A Balch & Bingham lawyer said during his grand jury testimony that he drafted several letters for former Gov. Robert Bentley and also drafted resolutions for city councils, county commissions, and the state legislature opposing the expansion of a north Birmingham environmental cleanup site.
Joel Gilbert's grand jury testimony was read by prosecutors in court on Wednesday morning. He, another Balch lawyer Steven McKinney, and Drummond Company executive David Roberson have been on trial for two and a half weeks, each facing six charges relating to bribery.
But Roberson's attorneys asked for a mistrial after Gilbert's grand jury testimony was read aloud because co-defendants' names were supposed to be redacted from the transcript. U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon, who is presiding over the trial, held a hearing this afternoon on the mistrial request.
Roberson's attorney, Brett Bloomston, said that the mention of his name in the grand testimony was a "key issue in this trial" and a prior judge made it clear the transcript should have been redacted.
Kallon said he's not granting a mistrial now but he'll "circle back" and do research on some case law and look at it again. A prosecutor said Roberson's team had the document for two weeks and they didn't raise any objections until now, when it was read aloud.
According to Gilbert's testimony, which happened during a grand jury proceeding before he was indicted in 2017, he was the primary contact for a contract between Balch and the Oliver Robinson Foundation on behalf of Drummond. Gilbert was representing Drummond in several matters relating to the 35th Avenue EPA Superfund site in north Birmingham. The EPA wanted to add the site to its National Priorities List and expand it into Tarrant and Inglenook, and claimed Drummond was a potentially responsible party for the expensive cleanup.
Gilbert said the EPA's science on the issue was "questionable," and they were sending out "misinformation" into the community.
The group Alliance for Jobs and the Economy was a "collective idea" between his team and Roberson and it was founded to facilitate the funding for community outreach and education, Gilbert said.
In November 2014 everyone involved in the matter agreed that they needed a consultant, and then state Rep. Oliver Robinson was agreed to be the person for the job. He proposed a contract that month, and Gilbert signed a final copy in February. The contract was to be used for community work and education, and the Oliver Robinson Foundation would complete the work.
Gilbert said Balch wasn't contracting with Robinson in his official capacity--they were contracting with the foundation for specific work. Oliver Robinson was hired because of his contacts in the community and because "people can have other jobs" besides being a representative, Gilbert said.
He said Amanda Robinson, Oliver Robinson's daughter, did most of the foundation work. The elder Robinson "really didn't have any [role" in the day-to-day operations, Gilbert said.
In February 2015, Gilbert and Roberson mentioned that someone from the foundation needed to speak at the Alabama Environmental Management Commission meeting and ask questions about the state's position and involvement. Gilbert said they didn't specifically ask Oliver Robinson to go, but he volunteered. Gilbert drafted a letter for Oliver Robinson to send as a request to speak at the meeting, and said he asked someone he knew to record the meeting.
Gilbert said he drafted several letters during this time frame: the letters Bentley sent to Alabama Department of Environmental Management Lance LeFleur, to then-Birmingham Mayor William Bell, and Tarrant Mayor Loxile Tuck. He also drafted letters from Bell and Tuck, the city of Tarrant's resolution, the Jefferson County Commission's resolution, and the state legislature's joint resolution.
Shortly before his grand jury testimony, Gilbert said, one of Oliver Robinson's friends and workers John Powe called and cancelled the contract. Gilbert said he assumed the cancellation stemmed from the federal investigation, but Powe offered to continue to do the work with Get Smart Tarrant--an outreach program started by the Oliver Robinson Foundation--without Oliver Robinson. Gilbert then signed a Balch contract with Powe.
Amanda Robinson also took the stand Wednesday, describing the work she did in Tarrant. She believed everything she told Tarrant residents through her work with Get Smart was true, and wanted to educate them about their rights regarding their property.
Amanda Robinson, whose mother's family lives in the north Birmingham area near the Superfund site, said she didn't write any letters on behalf of the program but was charged with doing research and talking to residents. She had frequent meetings with Gilbert and Roberson--she said Roberson wasn't always there--where the men would discuss different tasks for her to complete. Amanda Robinson knew the firm was contracting with her dad's foundation on behalf of Drummond, but said she wasn't sure exactly what her dad's role was.
She said she never met or contacted McKinney.
Amanda Robinson sent flyers and signs she created to Gilbert for edits, but said she never felt pressured to go with his changes and always felt like she could discuss them with him. Gilbert nor Roberson ever asked her to lie or conceal where the money was coming from, she said.
"[Gilbert] felt... the residents felt intimidated," Amanda Robinson said. The surveys she made from talks with Tarrant homeowners were sent to Gilbert, and he turned several into affidavits.
Amanda Robinson also said Gilbert told her that Congressman Gary Palmer was interested in the situation, so she sent information to one of Palmer's staffers.
She left the Oliver Robinson Foundation in May 2016 for another job.