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Troy Robin King (born August 22, 1968) is the current attorney general of the state of Alabama, United States. He previously served as an Assistant Attorney General. King was appointed by Governor Bob Riley in 2004, when William Pryor resigned to accept a federal judgeship. He then defeated Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. in the 2006 election by a 54-46% margin.

Personal

King was born in Elba, Alabama. He is currently married to Paige King with whom he has three children; Briggs, Colden, and Asher. He is a Baptist. King received his undergraduate degree from Troy University and is a 1994 graduate of the University of Alabama law school.

Issues and Controversies

During the 2005 legislative session, King made headlines by wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet of the kind used by parolees and others under judicial monitoring. King promised to wear the bracelet until the legislature passed tougher monitoring laws for parolees and convicted sex offenders, and removed it when such laws were passed.

King has made opposition to gambling a central theme of his administration. In 2006, King asked the United States Department of the Interior to deny an application by the Poarch Creek Band of Indians to expand their gaming operations in Alabama. King later filed a lawsuit against the Department to keep it from pressuring Alabama to permit video gaming on Alabama reservations.

King is also a staunch proponent of the death penalty. When many states voluntarily suspended executions during U.S. Supreme Court litigation over lethal injection, King continued to seek the setting of execution dates in Alabama. King's support of the death penalty created a controversy when, in 2007, a district attorney in suburban Birmingham supported commutation of the death sentence of an accomplice, in a case where the actual shooter had escaped the death penalty because he was a juvenile. King sought to block the district attorney's testimony to that effect, and criticized the district attorney. The incident led a wide, bipartisan coalition of local district attorneys, as well as newspaper editorials, to criticize King. King received support in the controversy from the victim's family, and from some death penalty supporters, for his stance in the case.

In late 2006, King was forced to recuse his entire office from the ongoing investigation of abuses in the Alabama community college system, when it emerged that he had asked community college chancellor Roy Johnson to hire the mother of one of King's employees. This request was made while King knew Johnson to be a target of the ongoing investigation. It later emerged that King had, also during the investigation, asked Johnson for community college system financial support for Victims of Crime and Leniency, an advocacy group politically supportive of King. The investigation eventually resulted in a guilty plea by Johnson in the related federal investigation.

In early 2007, an investigative article published by The Birmingham News revealed that King had accepted free tickets, food, and skybox access to an Atlanta Braves baseball game from Alabama Power Company the preceding season. Alabama Power had not reported the gifts to appropriate ethics agencies as required, until contacted by the News. King attended the game in question with his family and family friends. The food bill for the outing was over $1,200, and the skybox normally rented for $2,400 a day. Because King, as Attorney General, was legally responsible for representing Alabama Power customers before the Alabama Public Service Commission and other agencies, he was widely criticized for accepting the gifts. King reimbursed Alabama Power for $486 for his family's food, but did not reimburse it for food eaten by his family's guests. King denied wrongdoing in the matter.

Later in 2007, Anthony Castaldo, formerly an investigator with the Attorney General's office, submitted an affidavit stating that King had ordered him to investigate a Birmingham-area judge for political reasons, and later punished Castaldo when a year-long investigation showed no evidence of wrongdoing. After other investigators took over the case, King secured an indictment against the judge, but the charges against the judge were later dismissed.

After his appointment as Attorney General in 2004, King was substituted as a defendant in the case of Williams v. Morgan. This case, originally filed in 2001, unsuccessfully sought to enjoin the state of Alabama from enforcing a law prohibiting the sale of any “device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs,” commonly known as “sex toys.” King defended the law, both legally and politically. King’s stance in the litigation, while praised by religious conservatives, subjected him to considerable criticism from editorial writers and civil liberties advocates, one of whom mailed King an inflatable pig sex toy. The latter incident became fodder for numerous editorial cartoons and other comment, such as that in the illustration to the left.

In 2008, another investigative story by The Birmingham News scrutinized the salaries paid by King to several members of his staff. The News focused on some aides whose salaries, it implied, were excessive for the employees in question. It pointed to one aide to King who was being paid $57,504 a year – almost the salary for starting lawyers – within three months of graduating from college. This staffer, the News reported, had been paid $39,456 a year as an "intern" while still enrolled in college. King responded, through a spokesman, that the aide in question was “an exceptional young man who is the chief aide to the attorney general and who is almost indispensable in terms of the many functions he carries out in this office,” and who travels extensively with King. In addition, the News noted that King is himself paid more - $164,000 a year – than any state attorney general other than California’s. Despite King’s explanation, he was criticized in newspaper editorials, with one major local newspaper saying the salaries of the aides in question were “out of line for their experience and qualifications.”

King's name is mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2010. King was an early supporter of the 2008 presidential campaign of Arizona Senator John McCain. King serves as the Alabama chair of the McCain campaign.

Troy King is the King of Corruption in the state of Alabama:

RE: ORLANDO BETHEL AND GLYNIS BETHEL OFFICIAL REQUEST FOR A PERSONAL MEETING IN BALDWIN COUNTY WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL TROY KING RE: OFFICIAL COMPLAINT PERTAINING TO CORRUPTION AND CRIMES COMMITTED BY BALDWIN COUNTY OFFICIALS:

Dear Attorney General Troy King,

GOD bless you. I spoke in grave detail with your representative and paralegal Matthew Glarrow. By now you should know who we are. Our names are Orlando Bethel and Glynis Bethel.

