Jailed former Sue Bell Cobb staffer, sex offender Paul Littlejohn now out on bond
Sue Bell Cobb‘s former campaign aide, Paul Littlejohn III was released on bond from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, Friday morning on an $11,000 bond the office confirmed to Alabama Today. Littlejohn turned himself in on Friday after the Sheriff’s Department issued an arrest warrant Wednesday after finding him in violation of the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). On Wednesday the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department was notified he was in violation of SORNA as he was working as a pastor at Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, which also runs a daycare and is near a school. As a registered sex offender, Littlejohn is prohibited from both living and working near an elementary school or daycare. Littlejohn, is a former inmate at the Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County where he spent 30 years following his 1984 conviction for three crimes: rape by forcible compulsion, sodomy I and robbery I. Court records indicate Littlejohn was convicted of raping a 20 year old female and sodomizing a 30 year old female. Littlejohn failed to disclose this information to the sex offender registry. Violation of SORNA is considered a felony. Turning himself in at 6:41 p.m. CT on Thursday, Littlejohn was released early the next morning at 1:15 a.m, after his bail of $11,000 was posted. Cobb accepted Littlejohn’s resignation on Friday, but called the charges “politically motivated.” “Why? The Republicans don’t want to run against Sue Bell Cobb. Governor Ivey doesn’t want to run against Sue Bell Cobb. They found that as an opportunity to take advantage of information that had been sent out into the public forum,” Cobb told AL.com. A court date for Littlejohn has yet to be set.
Law enforcement officer suggests Sue Bell Cobb apologize, ask for forgiveness
The chief deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is asking former Alabama Chief Justice and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Sue Bell Cobb for an apology. Randy Christian, chief deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said Cobb should apologize in the wake of her hiring and defending a campaign staffer, Paul Littlejohn III who was arrested Friday for violating the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). “He was doing his job, plain and simple, and doing it well,” Christian said in a statement to AL.com. “How sad that a candidate for governor supports a convicted sex offender over sexual assault victims.” “She also apparently doesn’t support law enforcement doing the difficult job of ensuring through compliance of the sex offender registration law that no other victim comes in harm’s way. That is the sole reason for the law’s creation,” Christian continued. “It’s not just shameful, it’s disgusting desperation on her part. If I’m reading this right, she wanted us to just look the other way. If she has any integrity left, she will apologize to law enforcement, sexual assault victims and ask for forgiveness.” Littlejohn, is a former inmate at the Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County where he spent 30 years following his 1984 conviction for three crimes: rape by forcible compulsion, sodomy I and robbery I. Court records indicate Littlejohn was convicted of raping a 20 year old female and sodomizing a 30 year old female. On Wednesday the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department was notified he was in violation of SORNA as he was working as a pastor at Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, which also runs a daycare and is near a school. As a registered sex offender, Littlejohn is prohibited from both living and working near an elementary school or daycare. Littlejohn failed to disclose this information to the sex offender registry. Violation of SORNA is considered a felony. Even after Littlejohn’s arrest, Cobb continued to defend him calling the arrest “politically motivated.” Cobb says the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is led by a Republican, and that the arrest was made because Republicans don’t want to face her in the general election.
Sue Bell Cobb campaign aide turns himself in after violating sex offender law
Sue Bell Cobb‘s campaign aide, Paul Littlejohn III turned himself Thursday evening after the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department issued an arrest warrant Wednesday upon finding him in violation of the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Littlejohn, is a former inmate at the Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County where he spent 30 years following his 1984 conviction for three crimes: rape by forcible compulsion, sodomy I and robbery I. Court records indicate Littlejohn was convicted of raping a 20 year old female and sodomizing a 30 year old female. On Wednesday the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department was notified he was in violation of SORNA as he was working as a pastor at Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, which also runs a daycare and is near a school. As a registered sex offender, Littlejohn is prohibited from both living and working near an elementary school or daycare. Littlejohn failed to disclose this information to the sex offender registry. Violation of SORNA is considered a felony. Littlejohn turned himself in at 6:41 p.m. CT. The Cobb campaign has failed to respond to requests for comment.
