, apparently unable to attract experienced partners from other firms or retain new attorneys, Balch announced the promotion to partner of junior ghost-writer extraordinaire, and spy-vs-spy man Irving Jones, Jr. , a central figure of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.

Jones infiltrated meetings of the public charity and environmental group GASP and helped ghost-write “dumbed-down” letters for convicted felon and ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert to be signed by African American residents in the AstroTurf campaign to block EPA testing in North Birmingham, according to court testimony in 2018.

Jones had left Balch but returned in 2018. So embarrassed by the rehire, Balch took three weeks to acknowledge that Jones had returned. Jones’ return happened a little more than two months after Gilbert’s conviction.

How is Burt Newsome doing? Pretty darned well, it appears, considering that he was the target of a head-on vehicle crash that shows signs of being an attempted hit. Newsome suffered a badly broken leg, but somehow managed to survive the crash -- and the experience does not seem to have dimmed his taste for justice. How did Newsome survive, given he was driving a Volkswagen Jetta while hit head-on by a Ford Explorer? Forbes can't explain that one, but he writes:

Meanwhile, Burt Newsome, who was viciously targeted by the criminal enterprise and nearly murdered assassinated killed in a mysterious head-on collision in 2020, won a precedent-setting opinion in the 11th Circuit yesterday.

The 11th Circuit three-judge panel unanimously reversed a lower-court ruling in Mortgage Corporation vs.Bozeman ( 21-10987).

Law 360 reports: 

An Alabama U.S. district court ruling that dissolved the mortgage lien on a bankrupt debtor’s home ran afoul of federal law, the Eleventh Circuit said in a precedent-setting opinion that reaffirms the right of secured creditors to full recovery of mortgage loans.

With outstanding professionalism and legal brilliance, and adding to his enormous victory for a Mexican farmer in May, Newsome has vigorously defended the rights of his clients with tenacity.

The 11th Circuit decision, highly applauded in banking circles, should open more doors for Newsome.

As a solo practitioner, it's never been clear why Newsome would be considered a "rival" of a "Big Law" outfit such as Balch. It's also never been clear what drove Balch's apparent beef with Newsome. But this does seem clear: Balch appears to have misplayed its hand at several steps along the way, writes Forbes:

The late Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., general counsel at Balch & Bingham, vowed to fight Newsome to the death.

Sadly, Baker died in 2020.

Balch and the criminal enterprise stupidly wasted millions and lost tens of millions in fees to win a slam-dunk and corrupt judgment of $242,000 against Newsome.

Now the judgment and counterfeit order used to trample Newsome will play a leading role in the Civil RICO lawsuit against Balch, Southern Company, Matrix, and others.

Newsome won’t take it on the chin, not for himself or his clients.

Newsome’s determination for justice has not been hindered, not even by a criminal enterprise or a near-death, head-on car wreck.

And we, the CDLU, along with the public in general, energetically applaud Newsome’s perseverance.

Go, Burt, go!

Records show Alabama Power paid Frank Matthews, who has touted Louis Farrakhan's antisemitic remarks, to assist with intimidation of the company's critics

Frank Matthews (Birmingham Times)

 

Financial documents related to alleged corruption involving Alabama Power and Southern Company show the firms paid an activist and antisemite to assist in a campaign to harass and intimidate critics and perceived enemies of the big utilities, according to a report Tuesday at banbalch.com, which operates under the banner of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group.

The attacks were directed at K.B. Forbes, publisher of Ban Balch and CEO of the CDLU, and Birmingham attorney Burt Newsome, who has engaged in legal battles with the power company and related entities. Writes Forbes:

The anonymously supplied financial records and documents that we, the CDLU, received show that Southern Company/Alabama Power paid Frank Matthews thousands of dollars in the summer of 2020 in a campaign of terror and intimidation against the CDLU, the Forbes family, and Burt Newsome.

The expenditures, paid by Matrix LLC, were approved by Zeke Smith, executive vice president of external affairs at Alabama Power.

Matthews has been described as an activist and founder of the Outcast Voters League in a September 2022 profile by the Birmingham Times. But he also has been tied to antisemitic statements that originated with Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, who espouses an anti-white theology and blames Jews for the slave trade, Jim Crow, and general black oppression, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Writes Forbes:

Matthews, who self-proclaimed himself as “God’s Gangster,” defended and praised Louis Farrakhan, the antisemite and anti-white racist who came to Birmingham in June of 2013.

In the summer of 2020, on the seven-year anniversary of the visit, Matthews declared that it was a “Privilege and honor to meet the most regarded! honorable Louis Farrakhan” in a Facebook Post.

Matthews then spouts his own hate, writing, “We don’t care what Jewish Foundation or Federation or no house negroes that didn’t want the minister here.”

