From Tribune staff reports
MONTGOMERY — Multiple felony charges filed against a former Jefferson County Constable in 2022 have been dismissed. Jonathan Barbee, of Trussville, instead pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of failing to file a tax return in 2018, according to his attorney, Matt Hart.
In December of 2022, Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the indictment and arrest of Barbee on two ethics charges and three tax charges.
Marshall said the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division obtained an indictment of Barbee after conducting a joint investigation with the Alabama Department of Revenue.
“The first two counts of the indictment charge Barbee with using his position or office to pay his wife and his father for traffic control or cause them to be paid for traffic control through the Constable Office bank account,” Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said in 2022. “The remaining three counts charge that Jonathan Barbee willfully attempted to evade or defeat state income taxes. Each count for tax evasion covers a separate tax year from 2018 to 2020.”
Hart said the case took months to resolve and shouldn’t have been brought in the first place.
“After many months of grinding investigative activity, the State of Alabama charged my client, Jonathan Barbee, with five felonies involving ethics and tax matters,” Hart said. “Preceding these charges, a panel of three experienced Circuit Court Judges, appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court, had reviewed the ethics matter, found no probable cause that the ethics laws had been violated, and closed the case at the Alabama Ethics Commission.”
