Ala. (WALA) -Two former top Prichard police officials pleaded not guilty to corruption charges Monday, as the city’s former finance director found herself facing charges of her own
Walter Knight, who served nine years as police chief, and former Maj. Aaron Tucker formally denied an indictment charging them with second-degree theft. Prosecutors allege that both men earned side income providing police escorts during funeral processions while they were on duty.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Ben Brooks granted a request by prosecutors to prohibit Knight, 50, and Tucker, 48, both of Semmes, from working in law enforcement or private security while they are out on bond. Knight and Tucker are scheduled to appear for a status hearing on Dec. 15.
“The allegations are that crimes were committed through the course of their work as law enforcement officers,” Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood said after the hearing. “So we filed the motion to get these bond conditions to make sure that they don’t work in law enforcement or even have the appearance of working in law enforcement, due to the fact that the allegation rose from their employment in law enforcement. … This is something standard in a case like this. We’ve done it in the past for other police officers that we unfortunately had to prosecute.”
Kimberly Gardner Wilson on Friday became the first non-police official in Prichard to face charges related to the ongoing corruption probe. The 59-year-old Mobile woman is free on a 7,500 bond.
Wilson, who served as finance director until Prichard Mayor Carletta Davis fired her earlier this year, has been charged with first-degree theft by deception. Prosecutors allege that she caused overtime hours to be entered into the city payroll system by falsely representing that she was entitled to overtime pay from January to May 8. The criminal complaint alleges that she obtained $3,934 in overtime pay.
Davis fired Wilson a few weeks later, although Blackwood said the charges stem from the investigation into the Police Department, not a referral from the mayor’s office.
“As I’ve said before, we’re going to go wherever the evidence leads … If that leads to to evidence of crimes, then we will prosecute them,” he said.
Blackwood said the investigation is ongoing and that additional charges against Wilson are possible.
The mayor did not immediately comment. In June, the city issued a news release saying Davis had “decided to move in a new direction” by replacing Wilson as finance director.
Wilson told FOX10 News that she felt blindsided by her termination.
“I was called in, and the mayor said she was sorry to say that our position here together, it was time for it to end, that she was going in a different direction for the Finance Department. … I didn’t see it coming,” she said at the time. “I was surprised.”
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