What ties Matthews to the intimidation campaign against Forbes and Newsome? Facebook posts tell the story, Forbes reports: 

Who did Matthews tag in that Facebook post dated June 14, 2020?

Carlos M. Chaverst Jr., the illustrious but easily distracted rebel-rouser.

A little over two weeks later, Chaverst attacked K.B. Forbes, the chief executive officer of the CDLU, as a “racist ass white man” on a Facebook post attached to a Facebook Live video where at the end of the video Chaverst rambles about the “white man” K.B. Forbes and talks about Forbes’ home, while labeling him WYPIPO.

[Note: Chaverst had three Facebook profiles in 2020. The Montez Chaverst profile has since been deleted]

Two days later, on July 4th, the Apostle Brenda Paige Ward, having rented a large van from Budget Rentals at the Birmingham Airport, showed up in Forbes’ neighborhood and held a two-minute “shoot and scoot” fake protest adjacent to Forbes’ home, terrorizing neighbors and Forbes’ then-8-year-old daughter, who cried thinking they were killing an innocent African American like George Floyd.

The next day, the Apostle posted that she enjoyed going to Jazz at the Park on Independence Day.

And who did the Apostle tag? Carlos M. Chaverst, Jr.

Frank Matthews appears to have utilized Chaverst and the Apostle in the campaign of intimidation and terror, and Southern Company paid him well.

Forbes and the CDLU were working with the U.S. Department of Justice as informants about the misconduct in Alabama, and Alabama Power boosters  did not like the fact.

Forbes had dispatched numerous letters and provided hundreds of pages of documents, including the jaw-dropping photos of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite chugging cocktails together.

How does all of this tie together? Forbes explains, noting that the attacks spread to Burt Newsome:

By these acts, Southern Company was trying to silence, intimidate, and threaten Forbes and his family.

The antisemite booster was then paid in late August of 2020 to put up signs for a website that falsely claimed that Burt Newsome was a rapist and that Forbes was defending a rapist.

Southern Company appears to have wanted to discourage and intimidate Newsome from defending or continuing to pursue ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75-million civil lawsuit against Balch & Bingham and Drummond, while discouraging Forbes and the CDLU from reporting about the Roberson case or defending Newsome in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.

Jeff Peoples, who approved the expenditure and contract that was used to terrorize the Newsome Family, has since been promoted as CEO and Chairman of Alabama Power.

Jeff Peoples and Zeke Smith should be immediately fired for hiring an antisemite apologist, being engaged in nefarious and criminal misconduct, and for contributing to a criminal enterprise that will be held accountable in a much-anticipated civil RICO lawsuit.

Forbes adds the following:

Matthews even called the CDLU and left a vulgar message for us. (Note: Audio of the message can be heard near the end of a post at the following link.)

Forbes concludes with this:

An apostle, a rebel-rouser, and an antisemite booster meet in a bar…

You can’t make this stuff up.

Florida Power & Light dumps Matrix LLC, in essence telling the firm to "take a hike"; will Southern Co. be next to find Matrix a liability and cut the cord?

 

One of the nation's largest utility companies has severed ties with the Matrix LLC consulting firm of Montgomery, AL, according to a report at banbalch.com, which operates under the banner of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group. Florida Power & Light {FPL}did not quietly part ways with Matrix; it fired a dagger at the firm and its founder, Joe Perkins, in the process.

K.B. Forbes, publisher of Ban Balch and CEO of the CDLU, reports that one act from Matrix's bag of "dirty tricks" proved to be a bridge too far for FPL:

Perkins, founder of Matrix, was embroiled in a nasty legal fight last year with his once-protégé Jeff Pitts, exposing unsavory and nefarious misconduct, including the surveillance of Southern Company CEO and Chairman Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017.

In August, an FPL company spokesman said in a statement. “Learning about the surveillance of the CEO of Southern Company further reinforces our decision to have severed all ties with Matrix, a consultant we regret ever having associated ourselves with.”

FPL regrets "ever having associated . . . with" Matrix? Ouch! That's got to sting. 

There was no room for niceties in that statement, but Forbes notes some oddities about FPL's communique:

Sloppy Joe Perkins has become the laughing stock in political circles especially now that Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, “the most powerful man in Alabama,” was ousted in late November.

The letter dispatched by a law firm on behalf of FPL makes a request on entities like the CDLU “to cease any and all disparaging communications or negative publicity involving or relating to the Matrix LLC consulting firm or any of its affiliates.”

Why would FPL dispatch a final letter to non-parties about Matrix and Sloppy Joe’s bruised feelings? We, the CDLU, have mentioned FPL peripherally, so why a letter to us?