                   We saw the press release on the Internet about Chief Cliff Yetter and Magistrate Kay Hicks FINALLY being imprisoned for their criminal activity. We are not impressed. What about the number of civil rights and constitutional violations against us by Chief Yetter and multiple governmental officials in this area in which you refuse to press charges? What about the videos that I have sent to you and you STILL have not pressed charges for violations of my constitutional rights outlined in the Department of Justice booklet which states that if police or government conspires to violate my constitutional rights, they should be arrested? What about Chief Yetter’s tampering with evidence when I submitted a video tape to him of two Caucasian men slapping me in the face (assault) while I walked on the public property and preached my Religious message in which Alan Hinton witnessed personally and other witnesses were present in which I have two people as my witnesses. What about the video tapes we have on Youtube which shows undeniable criminal activity against ourselves personally? For example, there is a video on Youtube depicting me standing on PUBLIC property and being falsely arrested by the Alabama police from the Town of Loxley? What about the video, on Youtube, of myself being physically assaulted by a Selma police officers while I stood on the public right-of-way to preach the gospel? What about the video of myself, on Youtube standing on a right-of-way in Loxley holding a sign with my Religious message and then being falsely arrested by the corrupt police from the Town of Loxley? There is a video of the Daphne police officer named “Smith” harassing us about our Religious speech and even falsely arresting Glynis Bethel because she used the word “whore.” The person, who encouraged the false arrest, last name was also, “Smith” and he told us that he would call his “friends,” who were the police who made a false arrest on his behalf. We also have in our possession a video of a Daphne police officers demanding that we leave the public library just because the clerk was a little uncomfortable with our presence there. The same clerk in which was appalled that we accessed a website which preached against homosexuality. The library clerk was angry because she stated that she had gay friends . Also, recently, in the Associated Press, the violations of our constitutional rights to use the PUBLIC building here in Baldwin County has been covered in the national media, when the Baldwin County Board of Education members decided that they would deny, without legal grounds, our rights to use a PUBLIC building in order to conduct our Be a MODEL for the GOSPEL Christian program. We would like for an investigation to be conducted. The school board needs to be investigated about the misuse of public funds and possible Federal funding, as well. We would like to also press criminal charges against JaNay Dawson for falsely filing a fraudulent police report to a law enforcement officer. We would also like to press charges against each member of the Baldwin County Board of Education for conspiracy to violate constitutional rights.

Professional Experience

Legal Advisor, Governor Bob Riley, 2003-2004
Assistant Attorney General, 1999-2003
Deputy Executive Secretary, 1997-1999
Acting Executive Secretary, 1997
Deputy Legal Advisor, 1995-1997
Legal Advisor, 1995.

Notes

1. "Mission Accomplished for Attorney General," The Montgomery Advertiser, November 8, 2006, p. A-2
2. Alabama State Bar Directory: Troy King
3. "Law and Order Measures Big at Session," The Huntsville Times, July 28, 2005, p. 1B
4. "King Opposes Gambling Request," The Montgomery Advertiser, July 30, 2006, p. B3
5. "Judge Agrees to Let Creek Indians Join Gambling Lawsuit," Mobile Press-Register, April 28, 2008, p. B1
6. "Editorial: Hop on the Execution Train: Ol' Troy's Revving to Go," The Anniston Star, April 23, 2008
7. "Editorial: Troy King's War on Something," The Birmingham News, October 29, 2007, p. 6A
8. "DA Group Leader Takes Aim at King, Says AG 'Has No Idea' on Death Penalty Cases," The Birmingham News, September 21, 2007, p. 5C
9. "Letter to the Editor: Editorial Should Embolden King's Case," The Birmingham News, September 18, 2007, p. 6A
10. "State AG Solicited Target of Inquiry," The Birmingham News, January 28, 2007, p. 1A
11. "Johnson Pleads Guilty to Kickbacks," The Birmingham News, April 1, 2008, p. 1A
12. "King Used Alabama Power Skybox," The Birmingham News, January 14, 2007, p.1A
13. "Editorial: No Interests in Conflicts," The Birmingham News, April 8, 2007, p. 2B
14. "Editorial: Keeping 'em Honest," The Anniston Star, October 15, 2007
15. "Alabama Power Only Reported Gift Following Newspaper Query," Mobile Press-Register, January 15, 2007, p. B2
16. "AG King Led 'Witch Hunt' to Remove Bessemer Judge, Investigator Says," The Birmingham News, September 11, 2007, p. 1A
17. "Indictment Against King Dismissed," The Birmingham News, October 17, 2007, p. 1A (The judge's name was also "King.")
18. Williams v. Morgan, 478 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2007).
19. Ala. Code § 13A-12-200.2(a)(1)
20. “Ban on Sex Toys Targeted,” Mobile Press-Register, December 4, 2007, p. A1
21. "Woman Fighting King on Sex Toys,” Mobile Press-Register, November 14, 2007, p. A1
22. “AG King Boosts Top Aides’ Salaries,” The Birmingham News, July 27, 2008, p. 11A
23. “Editorial: King’s Pay Practices Questionable,” The Montgomery Advertiser, August 7, 2008, p. A7
24. "Hubbard Keeping Options Open for 2010," Opelika-Auburn News, January 18, 2008
25. "Presidential Fever," The Huntsville Times, November 9, 2007, p. 8A

External links

• Official site
• Contact info
• NAAG bio
• A.G. King's U.S. Senate testimony

• Living people
• 1968 births
• Alabama Attorneys General
• Alabama lawyers