STATE HOUSE DRUG INQUIRY KEPT UNDER WRAPS

The drugs were found in a fifth-floor office in the Alabama State House.

Former state Rep. Bobby Humphryes, R-Pleasant Grove, was leaving the
Legislature to become a Jefferson County commissioner and had stopped
by to clear out a few more things from his office when he found a
black backpack with a scale, a box of plastic bags and a two-pound
block of marijuana.

He immediately called House security. After reviewing security camera
footage, law enforcement officials saw Lorenza Hooks, a maintenance
worker, carrying the backpack into the office just a few hours before
Humphryes found it.

That was on Dec. 1, 2006.

Hooks was never charged with a crime in connection to the drugs, and
he remained a House of Representative employee for nearly two years
after that incident. In May 2008, he was suspended after being
arrested as a suspect in a shooting.

Even with a felony arrest hanging over his head, Hooks was promised
that he would get his job back with back pay if he was not convicted.
In fact, he might still be a House employee if this December 2006
drug incident had not resurfaced this year.

Hooks is now in jail on $1.5 million bond for an unrelated charge --
illegal trafficking of crack cocaine. But instead of bringing
closure, his most recent arrest has only raised questions about the
drugs that were found in the State House nearly three years ago.

Almost Reinstated With Back Pay

On May 15, when state Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, stepped to the
microphone to tell his fellow House of Representative members that a
former employee might be out to kill him, some just blew it off as
another one of Holmes' diatribes.

"I thought it was Alvin being, well Alvin," said state Rep. Barry
Mask, R-Wetumpka.

Known for his fiery rhetoric and scorching filibusters, it would have
been easy to dismiss Holmes that day, except that a week before at
least nine other members of the House had received the same news as
Holmes and knew at least partially what he was talking about.

At a May 7 meeting of the House Legislative Council -- a committee
that deals with personnel matters in the House -- the issue of
whether to reinstate Hooks with back pay was taken up.

Hooks had been arrested and charged with second-degree assault, along
with another man, for shooting a 21-year-old man in a parking lot at
4900 Plaza Drive. The injured man was wounded in the left thigh and
foot. Hooks was identified by the victim as one of the shooters. But
in March, Hooks was notified that his case had been "no billed" by
the grand jury, and that there were no charges pending against him
because someone else was ultimately charged and convicted of the
crime. Despite those charges being dropped, the Legislative Council
ultimately decided to fire him.

Hooks' termination was an abrupt reversal for the House Legislative
Council. On the day of the meeting, Holmes, who is a member of the
council, passed out pictures taken from the Dec. 1, 2006, House
security camera footage of Hooks walking into the office with the
pack, and of photos of the drugs and drug paraphernalia later found
in the pack. A report from House Security Chief Derek Hamilton on
what happened that day was also given to the council.

State Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, who is also a member of the
council, said he was stunned when he saw the photos.

"It's scary to think that if Rep. Holmes hadn't come up with that
information we might have reinstated Hooks, which is what had been
promised," Ford said.

Hooks was told on several occasions that if he was not found guilty
of the charges that he would be reinstated with back pay, according
to separate letters from former Human Resources Manager Lynda Thacker
and Clerk of the House Greg Pappas.

As late as April 9, the Legislative Council was still leaning toward
reinstating Hooks with back pay, according to a letter from Rep.
Demetrius Newton, council chairman, to new House Human Resources
Manager Lynn Parker.

Newton said he could only confirm the information that was in the
minutes of the May 7 meeting and declined to be interviewed by the
Montgomery Advertiser. The minutes don't say much. The council went
into executive session to discuss "the general reputation and
character of an employee."

Holmes made the motion not to reinstate Hooks and not to grant him
back pay, Speaker of the House Seth Hammett provided the second and
the council voted unanimously in favor of the Holmes motion.

Hammett also declined to be interviewed about the circumstances
surrounding Hooks' termination, but said through his chief of staff
Jeff Woodard that "He voted not to re-employ (Hooks), and he based
that vote on information presented during the council meeting."

A Cover-Up?

The House Legislative Council did not know until that meeting that
drugs were found on the fifth floor of the State House back in 2006
and that an employee the council suspended was questioned about those drugs.

Holmes believes that someone covered it up.

"I think this was kept from the council because (those involved) knew
that if the council had found out, we would likely have fired him,"
Holmes said. "They didn't want him fired, and in my opinion, he was
providing drugs to some high level people in the House of Representatives."

An effort was made to keep the information about the drugs under
wraps. A check of Hooks' personnel file by the Advertiser turned up
no evidence concerning drugs being discovered or anything about what
occurred on Dec. 1, 2006.

The pictures that were distributed to the council on May 7 and the
report from House Security Chief Derek Hamilton were not in the file.
The only reference to that day is the May 22 letter from Newton
informing Hooks of the council's decision to terminate him.

"On May 7, 2009 the House Legislative Council voted not to reinstate
you as an employee of the House of Representatives," Newton wrote.
"All information was reviewed related to the matter of your
suspension along with an incident that occurred in December 2006,
(about) which we were recently informed."

Documents obtained by the Advertiser show that when the marijuana was
discovered that day, House security, administrative assistant to the
clerk Don Ladner and Clerk of the House Greg Pappas were all notified.

A detective with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation was also brought
in and the black backpack and its contents were turned over to the
detective. After reviewing security camera footage, the detective
questioned Hooks, who admitted that the backpack was his, but said
the drugs and drug paraphernalia were not.