Observers state that FPL is solidifying the fact the company was not behind any leaks, attacks, document dumps, or negative publicity regarding the Matrix Meltdown and are attempting to prevent any involvement in potential litigation associated with Perkins and his affiliated companies.

If FPL felt the need to provide cover for itself, that could be a sign of rocky waters ahead for Matrix. In fact, FPL might not be the only company wishing to separate from Matrix. Writes Forbes:

In late November, we, the CDLU, received documents and financial information about Southern Company’s expenditures through Matrix. The letter from FPL’s lawyers was dispatched a couple weeks later

With potential civil RICO litigation impacting utilities because of Matrix’s misconduct, Matrix, like Balch & Bingham, has become a third-party risk.

FPL is cleaning up loose ends while Sloppy Joe was cut loose and terminated. A spokesman at FPL confirmed to us yesterday that the relationship was over, definitely over.

When will Southern Company terminate Sloppy Joe, Matrix, and his affiliated companies?

Will King & Spalding’s criminal investigation on behalf of Southern Company cause the same “regret ever having associated” with Sloppy Joe?

Alleged sleaze connected to Southern Company has left Alabama with a rigged judicial system that harms ordinary folks -- including my wife -- in myriad ways

Abdul Kallon

 

Allegations of misconduct that have been swirling around Alabama Power; its parent firm, Southern Company; and related entities, such as Matrix LLC, could wind up shining much-needed light on the judicial corruption that has plagued Alabama for years, according to a report this morning from banbalch.com, which operates under the banner of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group.

Southern Company has a vice-like grip on the Alabama judiciary, resulting in unlawful rulings that benefit the company and its associated entities -- with all of this often going unnoticed by the public or the press. Writes K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU and publisher of Ban Balch:

With the numerous documents, financial records, and insurmountable evidence of Southern Company’s criminal enterprise, now the greasing and corruption of the judicial branch of Alabama is under scrutiny.

 This is a profoundly important issue, one that hits close to home in the Schnauzer household. In fact, we've had an up-close view of courtroom activities that provide a distressing answer to this question: How does judicial corruption (or incompetence, or both) affect everyday Americans? Consider my wife, Carol. Crooked federal-court rulings, in the Northern District of Alabama, robbed her of full ownership rights to her own house. No, kidding. And Carol's experience ties in with the bigger picture that K.B. Forbes examines. How? The judge who butchered the ruling against Carol was Abdul Kallon, the same judge who oversaw the North Birmingham Bribery Trial -- and when reports surfaced about apparent corruption in that case -- gave up his lifetime appointment and bolted for Seattle, seemingly hoping no one could find him there.

We will have more in upcoming posts on the unpleasant -- and exasperating -- experiences Carol and I have had with judicial corruption. We also will examine this question: Are some of the cheat jobs we've experienced tied to Southern Company and affiliated entities, such as Alabama Power and the Balch & Bingham law firm? At the moment, we can think of at least one instance where there is a possible tie. I would not be surprised if we think of more -- either tied to Balch or a similar "big law" firm, such as Bradley Arant.

For now, let's turn to K.B. Forbes' analysis, which also points to baffling and brazen examples of judges acting with seemingly little, or no, respect for the rule of law. Writes Forbes:

A simple case of breach of contract and misrepresentation was sealed in its entirety. No minors, or victims of sexual assault or domestic violence were involved.

So why was the case sealed then?

Because the case was tied to Southern Company, its subsidiary Alabama Power, and/or sister-wife Balch & Bingham.

Observers have been stunned by the sheer control that Southern Company has over judges and the judicial branch in Alabama.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

With the numerous documents, financial records, and insurmountable evidence of Southern Company’s criminal enterprise, now the greasing and corruption of the judicial branch of Alabama is under scrutiny.

In our view, the scrutiny cannot come too quickly -- or with too much intensity. Much has been written lately about threats to democracy. But it's possible that nothing threatens democracy quite like judicial corruption. As the son of a World War II veteran who landed on Normandy Beach three days after D-Day, I know men like my father put their lives on the line to protect the U.S. Constitution. But judicial corruption turns the Constitution on its head, often so the privileged and powerful can benefit -- with rulings coming out of the shadows, outside of public view. Here is more from K.B. Forbes about the breach-of-contract case:

The simple case of breach of contract and misrepresentation is ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75-million civil lawsuit against Drummond Company and Balch & Bingham.

No developments in the case are currently available because of the gag order, sealing of the case.

And the motions to seal the case were made shortly after disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite was subpoenaed to testify. (Gee, is Crosswhite among the privileged?)

Known as the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, the case caused uncontrolled panic by Alabama Power, Drummond, and Balch before it was sealed.

And why does Southern Company seal a case?

So it can cheat and hide high crimes and misdemeanors.

