Longtime Lauderdale County Circuit Court Judge Gil Self was convicted Friday of 17 counts of using his office for personal gain, lying to the Examiners of Public Accounts and lying to a Lauderdale County grand jury.
Sixteen of the counts are felonies and most carry punishments of two to 20 years in prison. Self will be sentenced Dec. 17.
“Public office is a sacred trust, and Judge Self shattered that trust,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Friday. “This conviction proves that Alabama’s ethics laws are not symbolic; they have force, and they work when enforced. When officials put greed above duty and try to hide their misconduct behind lies, they attack the very foundation of our justice system.”
Self’s wrongdoing was first outlined in 2023 Examiners of Public Accounts audits.
In October 2023, Self, who’d been on the bench since 2009, told Alabama Daily News “sloppy” bookkeeping during the COVID-19 pandemic was to blame for two state audits that showed more than $146,000 in undocumented or unallowable expenses from two court fee-funded accounts he oversaw.
“I agree the proper bookkeeping during COVID was really virtually non-existent,” Self told ADN two years ago. “It was sloppy. We didn’t follow acceptable accounting principles, primarily because there’s no one trained or experienced in those principles here that were in charge of the books during that period of time.”
He also said he’d repaid money for the unallowable expenses found during the audit process.
Marshall’s office had previously said some of Self’s alleged prohibited activity between early 2020 and February 2023 included reimbursing himself for a variety of vacations, including a ski trip to Montana, a beach trip, a cycling trip across three states and a trip to St. Ignace, Michigan. He also used public funds for personal purchases such as a sofa, alcoholic beverages and eyeglasses.
He also used a judicial account to write himself checks for tuition and fees for conferences he did not attend to float his personal bank accounts when his accounts were overdrawn, Marshall’s office said.
In the upcoming legislative session, lawmakers will consider a bill to create a new crime of public corruption in Alabama.