Sex Offender or Not?/Humble Apologies

Will Donald Tipper be required to register as a sex offender or not? Yesterday we stated he would be based on this document:

Now attorney Billy Underwood informs us that Tipper accepted what’s called a hybrid deal and will not have to register. We assume the error on the court order was the result of habit and will be changed. We’ll happily publish any more updates to this story.

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Earlier today, a reader left a comment consisting of only a link to a TD article on Tipper’s day in court. We inadvertently deleted it, but added the link ourselves. The TD article stated that Tipper admitted having sex with his accuser, albeit consensual sex. We’ve had several readers ask why we haven’t published the names of the seven women who were prepared to testify they had traded sex to Tipper for legal assistance.

We didn’t publish the names since we’re unsure of the legal status of the women. One woman is definitely in the system at this time and her name has been published—see yesterday’s blog. If and when the other six have a new scrape with the law, their names will indeed be fair game.

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Many years ago we met Ms. A. Jordan at a social function. While memories cloud over the years, AJ seemed charming, caring, and intelligent. When we heard a few years ago that she had married embattled City of Florence employee Steve Eason, we were genuinely shocked.

Now we’re offering A.J. our humble and sincere apologies. Why we were informed by misguided readers that she had married Eason, we don’t know. We do believe the individuals had been misled by someone else for whatever reason. We’ve recently learned that Eason’s current wife is an insurance saleswoman who is in no way related to Councilman Dick Jordan.

In other words, Jordan may have lobbied for Eason to be given a city job because of friendship, but not nepotism. While we don’t know if AJ even still lives in the Shoals, if she’s reading this, we hope she’s laughing. After all, SS was once married to Chip Dillard…

The Truth of the Donald Tipper Plea Deal

Judge Dennis Odell of Madison County heard motions for the Donald Tipper rape/sodomy case at the Lauderdale County Courthouse this morning. Tipper’s attorney, Billy Underwood, argued that allegations of Tipper’s previous contact with one client was not admissible as evidence. He also argued the victim had made allegations of a certain nature to her ex-husband, ex-boyfriend, and emergency room personnel at ECM Hospital which were vast contradictions from statements she made to Attorney General Investigator Chris McRae and Florence Detective Shannon Harris.

There was one other matter in the hearing that concerned a statement made on the victim’s Facebook, which stated “I love feeding on the weak-minded. There are too many inconsiderate a**holes out there trying to take advantage of those of us who know what the F is going on.”

After over an hour and a half of argument from Assistant Attorney General Stephanie Billingslea and Underwood, the Honorable Dennis Odell ruled that the State of Alabama could not say anything about Donald Tipper’s previous contact with a client, that Tipper (through his attorney) would be able to bring up an explicit statement made by the victim which contradicted what she told government investigators, and her Facebook hobbies in which she “loved feeding on the weak-minded” would be admissible to the jury to show her mental state.

Within five minutes of the court ruling, the parties spoke and the State of Alabama offered a misdemeanor sexual misconduct charge to Tipper. He received a 12-month suspended sentence and he walked out of the courthouse.

His attorney, Billy Underwood, stated “It was an extremely hard decision to make to plead to a misdemeanor.” Underwood felt that he was well-enough prepared to win the case with the testimony of over 20 individuals in the community and medical reports from ECM Hospital which pointed out glaring discrepancies in the victim’s statement made to governmental authorities. “It was with great regret that Tipper and I realized a plea deal would be the most conservative and safe action in this case. Up until the judge ruled, the State of Alabama had never offered any form of plea deal and the case was to be tried before the jury assembled Tuesday morning” said Underwood.

Underwood stated the punishment for rape and sodomy was ten years to life. “There is no way I, as an attorney, could guarantee Tipper one hundred percent that we could win. The most conservative and best route to take would be the plea deal and take the lumps where they landed. Tipper’s age would make a conviction of either one of the charges a death sentence.” Leigh Anne Landis, a new attorney in Tuscumbia, helped Underwood with the trial.

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Tipper: A Former Attorney?

The official sentencing order requires Mr. Tipper to register as a sex offender; therefore, he will not be able at this time to seek reinstatement of his law license.