Forbes brings another case to the forefront:

Look at the Newsome Conspiracy Case, where Southern Company’s attorneys at Balch & Bingham sealed the case in its entirety, known as a secret Star Chamber.

The entire case was “won” on a counterfeit order that even Balch admitted was counterfeit.

The counterfeit order was embarrassingly affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court after contradicting an earlier, split-decision.

Judge Carole Smitherman, who presided over the Newsome Conspiracy Case, was completely biased, calling Newsome’s pleadings an attack on her family.

Why would she allude to her family?

Because her husband, Alabama State Senator Roger Smitherman, received more than $30,000 in legal bribes contributions from Southern Company-linked PACs and donors at critical junctures during the case. Senator Smitherman even sat in on the secret Star Chamber hearings of the Newsome case when no one outside of the case was supposed to be in the courtroom.

Let's return to the issue of privilege, and the price rogue judges extract from everyday Alabamians:

Crosswhite’s inappropriate relationship with disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town helped Alabama Power to be “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial and allegedly prevented a broader investigation after the convictions, that could have led to indictments of Southern Company employees.

Except for Regions Bank in Birmingham, Alabama has no Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state.

Why?

Because of the high risk of a failed and compromised legal system.

What company CEO would want to deal with a corrupt and biased “system of justice” controlled and manipulated by a compromised few in Jefferson County and Montgomery?

The rule of law and the people’s court sadly does not exist, but RICO actions against Southern Company and its criminal enterprise can bring an end to an era of uncontrolled corruption and flagrant miscarriages of justice.

Hear, hear!

How bad is the judicial crisis in Alabama? Well, a judge signed off on what was essentially a state-sanctioned kidnapping in my "arrest for blogging" case. And yes, I spent five months in jail because of a blog post that never has been proven false or defamatory in a court proceeding that included minor details, such as discovery, a jury, a trial. This taste of "Alabama justice" made international news and caused me to be designated the only journalist in the western hemisphere to be incarcerated in 2013 -- all because of a judge (Claud Neilson) granting a prior restraint that has been held unconstitutional under more than 200 years of First Amendment law. That action put Alabama in company with countries such as Iraq, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Uganda.

Speaking of sealed court cases, my "arrest for blogging" case was sealed, and I've never seen the file to this day. And I was a party! How does that happen? Hey, we're talking "Alabama justice" here.

Powerful King & Spalding law firm, of Atlanta, is conducting a criminal investigation of alleged corruption that is swirling around Alabama Power

An Atlanta-based law firm is conducting a criminal investigation into alleged wrongdoing involving Alabama Power and related entities, according to a report today at banbalch.com, which operates under the banner of the CDLU public charity and advocacy group. Writes K.B. Forbes, publisher of the Ban Balch blog and CEO of the CDLU:

As Southern Company ousted Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite in late November, the utility hired King & Spalding to conduct a deep, internal criminal probe of the “massive corruption” surrounding the alleged misconduct by Alabama Power, Matrix, and embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, the CDLU has exclusively learned.

Paul B. Murphy, a former Chief of Staff at the FBI, leads the investigation while David L. Balser, who handles the “most sensitive, complex, and enterprise-threatening matters” at King & Spalding, is assisting.

To keep potential bias out of the investigation, Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning is not involved with the independent investigation since he was a victim of the alleged misconduct.

A survey of associates conducted in early 2022 ranked King & Spalding the No. 1 law firm in Atlanta. A survey using 2019 data listed King & Spalding as the 27th largest law firm, by revenue, in the United States.

As for the investigation, Crosswhite and Joe Perkins, founder of the Matrix LLC political-consulting firm in Montgomery, AL, appear to be two central figures in the probe. Writes Forbes:

Like a Peeping Tom, Crosswhite allegedly authorized the surveillance of Fanning and his then-girlfriend, allegedly to obtain photographic evidence that Fanning was in a bisexual tryst.

The criminal investigation comes as Southern Company faces potential civil RICO lawsuits for the alleged criminal enterprise that targeted perceived enemies, and innocent parties who were enemies of friends or acquaintances of Alabama Power executives.

Allegedly authorized by Crosswhite, Alabama Power paid more than $2 million a year to Matrix, LLC, and its founder, “Sloppy Joe” Perkins, which allegedly engaged in nefarious conduct.

No invoicing was required, thereby increasing third-party risk and financial liability to Southern Company.

A lawsuit involving Perkins and former Matrix CEO Jeff Pitts has settled, but documents from the case were anonymously distributed to multiple news outlets, drawing back the curtains -- at least a little bit -- on the questionable methods Matrix sometimes uses to conduct business, reports Forbes:

Perkins was in a nasty lawsuit with his former protégé. “Jittery Jeff” Pitts, that exposed a web of alleged misconduct including the laundering of $50 million through 18 tax-exempt entities.