Arrest warrant issued for Sue Bell Cobb campaign aide for violating sex offender law
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed an arrest warrant has been issued Paul Littlejohn III, Deputy Field Director for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Bell Cobb, for violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The sheriff’s office has released a statement explaining how they came know he was in violation of SORNA: The Sheriff’s office Sex Offender Unit was made aware Littlejohn was working as a pastor at a Jefferson County church. He had not reported this employment. Investigators from the Sheriff’s Sex Offender Unit went to the church and verified his employment. They also learned that the church operates a daycare and is next door to an elementary school. Littlejohn is prohibited from living or working near an elementary school or daycare. Investigators are attempting to locate him and “make him aware of the issue.” Upon arrest he will be put in jail on an $11,000 bond. Littlejohn III is a former inmate at the Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County where he spent 30 years following his 1984 conviction for three crimes: rape by forcible compulsion, sodomy I and robbery I. Court records indicate Littlejohn was convicted of raping a 20 year old female and sodomizing a 30 year old female. He served 30 years in prison. Earlier on Thursday, Cobb stood by her decision to hire Littlejohn III saying, “Paul was convicted of a horrendous crime, since then he is literally the picture of redemption.”
5 craziest take-aways from the Roy Johnson piece on Paul Littlejohn III
Earlier this week it was reported that Paul Littlejohn III, a convicted rapist and registered sex offender has become a Democratic operative currently working for Sue Bell Cobb‘s gubernatorial campaign. Prior to that he worked for Sen. Doug Jones and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. Most of us found this out through what Al.com’s Roy Johnson seemingly intended to be a feature profile on redemption in politics. Yet here I am, two days later still scratching my head about what I read. It seems the piece has created far more questions than it gave answers. Assuming you’ve caught up and read it yourself… let me begin my saying, I’m all for rehabilitation and allowing ex-offenders to reintegrate into society. But that looks different for different people, depending on their crimes. Something about reading Johnson’s piece just feels off. There are too many oddities within the story and Cobb’s team’s crafted response to just let it go. Here are my top 5 craziest take-aways from the piece: 1. Throughout the piece Littlejohn essentially says he’s reformed and has learned lesson, but in same article he claims was essentially railroaded by bad attorney and that’s why he ended up in jail to begin with. So which is it? Did he atone for the atrocious crimes he committed, or was he innocent altogether? It can’t be both. It was a plea deal Littlejohn took, he says, because his attorney insisted that if it went to trial, he could get life without the possibility of parole. “I didn’t know any better,” he says. “When he said ‘life’, I thought it meant life. Thirty years sounded better. [My attorney] thought he made a good deal.” 2. In the piece, Johnson points out Unity Group Solution, of which Littlejohn is a partner, was paid in both March and April by Cobb’s campaign. Alabama Today looked over the campaign finance reports ourselves (and noticed Johnson left out a figure when he did the math), and figure the company was paid $19,066 in March and another $21,739 in April ($18,739 on April 4 and $3,000 on April 11). Liltlejohn also said he employs 12 people. Littlejohn says he employs 12 people full-time for canvassing neighborhoods up to six days each week and three others for phone-banking. He pays $10 per hour, higher than the $7.25 minimum wage. “I have 12-to-14 people,” Littlejohn says, “who depend on me to eat.” Yet in his most recent update with the ALEA’s sex offender registry, he’s listed as home. How can he be making so much money to pay others, yet still doesn’t have a place to live himself? Something’s not adding up. 3. Now let’s look at the campaign’s response from campaign chair Landon Nichols. There’s just way too much there to ignore. But perhaps most disturbing is that Nichols queries “Have you ever made a mistake? Once you have atoned for that mistake, do you believe in forgiveness? I do.” That’s such an absurd statement to make, especially from someone who’s handling communications for Cobb as well. Comparing an ordinary person’s transgressions to violent, forcible rape and sexual assault of two women is mind-boggling. If a campaign chair can’t see the difference — they need to be in a new line of work. 4. The campaign attempting to give themselves an attaboy by recognizing the #MeToo movement in hiring a “reformed” sex offender is a mind-scratcher. Attempting to applaud the victim in the same statement they’re applauding the perpetrator seems tone-deaf. It’s a very odd thing to connect. #MeToo is a movement about empowering women. Whereas this is a statement about defending a man who violently attacked them. Shame on the campaign for attempting to bend a national movements narrative to fit their agenda. 