A Cullman County grand jury has indicted Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail on 15 counts of using his office for personal gain.
Nall has served as Mayor of the small Cullman County town since 2008.
Champ Crocker is the Cullman County District Attorney. Crocker said that he is limited on the amount of information that he can release at this time.
“However, as a matter of public policy and good government — elected officials are entrusted to perform their duties honestly and above reproach,” Crocker stated. “When that bond of trust is broken, our society suffers limitless harm.”
Crocker asked anyone who had any information regarding any possible corruption to contact the Alabama Ethics Commission or the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
“My office — working with our state partners — is committed to ensuring that the violators of the public trust be held accountable under the law,” Crocker said.
The indictments are presumed to be related to a matter that the Alabama Ethics Commission referred to the Cullman County District Attorney’s Office in August.
According to court documents, Nail is accused of soliciting both Hanceville Police Chief Bob Long and police officer Josh Howell (now Hanceville’s police chief) to perform work on Nail’s home while Chief Long and Officer Howell were on duty. He is also accused of soliciting a city employee, Steve Gunn, to travel to Haleyville in a city-owned vehicle “to pick up lumber and other supplies and to haul the materials on Nail’s trailer to Nail’s residence, while [Gunn was] on duty as a city employee.” He is accused of soliciting a city employee to travel out of state for a private event for Nail. Nail is also accused of using an on-duty city employee for personal tasks. Court documents also stated that Nail used three former inmates to perform work on his home.
Following the indictments, Nail was booked at the Cullman County Detention Area and then released on $150,000 bond ($10,000 per count).
A class B felony carries a potential sentence of between 2 and 20 years a fine of up to $50,000 per count.
A grand jury indictment just means that the jurors believe that there is evidence that a crime may have occurred. Mayor Nail has not yet had a chance to present his defense. Nail, like all accused persons, is presumed to be innocent until he is found guilty by a jury of his peers.
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