Internal documents, financial records, and contracts were delivered anonymously to media outlets, journalists, and us, the CDLU.

The utility also spent millions in fees to embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, which allegedly used its web of political connections and stooges in the judicial branch to assist and protect Alabama Power with slam-dunk decisions, orders, and verdicts.

Sources tell us that King & Spalding is heavily looking at the actions of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, apparently for his role in the North Birmingham Superfund Bribery Scandal. Former U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon oversaw the trial, but as reports mounted of dubious behavior tied to the case, Kallon gave up his lifetime (and prestigious) appointment and headed for Seattle. Such a move is almost unheard of, and stunned many in the Alabama legal community. Writes Forbes:

Beyond keeping Alabama Power “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, a half-baked deposition using an actor during the Newsome Conspiracy Case was allegedly orchestrated by Town and Alabama Power.The actor, it appears, impersonated Verizon employee Jason Forman.

Using an impostor as a stand-in at a deposition, a proceeding that is supposed to involve telling the truth -- under penalty of perjury? That is brazen stuff, and its just one of many oddities about the deposition. It suggests that if King & Spalding really wants to get to the bottom of this sleaze-fest, the firm has its work cut out. Writes Forbes:

King & Spalding is conducting the investigation to rid Southern Company of any and all accomplices, sources state.

Plausible deniability simply won’t work. Just ask Peeping Crosswhite, who denied involvement in August but was ousted three months later.

It appears 2023 will mark the deep cleaning of Southern Company’s septic tank,  and sources tell us that heads will roll.

Journalistic chicanery, sexual entanglements, and curious cash flow form a strange brew for big-polluting clients represented by Alabama-based Matrix LLC

Kristen Hentschel

 

Part Two

The story of former ABC News producer Kristen Hentschel and the Matrix LLC political-consulting firm seems, at first glance, to be a tale of what might be called "journalistic fraud." After all, Hentschel would use her ABC News credentials to gain access to pro-environment political candidates, only to pepper them with bogus, accusatory questions designed to benefit Matrix's big-polluting clients -- Alabama Power, Southern Company, and Florida Power & Light. Alabama-based Matrix, it turns out, was paying Hentschel to pull off the deceptive scheme.

Upon further inspection, however, the story includes enough romantic entanglements to fill several scripts for an afternoon soap opera. Perhaps that is fitting because Hentschel, before she was outed and fired by ABC News last week, was best known for having an affair with ABC journalist Chris Hansen, of To Catch a Predator fame.  

A joint investigation by NPR and Florida-based Floodlight led to a story that broke the Hentschel-Matrix scam on a national stage. It was as if the Hentschel-Hansen affair served as an appetizer for the bigger scandal to come - - and, as it turned out, that story had plenty of sex angles, too.

Hentschel worked on the periphery of TV news, but struggled to gain a firm foothold on the big time. Write NPR/Floodlight reporters Miranda Green, Mario Ariza, and David Folkenflik:

Hentschel began her journalism career with short stints at local TV newsrooms in Chico, Calif., Waco, Texas, and Knoxville, Tennessee.

"A lot of people think that the television business ... looks Hollywood-esque," Hentschel once told Baldwin Park Living, a Florida lifestyle magazine. "I made $8 an hour [at] my first job, laid on couches and had to move around literally every one to two years."

At those jobs, she covered crime, storms, traffic — mainstays of local news.

Her career foundered in 2011 when the National Enquirer disclosed a romantic relationship between her and a married man: Chris Hansen, the former host of NBC's To Catch a Predator.

Hentschel learned that TV news presents a double standard for women in a highly competitive business:

Subsequent stints in Las Vegas, Seattle and Orlando, Fla., proved brief. "A double standard is an understatement as to what happens in this industry," Hentschel told RadarOnline.com in an interview about her relationship with Hansen. "The women get fired and the men keep going." Professionally, she had been using the name Kristyn Caddell, which endures on her Twitter account, but shifted to her family name, Kristen Hentschel, by late 2015.

Soon, Hentschel was out of work, and perhaps from desperation, turned to Matrix. Her resume found its way to the firm's CEO, Jeff Pitts -- and he hired her in early 2016. But that was not to be Hentschel's only job:

Hentschel soon secured a second gig. In February 2016, she started as a freelance news producer for ABC News.

Hentschel primarily did work for Good Morning America. Among her assignments: helping with segments on NFL star Tom Brady and the disappearance and death of Gabby Petito, the young Florida woman who documented her cross-country trip on social media.

"Our setup for today... #lighting is everything," Hentschel once tweeted with a photograph of a TV reporting shoot. "Who's in the hot seat?"

