LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Wednesday marked day three in the Judge Gil Self trial.
The state continued calling witnesses to the stand, starting with the current Lauderdale County Judge, Ben Graves.
Graves told the court that Self was a wonderful judge and that Self acted as a mentor to Graves.
Graves was asked about Gil Junior, Self’s son, being hired on in 2020. Graves explained he knew Gil Junior was working at the courthouse and was working for Self. Graves was then asked if he saw Gil Junior working, and Graves responded by saying that he saw the younger Self working hard, and wearing many different hats in the courthouse due to the uncertainty of COVID. Graves also mentioned that during COVID, it was all hands on deck at the courthouse, and Gil Junior was a huge help.
Graves was then asked about Gil Junior’s pay and if he was aware that Gil Junior’s pay was coming out of the law library fund, and that no taxes were being taken out, and Graves said no.
Several other witnesses were called, including Jamy Poss, a local attorney and a member of the law library committee, and Darryl Williams, Co-director of Community Corrections. Both Poss and Williams testified about their encounters with Self during the time.
Poss explained to the jury that he recalls a moment when Self mentioned to Poss that Self had hired his son Gil Junior to work for him. Poss mentioned that he did not think anything of it because he respected Judge Self and trusted him.
Louie Wilson was the last witness to testify on Wednesday.
Wilson is a special agent with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. Wilson told the jury that he was the lead investigator in this case.
Wilson said during the audit, several things struck him as odd, like a couch and eyeglasses that he said were purchased by Self.
Wilson told the court he did conduct an interview that Judge Self showed up for voluntarily.
He says he met with Self because during the audit, he saw a few purchases that seemed in quote “strange”, including a brown console couch purchased from a furniture store in Tennessee.
Wilson testified that Judge Self wrote a check to himself to be reimbursed for the couch that cost nearly $1,800. The check ‘memo,’ which was shown to the jury, read “office couch, green”.
The “green” referred to a couch that Gil Self explained he had in his office for eleven years.
The state also showed receipts from the furniture store that showed the brown console couch was delivered to Self’s home, instead of the courthouse.
Audio from the interview between Self and Wilson was played, and in it, Self could be heard explaining that he had the couch delivered to his house instead of the courthouse because it was during COVID, and the courthouse hours were different at the time.
Self also allegedly bought prescription glasses, and investigators said Self wrote a check to himself for reimbursement, saying they were computer glasses. Self explained in audio played in court, that he needed the glasses to work.
Testimony will continue on Thursday as the state continues calling its’ witnesses. Once the state rests, the defense will then call its witnesses to testify.
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