A con man running a blog from his jail cell | Columns

I don’t pay a lot consideration to the so-called “web bloggers,” however the outlandish lies of 1 such blogger have gotten my consideration. A convicted legal named Donald Watkins has been running a blog scurrilous, vicious, outlandish lies about a few of our state’s and nation’s most excellent leaders and corporations. Watkins is posting these lies to the web whereas serving a federal jail sentence below the jurisdiction of the federal penal system.

Donald Watkins was born right into a world of privilege, the son of Dr. Levi Watkins, President of Alabama State College. Whereas Donald offered himself as a multi-millionaire, high-rolling investor, court docket paperwork present he swindled associates, celebrities and an FDIC-insured financial institution out of greater than $15 million. In 2019, a federal court docket despatched Watkins and his son, Donald Watkins Jr., to federal jail.

Federal data present Watkins represented he was promoting inventory in an power firm known as Masada and claimed he was the bulk shareholder within the firm. Watkins didn’t personal any of the corporate inventory. He claimed the corporate was related to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Martin Luther King III. Each testified that they had no reference to the corporate.

The overwhelming majority of you’ve by no means heard of Donald Watkins. A few of you might bear in mind him because the lawyer who helped Eric Ramsey assault the Auburn Soccer program, touchdown the varsity on NCAA probation. He later defended different high-profile criminals, like himself.

However basketball legend Charles Barkley will bear in mind Watkins as the person who swindled him out of greater than $6 million. Federal data present that Watkins and his son took cash from traders and channeled that cash to pay for extravagant life.Information present Watkins Sr. used the cash to pay again taxes, alimony, dwelling bills for his girlfriend and for his personal non-public jet. It’s simple to see why a jury of hard-working, trustworthy of us discovered him responsible on 10 counts in a New York minute.

Watkins and his son had been convicted in federal court docket, and Watkins was discovered responsible on all ten counts introduced in opposition to him. He was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay greater than $14 million in restitution. He was sued for defamation, for mendacity about somebody, and ordered to pay $1.5 million to these he harmed. However from a jail cell, Watkins continued to assault these he harmed, all the time claiming to be the sufferer and never the villain. Watkins claims he was railroaded as he continues spreading his lies throughout the digital panorama.

He blames scores of individuals for conspiring in opposition to him, together with the Alabama Supreme Courtroom, Federal judges, Federal prosecutors and the management of a few of Alabama’s main firms. Watkins even has the audacity to accuse Sen. Richard Shelby of some unspecified scheme to ship him to jail.

In 2017, Alabama businessman Joe Perkins sued Watkins for defamation. A circuit court docket dominated in Perkins’s favor and awarded a judgment in opposition to Watkins of $1.5 million. Watkins appealed all the best way as much as the US Supreme Courtroom, and on Feb. 27, the best court docket within the land unceremoniously refused to listen to Watkins’s ridiculous attraction.

So, why don’t extra of Watkins’s victims sue him for his lies? Because the previous saying goes, you may’t get blood from a turnip. He owes his victims greater than $15 million right now. He’s in such a deep gap that he can’t be stopped by extra lawsuits.

Freedom of speech is without doubt one of the hallmarks of America’s creed. However that freedom within the fingers of a confirmed liar and brazen, boastful, non-repentant federal prisoner isn’t what our forefathers envisioned once they enshrined the First Modification. This Blogger is a risk to society and deserves additional jail time.

— Steve Flowers is Alabama’s main political columnist. His weekly column seems in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years within the Alabama legislature.