The answer often proved to be people Pitts wanted her to confront.

Perhaps the strangest episode came when Matrix decided to spy on Southern Company chief Tom Fanning:

In another instance, the former girlfriend of Southern Company's CEO, Tom Fanning, says Hentschel cozied up to her over the past year. Southern Company is a rival to Florida Power & Light. This August, Alabama news site AL.com reported that Matrix had previously paid a private investigator to spy on Fanning in the summer of 2017. . . . 

Matrix's founder, Joe Perkins, disavows any knowledge of Hentschel's work for Matrix and says Pitts was acting as a "rogue" employee in Florida.

Pitts left Matrix to found a rival firm in late 2020, alleging in court papers that he quit Matrix over Perkins' "unethical business practices," including "ordering and directing the clandestine surveillance including that of top executives of his largest client, the Southern Company." Perkins blames Pitts for the surveillance.

According to NPR/Floodlight, Pitts had a tendency to mix business with pleasure:

Jeff Pitts

Pitts could be a charmer. He was known to cultivate a personal rapport with his corporate clients over sushi and steak dinners, favoring long meals with freely flowing red wine. In an email exchange with a vice president of the energy company NextEra, Pitts wrote, "Talk tomorrow but miss you." She wrote back that his note was a nice surprise. "You said [to] be more open," Pitts replied.

Pitts mixed business with romance, Matrix financial records show. Over the course of the last decade, Pitts paid his then-wife more than $10,000 for work for Matrix, according to copies of the firm's invoices reflecting payments to her personal company. She had previously been employed at Alabama Power, one of Matrix's oldest clients, according to press clippings and two associates.

Matrix also paid Pitts' ongoing romantic partner, Apryl Marie Fogel, a conservative radio-show host, nearly $150,000 over several years. Fogel runs the conservative news site Alabama Today, which published articles showcasing Matrix clients in a favorable light.

On a recent episode of her radio show, Fogel compared her relationship with Pitts to that of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, the pro-Trump activist Ginni Thomas.

"You check it at the door," Fogel says. "You may be somewhat, in a fuzzy way, aware of what the other person is doing. And you want them to be successful, but it doesn't mean that you two—that everything is running in lockstep."

It did not take long for Hentschel to become part of the romantic scene:

Shortly after Hentschel started working for Pitts at Matrix, the two began an affair, associates say, though it is not clear how long it lasted. Hentschel bought a home close to Pitts' apartment in West Palm Beach, Florida, public records show.

Meanwhile, Hentschel targeted political figures who could pose a problem for Matrix clients. One target proved to be the mayor of South Miami, who had promoted residential solar panels in the Sunshine State:

Hentschel called Phil Stoddard, then the mayor of South Miami, in August 2018. He says she identified herself as an ABC reporter and asked him about an upcoming press conference likely to bring unflattering publicity. A lawsuit had been filed by parents of a teenager who was hospitalized years earlier after attending a party thrown by Stoddard's teenage daughter. (The suit was ultimately settled.)

The press conference turned out to be a sham. It had been orchestrated by Joe Carrillo, a private detective, and Dan Newman, a political operative with financial links to Matrix, according to Matrix documents and a copy of the press release obtained by Floodlight and NPR.

Matrix paid Hentschel $2,000 a few weeks later for what was itemized as a "Miami shoot," a Matrix ledger shows.

The interest in Stoddard, a biologist, seems easy to discern. Stoddard had clashed with Florida Power & Light over transmission lines, a nuclear power plant, and policies on residential solar panels. . . . 

Internal Matrix emails between Newman, the political operative, and Pitts, the firm's then-CEO, show it hired a private detective to investigate Stoddard's personal life. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Matrix-linked nonprofits spent six figures trying to knock him out of office. . . . 

On Sept. 26, Hentschel showed up with a videographer to a city council meeting.

"I thought, 'No good's gonna come of this,'" Stoddard recalls. He shut down her requests for comment at the council meeting. He continued battling Florida Power & Light even after he left office in 2020.

NPR/Floodlight found that ABC News probably should not have been caught off guard by Hentschel's activities:

There is evidence that ABC News was first told two years ago that Hentschel inappropriately invoked her network ties in conducting work that had nothing to do with ABC News.

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, a conservative Republican, has established a record as an advocate of strengthening water quality in Lake Okeechobee, the state's largest freshwater lake. He has introduced four pieces of legislation to address toxic algal blooms there.

His work puts him at odds with Florida's powerful sugar interest, Florida Crystals. Okeechobee is kept artificially full for that industry and other corporate use. Mast's bills could ultimately cut into their profits.

"They'll do anything that they can to hold onto that grip of controlling water in the state of Florida," Mast says. "And I'm probably the number one person that goes against them."

