Who became so unnerved by Tommy Gallion's book on Alabama political corruption that he (or they) tried to sabotage it by causing a statement to be included on the copyright page of the second edition that the book is a work of fiction? We don't have an answer to that one yet, but Gallion has written a letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon Publishing, in an effort to solve the mystery. We do know, however, what is in Part Three, which was added to the book for the second edition. It focuses largely on victims of what Gallion calls the "Alabama Cabal." Did something about Part Three help spark the act of sabotage? With the title "Reign of Terror," Gallion obviously is serious about the subject matter. Here is part of his work from Part Three:
From Shadow Government, Southern Style, including Part Three ("Reign of Terror") (2020), by Thomas T. Gallion III; available from Amazon and Kindle eBooks:
PART THREE
REIGN OF TERROR
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Cabal's Raping of Freedom of the Press
VICTIM OF THE CABAL . . .
1.Legal Schnauzer
“Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
Next, the Rileys went after journalist Roger Shuler, who has an internet publication (a “blog”) called Legal Schnauzer, widely read primarily in Alabama. Roger, like Russ Fine, began exposing the corrupt Rileys. . . . What the Rileys did to shut down Shuler and his blogs is terrifying.
Allegedly, the Rileys hand-picked a circuit judge from approximately !00 miles away, rather than use the local judges in Shelby County, which is one county south of Jefferson County (Birmingham), and a
Republican-controlled county. What is so alarming is the power the Rileys had over the judicial and
police powers in Republican areas in Alabama. Shuler told me that the out-of-town judge would not
allow the Shulers to even defend themselves and simply found them in contempt for not appearing at a
hearing they did not know about. Carol Shuler has nothing to do with Legal Schnauzer, and they sued
her just to further punish her husband. Here are some of the facts presented in the Shulers’ legal fight and are contained in the court files:
* On October 23, 2013, Shelby County deputies entered Roger Shuler’s home without showing a
warrant nor telling him why he was being arrested. They proceeded to beat him up, shoved him
to the floor three times, and doused him with pepper spray in his garage. One deputy threatened to break Shuler’s arm, handcuffed him, put him in the squad car, and took him to jail for a preliminary injunction issued by the Rileys’ handpicked judge to shut down . . . portions of
his web site. . . . (At this point, there had been no discovery nor trial on the . . . lawsuit for defamation.)
* Later that night, deputies tried to arrest Carol Shuler, who was asleep in her upstairs bedroom.
She avoided the deputies and they tried more times to arrest her the first week that Roger was in jail. This outrageous conduct continued until Mrs. Shuler was able to get local, state, and national coverage on what [the Rileys were] doing to them; then it suddenly stopped. This is apparently the only journalist imprisoned because of a preliminary injunction, which is in violation of due process and violation of the law in our country for over 200 years.
Serious questions arose during this reign of terror about whether the lawsuit was even filed before the
arrest of Shuler. Shuler could not find out because the judge allowed the file to be sealed without the
defendant agreeing to same. Has any lawyer ever heard of a file being sealed when the defendant cannot even review the file of which he is a party?
Later, Attorney David Grespass met with Shuler in his jail cell and said he had been able to see the
sealed file, and it showed that no summons had been issued at the time of Shuler’s arrest. Shuler was
put in jail by the judge for failure to appear at a hearing for which he had never been served the
summons. Therefore, the preliminary injunction order is unconstitutional on its face. To make matters worse, Shuler was held in jail for five months, and was not allowed to post bond. He was subjected to a suicide, fights, drugs, bodily threats, and pure Hell. Shuler had an attorney friend Greg Morris from Fultondale, Alabama. Shuler asked Morris to help him [with the subsequent civil-rights lawsuit in federal court], and [Morris] agreed to do so, but on a limited basis because he had a solo practice and did not have the funds to get involved in a case that would break him. Morris also contacted the Alabama Bar Association and spoke with an attorney and told him what was happening to Shuler. The bar attorney told him to not get involved. Morris had prepared an affidavit as to the facts and was going to file it with the court. The bar attorney told Morris to tell Shuler, “No, no you don’t have permission, you stay away from that...” Morris stated to Shuler, “I don’t know what they are going to do to you, Roger. I can’t imagine why they have such a hard-on. But the bar is telling me, "Greg, do not get any further involved.”
I am sure the bar, being a state agency, was afraid Governor Riley would cut their funding. Again, the bar protects the powerful. Rob Riley could change Will and Trust documents of a client and steal his/her money and they would do nothing to him. The bar did this in the past to a client of mine.
Shuler was not let out of jail until Carol Shuler agreed to go to Roger’s computer system and remove certain posts There was no trial on the defamation suit and no discovery allowed, so who will ever know the truth? That is what I am attempting to get out in the open. One of the most important constitutional rights is not only a trial before a jury to determine the facts, but basic due process under the law. After five months behind bars, Shuler was dragged before the judge in leg irons and released.
For those five months, Carol Shuler lived in fear of leaving her house. Roger and Carol Shuler were law-abiding citizens and had never been arrested. Because he crossed the Rileys, Roger lost everything: his house, his furnishings, his job, and both Shulers had to be medically treated for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Roger graduated from The University of Missouri School of Journalism, one of the best journalism schools in the country. Without a home and in fear of their lives, the Shulers fled to Springfield, Missouri. They, like Bill Johnson who moved to New Zealand; Nick Bailey, who moved to Puerto Rico; and Richard Scrushy, who moved to Houston, all left Alabama to escape the talons of The Cabal and Riley.
Can anyone even fathom living in a state that allows this type of vengeance inflicted on anyone who voices a different opinion? These are some depraved people. How can the Rileys and the other Cabal members even sleep at night, knowing that they have ruined the lives of so many.