Jim Zeigler - Ethics Complaints Against Siegelman, Others

Ethics Complaints Against Siegelman, Others

Zeigler has brought numerous ethics complaints against leading public officials in Alabama, including two against then-governor Don Siegelman. The first, in 2001, alleged that Siegelman used his position to orchestrate a secret settlement of a long-dormant lawsuit by the University of South Alabama against tobacco companies. The settlement committed the state to pay $20 million to the university, and required the university to pay 14 percent of the money to the law firm that brought the case, and to which Siegelman had formerly been associated. Zeigler's complaint tracked a Mobile Register story reporting details of the settlement and subsequent payment of an estimated $800,000 from the law firm to Siegelman. The Siegelman administration accused Register reporter Eddie Curran of helping to edit the ethics complaint -- a charge refuted by Curran and the paper. Siegelman's press office sought to play down the complaint by issuing a rather bizarre statement about Zeigler. It read: "These false claims are among a long list of deranged acts by a man who believes America is being surrendered to a New World order and who has stated that the public education system has been taken over by communists." The Alabama Ethics Commission, composed of political appointees, voted three to one to dismiss the tobacco complaint.

The second complaint also mirrored a Mobile Register story. It alleged that Siegelman sold his Montgomery house for over twice the appraised value and then appointed the buyer to the state securities commission. Subsequent stories reported that the buyer, a Birmingham accountant, merely served as a middleman, and that the real purchaser was Birmingham lawyer Lanny Vines. Before that case concluded, federal agents seized the files from the ethics commission. A federal grand jury later indicted Siegelman on multiple charges un-related to the ethics complaints. Siegelman was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in federal prison. After serving nine months, he was released pending an appeal, but returned to prison in 2012.

In 2002, Zeigler filed ethics complaints against State Sen. Sundra Escott-Russell and State Rep. John Hilliard. He alleged that both hired family members at non-profit organizations and then used their positions to divert state funds to the non-profit groups. The ethics commission voted unanimously that there was probable cause that ethics violations had occurred and forwarded both cases to the state attorney general for prosecution.