In the heat of the 2020 election season, Hentschel chased down Mast at a fundraiser featuring then-President Donald Trump. She told Mast's aides she wanted to ask him about messages he wrote nearly a decade earlier, before entering politics. He had joked about rape and sex with teenagers in Facebook posts to a friend. They had just surfaced publicly, and he had apologized. The aides didn't bite.

The conservative Florida news site The Capitolist called Mast's proposals extreme and urged readers to vote for his Democratic opponent. Matrix had previously funneled The Capitolist nearly $200,000 from Florida Power & Light, the firm's invoices show. Perkins denied Matrix paid The Capitolist and said the company "was unaware of any financial relationships between The Capitolist and any Matrix client."

That September, Hentschel rang the doorbell at Mast's home in a gated community and told Mast's wife she was reporting for ABC, even handing over a business card citing the network, according to Mast's accounts in an interview for this story and in a trespassing complaint he filed with police.

A senior aide to Mast shot off an email to ABC. Its political director, Rick Klein, replied that Hentschel was not there for the network.

Election Day was two months away. In a video he posted on Facebook, Mast denounced his Democratic opponent for sending Hentschel to his door. "I want to talk about something that frankly is just BS," Mast said.

Mast now says he believes Hentschel sought to intimidate him on behalf of the sugar company and Matrix client Florida Crystals — an allegation the company rejected. 

The story eventually circles back to the peculiar surveillance of Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning -- and Hentschel played a role in that, too:

In fact, Hentschel's work stretched beyond Florida politicians and news conferences.

This past June, fitness instructor Kim Tanaka was sitting poolside at an upscale hotel in Atlanta when a reporter for Bloomberg News called with a startling question: Did Tanaka know that she had been spied on five years prior?

Tanaka's boyfriend during that period was Tom Fanning, the CEO of energy giant Southern Company — a direct competitor of Florida Power & Light. The couple broke up in late 2017.

The reporter, Josh Saul, laid out the material he'd obtained in a leaked Matrix dossier, which included private information about her, Tanaka recalls.

"It made me feel mad. Definitely violated. And anxious," Tanaka says.

Bloomberg never published a story. A private investigator confirmed to AL.com this year that he had surveilled Tanaka and Fanning five years ago for Matrix. (Matrix founder Perkins says then-CEO Pitts ordered the operation without his knowledge. Pitts says Perkins knew.)

But there was another shocker in the dossier. It didn't just contain old information pertaining to Tanaka — it contained recent and sensitive information about Fanning's wife, whom he married after breaking up with Tanaka. To Tanaka, it meant the spying had continued as recently as this year.

A friend was sitting alongside Tanaka in June as she took Saul's call: Kristen Hentschel.

Kristen Hentschel

In late 2021, Hentschel had hired Tanaka at an Atlanta gym to be her personal trainer, even though there's no record of Hentschel living in Georgia. The two became close, even vacationing together. Another former Matrix operative, Paul Hamrick, had also hired Tanaka as his trainer the same week as Hentschel, according to emails reviewed by Floodlight and NPR. Tanaka says she told Hentschel and Hamrick private details found in the dossier and doesn't know if they or someone else spied on her. Hentschel remains a good friend, Tanaka says, and a lot of fun.

Matrix LLC paid ABC News "producer" to pepper pro-environment political candidates with deceptive questions in an effort to boost its clients who pollute

Kristen Hentschel (NY Post)

 

Part One

A journalist who identifies herself as working for ABC News has been paid by an Alabama-based political-consulting firm to sideswipe pro-environment politicians with deceptive questions, according to a report at NPR/Floodlight.

The journalist was Kristen Hentschel, the consulting firm was Montgomery-based Matrix LLC. The beneficiaries of the scheme were designed to be Matrix clients -- such as Alabama Power, Southern Company, and Florida Power & Light -- all with ties to projects known to produce pollution.

How did the "reporting" scheme with an ABC News journalist work? Exhibit A involves a Florida political candidate named Toby Overdorf, who had pledged to take a serious approach to environmental protection. That's where Hentschel enters the picture. Under the headline "She was an ABC News producer. She also was a corporate operative,  NPR/Floodlight reporters Miranda Green, Mario Ariza, and David Folkenflik write:

Microphone and ABC News business card in hand, Hentschel rushed up to a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives before a debate, the candidate recalls, and asked him about 20 dead gopher tortoises that were reportedly found at a nearby construction site [in Stuart, FL]. Florida designates the species as threatened.

Overdorf, an environmental engineer, served as a consultant on the construction project -- and he knew of no such tortoises. A city investigation found there were no dead tortoises, and no evidence that any ever had been present during the construction project. The oddities about the story do not end there, as NPR/Floodlight report:

That wasn't the only surprise. Though Hentschel has done freelance work for ABC, she was not there for the network.

