Could Jeffery Hunt Walk on Charges of Florence Child Porn?

Part II

By June 2019, Jeffery Dale Hunt was 50 years old and living on Mt. Hester Road in Cherokee. The change of address was an expected outcome of the fallout from Hunt's arrest. Wilson Avenue residents were openly hostile when confronted with the allegations that neighborhood children had been recruited for Hunt's pornographic enterprise. 

Sgt. Greg Cobb of the Florence police told the press that the number of Hunt's reported victims was in the double digits and all had been identified as local tots. Lauderdale County and the Shoals had never before seen a case of this magnitude or with so many young victims.

Hunt had also moved on in his career. He was now working for a Huntsville real estate developer. In all likelihood, the home improvement center where Hunt had worked had immediately terminated him upon the discovery that their employee had maintained at least part of his mammoth collection on its premises. Hunt's decision to keep all or part of his sordid portfolio at his workplace may be his salvation.

Hunt's trial had been set for jury selection when his attorneys filed a surprise motion. They argued that a search warrant issued in Lauderdale County was not valid in Colbert where investigators found most, if not all, of Hunt's prodigious output of kiddie porn. The Lauderdale County District Attorney's office countered that this was normal procedure and that its chief investigator was a member of an anti-pornography squad that had statewide jurisdiction.

In the end, Judge Gil Self agreed with defense attorneys and threw out all evidence the FPD had collected in Colbert County. The Lauderdale district attorney is appealing Self's ruling, but after six months, there has still been no word from the appeals court.

Unlike Matthew and Patricia Ayers of Lauderdale County, Hunt faces no federal charges for his crimes. The Lauderdale County case is currently the whole ballgame and it may never see a courtroom. In the interim, Jeffery Dale Hunt walks among us with a seemingly new and improved life.

Let's hope the Alabama appeals court makes the right decision.