According to the documents, the Alabama Department of Forensic
Science confirmed on Dec. 21, 2006, that the bag contained more than
two pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of between
$1,800 and $2,000.

Cpl. Steve Jarrett, a spokesman with the Montgomery Trooper Post,
said he could not confirm the nature of the ABI's investigation that
began on Dec. 1, 2006, but said there was an investigation, and it
was determined that there was not enough evidence to prosecute. The
drugs have since been destroyed.

Pappas said the idea that he was trying to cover up the 2006 incident
was ludicrous.

"I wouldn't even think about covering anything up," Pappas said. "Why would I?"

Pappas said he never notified Hammett or the House Legislative
Council because Hooks was not charged with a crime.

"I did not want to spread any rumors about anyone," he said. "Besides
that, I'm not going to run to the legislative council or the
speaker's office every time there is a personnel matter to deal with.
That's not their job. That's my job."

How Hooks Got the Job

Pappas said Hooks was an eager worker, performed all of his duties
and was rarely absent.

"He was a very good employee," he said.

According to an employment application, Hooks worked as a dishwasher
and maintenance person at Country's Barbecue on Zelda Road for two
months before he graduated from high school in 1991. He left that job
for medical reasons, according to the application.

There is no employment history listed for the 11 years between the
time he left that job and the date when he started working for the
House of Representatives in October 2002.

Pappas said Hooks wouldn't have had to have much work experience for
the job, which is essentially a janitorial position.

The House doesn't require background checks as part of its hiring
procedures, but Pappas said he was aware that Hooks had spent time in
federal prison.

"I figured he had paid his debt to society and needed a second
chance," he said. "That's the problem -- we throw these people out on
the street and nobody wants to give them a second chance."

Hooks received a mostly average rating for his job performance in an
August 2003 evaluation. He received above average marks for his
dependability and responsiveness. Other than the 2003 review, Hooks'
personnel file contains no other performance evaluations for the six
years that he was employed at the State House.

While he had at least one minor skirmish with the law while he worked
for the House of Representatives, it wasn't until his felony arrest
for alleged involvement with a shooting in May 2008 that Hooks was suspended.

At first he was suspended with pay, but the House Legislative Council
voted to make the suspension unpaid with the promise that he would
receive back pay if he was not convicted of the felony charge.

Hooks was allowed to use his leave time to continue on the House
payroll and to receive health benefits. According to a note in Hooks'
personnel file, he had 336 sick leave hours and 229 annual leave
hours. Three unidentified House employees also donated 160 hours of
leave time to Hooks, which ultimately kept him on the House payroll
until Dec. 1, 2008.

Hooks' most recent arrest is for trafficking crack cocaine, which
Montgomery Police Department spokesman Maj. Huey Thornton said is a
federal offense.

Thornton said Hooks was arrested July 15 after fleeing the 3300 block
of East Street during the drug arrest of another person by undercover officers.

A person must have more than 28 grams of cocaine to be charged with
trafficking, according to Thornton. Hooks was in possession of 127
grams, or about 4.5 ounces, of crack cocaine.

Pappas said he doesn't know if Hooks would be sitting in jail if he
hadn't lost his job with the House, and he refuses to speculate about it.

"I can't answer that," he said. "He obviously had a side to him that
I didn't know about."

Case Not Closed

With Hooks' firing, it could have been case closed on the question of
who brought drugs into the State House, but Holmes isn't ready to let
the issue go.

He said when the House Legislative Council meets again it should
further investigate whether other employees were involved with the
drugs that were found three years ago.

"I'm not going to prejudge anything, but I think that there are some
key personnel that are employed with the House that need to be called
before the council and questioned about why they didn't inform the
council about this," he said. "For me, the key questions are what did
they know, when did they know it and what did they do about it?"

Other members of the council agree with Holmes on the need for
further investigation. State Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gads-
den, commended Holmes for his diligence and said he wants a thorough
accounting of how drugs could be found in the State House without
legislators ever being told about it.

"If someone has kept it from us, then I think that is necessary
grounds for termination," he said. "I want to get to the bottom of
what was going on and if we were kept in the dark we better never be
kept in the dark again."

State Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, also serves on the committee, and
he said the House has gone for a while without a human resources
manager -- something he suspects played a role in the issues that
have arisen with Hooks. The House has hired a new Human Resources
Manager, Lynn Parker, who has more than 15 years in the industry. He
said that alone should go a long way toward avoiding what happened with Hooks.

"Obviously it's a concern that we didn't know this could be taking
place," he said of the possibility that someone was selling drugs in
the State House. "But I feel confident that if it was taking place,
it's not taking place anymore."

Speaker of the House Seth Hammett said, via his chief of staff Jeff
Woodard, that ultimately the security of the State House is the
responsibility of the clerk of the House and the secretary of the
Senate, who have custody and control of the facility by law. Hammett
said the employees of the House know that if they are discovered
dealing drugs, they will be fired.

"We don't know for sure that any drugs have ever been sold in the
State House," he said. "If someone is selling drugs, we are going to
fire them and cooperate with law enforcement with any investigation
that may ensue."

But Mask, the Wetumpka representative, isn't as confident that
existing House hiring practices will curtail future problems.

He said going forward, more stringent hiring practices need to be put
in place and those practices should include a background check, more
open House Legislative Council meetings and an investigation of this matter.

"Obviously something broke down," he said. "When you have this type
of activity going on it certainly doesn't build confidence from the
people we represent."