Former Gov. Robert Bentley emerged from the shadows this week, telling the Decatur Daily he decided to leave office rather than risk facing felony charges and losing his medical license.
“I was told that I was going to be charged, even though the grand jury had not met, that I was going to be charged with a felony for (two ethics violations related to his campaign finance account). If you have a felony, you lose your medical license, and I was not going to lose my medical license,” Bentley, who now owns a dermatology clinic in Tuscaloosa, told the Decatur Daily. “So, I agreed to (two misdemeanors) and walked away.”
In April, Bentley was booked on two misdemeanor charges — one for failing to file a major contribution report and another for knowingly using campaign contributions for personal use — in the midst of a corruption and willful neglect of duty investigation against him, a month after he acknowledged making inappropriate remarks to a female political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Upon pleading guilty, he resigned from the Governor’s office.
When asked about Mason, Bentley said told the Decatur Daily, “I still see her occasionally.”
Read Bentley’s full interview here.
