The recusal is likely to further delay the trial, which has already been pushed back several times in the 18 months since Sheriff Mike Blakely was indicted on 13 charges of theft and abuse of power.
Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, WHNT-TV reported Saturday. Blakely was set to go on trial in March 2020, but the case was delayed until March 29 because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Judge Pride Tompkins delayed the case again in an order Saturday and didn’t set a new date
Alabama inmates sleep on floors as jails overcrowded: ‘It’s inhumane.’
Updated Dec 18, 2020;
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Each night for six weeks Dylan Garrard fell asleep beside a toilet on the concrete floor of a jail cell in northeast Alabama.
“The mats are so thin you can feel the concrete through them,” Garrard said in a phone interview a couple of hours after he was released on Tuesday. “They’re about as thick as a kindergarten mat, but some of the foam is missing.”
Garrard, who is 25, said he was one of three men in his cell in the Jackson County Jail. But there were only two beds, so jail staff gave him a mat. There were dozens more like him.
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Debbie Blakely, the wife of Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, is remembered for her contagious smile and the impact she made on the community. Blakely died Sunday.
News Courier/File
The late Debbie Blakely married her college sweetheart Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely. They have one son, Andy. Andy and his wife, Dawn, have two sons, Luke Johnson and Ben Blakely.
Courtesy photo
Debbie McElyea Blakely was a lot of things to a lot of people â wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, coach, mentor, friend, past director of Athens Boys & Girls Club, Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame inductee, a huge part of the rodeo and much more to many people across the county and beyond.
Debbie Blakely, wife of Limestone County sheriff, dies
Updated Dec 13, 2020;
Funeral arrangements have not been announced. A cause of death was not announced.
A teacher and coach, Debbie Blakely was a member of Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame. According to her HOF biography, Blakely won two state basketball championships at Tanner, and basketball, volleyball and softball tournament titles there and at West Limestone and Ardmore.
The daughter of the late Carl McElyea and Margaret Bridges McElyea, she grew up in the Coxey community, and graduated from Clements High School in 1968. During her senior year there, she played in the first sanctioned volleyball tournament held by the Alabama High School Athletic Association and was named to the All-State team.