At the time, a political consulting firm called Matrix LLC had paid Hentschel at least $7,000, the firm's internal ledgers show. And Matrix billed two major companies for Hentschel's work, labeling the payments "for Florida Crystals, FPL." (Florida Crystals is a huge sugar conglomerate. FPL is shorthand for the giant utility Florida Power & Light.)

Both companies could have benefited from Hentschels efforts to undermine Overdorf and his promises to resolve environmental issues in the district he was vying to represent. Florida Power & Light has pushed back against efforts to bring solar panels to the Sunshine State, while runoff from the sugar industry is a major source of water pollution in Florida.

Overdorf won his election, but he remains distressed that he was subjected to such  journalistic skulduggery:

"It was an attack ad against my livelihood, my family," Overdorf says. "And it was something that potentially could last far beyond my time running for office."

Overdorf was not the only victim of the Hentschel/Matrix operation. Once Hentschel's ties to Matrix became public, ABC cut ties with her earlier this week:

Interviews for this story and Matrix ledgers show Hentschel traded on her work for ABC News at least three times to trip up Florida politicians whose stances on environmental regulations cut against the interests of major Matrix clients. Internal Matrix financial records originally sent anonymously to the Orlando Sentinel and shared with Floodlight show that since 2016, the firm has paid Hentschel at least $14,350.

According to two people at ABC News with knowledge, Hentschel was not, in fact, reporting for ABC on any of those subjects. "If she was working on these stories, she was not authorized to cover them for ABC News," one of them said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive network matters. . . . 

"Kristen Hentschel was a freelance daily hire who never worked for ABC News on the political stories referenced in the NPR article," the network said in a statement. "She does not currently work for ABC NEWS."

How unusual is the Hentschel story.? One news veteran cannot remember another one like it:

David Westin, president of ABC News from 1997 to 2010, says he never came across an instance in which a journalist for the network was simultaneously doing advocacy.

"It just goes to the very heart of why people no longer have the same confidence and trust in the news media as they once did," says Westin, now an anchor for Bloomberg TV. "They suspect this is going on anyway, and for it to actually go on confirms their worst suspicions."

Hentschel, it turns out, appeared in all kinds of places -- almost like a female Forrest Gump:

In another instance, the former girlfriend of Southern Company's CEO, Tom Fanning, says Hentschel cozied up to her over the past year. Southern Company is a rival to Florida Power & Light. This August, Alabama news site AL.com reported that Matrix had previously paid a private investigator to spy on Fanning in the summer of 2017.

Hentschel did not return multiple detailed requests for comment.

Matrix's former CEO, Jeff Pitts, who hired Hentschel for the firm, declined comment.   

That leads us back -- as Matrix-related stories often do -- to the legal feud between Pitts and Joe Perkins:

Matrix's founder, Joe Perkins, disavows any knowledge of Hentschel's work for Matrix and says Pitts was acting as a "rogue"employee in Florida.

Pitts left Matrix to found a rival firm in late 2020, alleging in court papers that he quit Matrix over Perkins' "unethical business practices," including "ordering and directing the clandestine surveillance , including that of top executives of his largest client, the Southern Company." Perkins blames Pitts for the surveillance.

All of this leads to questions about the possible roles of Southern Company, Alabama Power, and Matrix in other unsavory Alabama events. These include the head-on vehicle crash that nearly killed Birmingham-area attorney Burt Newsome, someone shooting into the car of former Drummond Company executive David Roberson as he drove on U.S. 280 near Mountain Brook, and an apparent fake deposition of a Verizon Wireless records custodian in the Newsome Conspiracy Case. 

Documents -- and investigative reporting -- shine considerable light on Hentschel's ties to Matrix:

After Pitts left Matrix, reporters from Floodlight and NPR obtained company records documenting Hentschel's work. This story also draws on other materials, including court records, and 14 interviews with people with direct knowledge of her activities.

In recent months, Matrix has also been accused of interfering in the workings of democracy in Alabama and Florida by seeking to influence ballot initiatives, running ghost candidates and offering a lucrative job to a public official if he resigned. As Floodlight and NPR have revealed, Matrix secretly maintained financial ties to a half-dozen political news sites and tried to ensure favorable coverage for clients.

Next: Romantic intrigue plays a major role in the Hentschel/Matrix story.

Note: New York Post picks up on a journalism scandal with ties to Alabama; The UK Daily Mail also tackles the story.

Here are other major news outlets to cover the story:

* The Daily Beast

* AdWeek 

* Politico MediaWatch

* Radaronline

* Raw Story

* Daily Caller 

* Offthepress