Former State Rep. Perry Hooper Jr., age 67, was arrested on Tuesday by the U.S. Marshals Service, Alabama Daily News reported. Hooper has been charged with first-degree sexual abuse. He was held on $15,000 bond.
The alleged incident occurred at the 100 block of Commerce Street in Montgomery on August 16 at approximately eight p.m., reported WSFA. That is the address of the Hampton Inn and Suites Downtown reported WSFA.
Hooper was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in the election of 1983. He served five terms in the Alabama House. Hooper was one of five people that then Governor Robert Bentley interviewed as possible appointees for the U.S. Senate in 2017 following the resignation of Jeff Sessions.
Hooper is an active member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee representing Montgomery County. He is a frequently published political commentator who has had columns published across Alabama and beyond.
Hooper was an early backer of Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican primary season and chaired the Trump Victory Fund in the 2016 campaign. The Trump bundler was a frequent visitor to the Trump Whitehouse as well as Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Resort in the years following the Trump presidency. Hooper is a licensed insurance salesman and registered state and federal lobbyist. He is a member of the board for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, a prominent Auburn booster, and serves on the Board of the Montgomery Quarterback Club.
The Alabama Republican Party has released a statement condemning sexual abuse.
“The Alabama Republican Party strongly condemns all forms of sexual abuse and sexual assault,” the ALGOP said in a statement. “We are committed to personal rights and public safety. We will be monitoring this situation closely as it makes its way through the judicial process.”
Hooper’s father, Perry Hooper Sr. – now deceased, was the first Republican Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court since Reconstruction. Hooper is married and has three sons and a number of grandchildren.
Alabama Today spoke to Daphne Attorney Harry Still III about this case.
Still explained that sexual abuse in the first degree is a class C felony under Alabama law.
“Section 13A-6-66. Sexual abuse in the first degree
(a) A person commits the crime of sexual abuse in the first degree if he or she does either of the following:
(1) Subjects another person to sexual contact by forcible compulsion.
(2) Subjects another person to sexual contact who is incapable of consent by reason of being incapacitated.
(b) Sexual abuse in the first degree is a Class C felony.
Forcible compulsion means to compel by either: (a) use of physical force; or (b) a threat, express or implied, which places a person in fear of immediate death or physical injury to …self or another …, or in fear that he, she or another … will immediately be kidnapped.
Someone is intoxicated to the point that they cannot give consent. Incapable of giving consent or incapacitated.”
A Montgomery Police spokesperson explained that Hooper was arrested by U.S. Marshals because the Marshals have an agreement with Montgomery Police to arrest criminals charged with violent crimes. This charge meets that standard.
Hooper, if convicted, faces a sentence of between one and ten years in prison and a fine up to $15,000.
Hooper has simply been charged with a crime. All persons are presumed innocent until they are found guilty by a jury of their peers.
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