Barron Trial Delayed

Lowell Barron

The trial scheduled to begin today  in Fort Payne for a former state Senate leader and campaign aide was postponed Friday while the state attorney general’s office appeals a judge’s ruling that it says is fatal to its case.  Attorney General Luther Strange’s office has asked the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to review a decision made Thursday by the trial judge, Circuit Judge Randall Cole. Cole ruled prosecutors could present evidence of a personal relationship between former state Sen. Lowell Barron and campaign aide Jill Johnson, but they couldn’t present evidence about whether it was a romantic relationship because that created a danger of unfair prejudice.  In the appeal, Assistant Attorney General Bill Lisenby said the judge’s ruling “will be fatal to the prosecution of these charges.” Barron’s attorneys insist the relationship was professional and they opposed a delay.  But under state court rules, the appeal carried an automatic delay, and Cole issued an order late Friday afternoon canceling todays trial start. Barron and Johnson face six counts of ethics and campaign finance charges accusing them of converting $58,000 in campaign donations from Barron’s 2010 campaign to their personal use. Barron, a 71-year-old Democrat from Fyffe, served 28 years in the Senate representing the northeast corner of the state. He spent four years as the Senate’s top officer and four years as head of the committee that determines the Senate’s work agenda. He lost in 2010, when Republicans took control of the Legislature after 136 years of Democratic dominance. Johnson, worked on Barron’s Senate staff before switching to his campaign staff in 2010.