Former senator’s trial coming up
FORT PAYNE, Ala. – A prosecutor said Friday he will show that former Alabama Senate leader Lowell Barron gave $58,000 in campaign funds to campaign aide Rhonda Jill Johnson to help her pay a debt to him and a credit card company.
Barron’s defense attorney said Barron paid Johnson for the work she did, and she used it to pay bills like everyone else does with a paycheck.
For the prosecution to convict Barron and Johnson, “they’ve got to prove the work she did is not worth a dime,” defense attorney Joe Espy said in a court hearing.
Espy and Assistant Attorney General Bill Lisenby laid out their cases in a hearing in preparation for the trial of Barron and Johnson, which is scheduled to start April 14 in Fort Payne.
State Attorney General Luther Strange’s staff got a DeKalb County grand jury to indict Barron and Johnson last year on charges accusing them of diverting $58,000 from Barron’s 2010 campaign account and a campaign car for Johnson’s personal use. The two have pleaded not guilty.