5. The reality of a campaign sending a violent ex-felon door-to-door is baffling. I have firsthand experience as a field director. In that position you’re entrusted with sensitive voter file information on individuals from their addresses to phone numbers to age, etc. Handing it over a registered sex offender is questionable judgement at best. Heck, when I campaigned I was routinely invited into the homes of people I visited, it is the South after all. Certainly you wouldn’t want to invite in a registered sex offender. After all, we don’t let those who hurt children work in schools and bank robbers probably shouldn’t be able to get bank jobs, so maybe the person with access to household data shouldn’t have a violent past either. I get it, American correctional facilities are known for high recidivism rates. Nationally, than 76% of all inmates return to prison within five years, and I fully believe it’s our duty to give people who own their crimes and serve their time a second chance to prove they’ve changed. But it’s also the responsibility of those around them, of those giving them said second chance to not set them up for failure. Not not put them in questionable positions that could cause them to make a faulty judgement. But like I said, something about this story if off. There are fare more questions than answers coming from Cobb’s campaign. In fact, we reached out to Nichols on Tuesday asking Cobb to clarify a few things, to which they’ve yet to respond. Here’s some of what we’d like to know: When did Mrs. Cobb find out about Littlejohn’s past? Does she have confidence in the work he is doing for her now? What message is she sending to women by hiring a sex offender who was found guilty of rape by forcible compulsion and sodomy? In the AL.com piece, is looks as though Littlejohn is not taking responsibility for his actions, in saying It was a plea deal Littlejohn took, he says, because his attorney insisted that if it went to trial, he could get life without the possibility of parole. “I didn’t know any better,” he says. “When he said ‘life’, I thought it meant life. Thirty years sounded better. [My attorney] thought he made a good deal.” What does Mrs. Cobb feel
Sue Bell Cobb stands by Deputy Field Director, registered sex offender
Former Alabama Chief Justice and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Bell Cobb is standing beside a campaign worker — Paul Littlejohn III of Birmingham, Ala. — despite his violent criminal history. Littlejohn, is a former inmate at the Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County where he spent 30 years following his 1984 conviction for three crimes: rape by forcible compulsion, sodomy I and robbery I. Court records indicate Littlejohn was convicted of raping a 20 year old female and sodomizing a 30 year old female. Both victims were strangers. Now he’s working in politics — currently helping deliver votes for Cobb as her Deputy Field Director where she’s sending him door-to-door to solicit votes in the hotly contested gubernatorial race. In a letter released on campaign stationary to Al.Com’s Roy Johnson, Cobb’s campaign manager Landon Nichols Jr. defends Littlejohn saying he should be forgiven for his crimes. Nichols asks, “Have you ever made a mistake? Once you have atoned for that mistake, do you believe in forgiveness?” He goes on to say, “I do.” According to campaign finance reports, Cobb has paid his company — Unity Group Solution, of which AL.com says he is a partner — $19,066 in March and another $21,739 in April ($18,739 on April 4 and $3,000 on April 11). As a former sex offender, Littlejohn is required to register with the state’s sex offender registry. In his most recent update, April 30, he was listed as homeless despite his income from Cobb’s campaign. Prior to working for Sure Bell Cobb’s campaign Littlejohn told Al.Com that he worked on campaigns for Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and U.S. Senator Doug Jones. Alabama Today has reached out to Cobb’s campaign for comment. We will update this piece accordingly should they respond.
