(MOBILE, Ala.) - As Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright is set to go on trial for federal corruption charges next week, federal prosecutors filed a pretrial motion detailing the alleged actions taken by Mayor Wright against a former police captain.
Federal prosecutors want to admit those claims as evidence in the mayor's upcoming trial. The court documents state that the alleged retaliatory acts were connected to the corruption charges against the mayor.
According to federal court documents, prosecutors said the retaliation against then Bayou La Batre Police Captain Darryl Wilson began in February of 2011. They said because Wilson was cooperating with an FBI investigation, Mayor Stan Wright terminated Wilson from the department's DEA Task Force, and demoted him to patrol duties.
Wilson was on medical leave at the time, and received little explanation. He was assigned the worst patrol car in the department's fleet. John Joyner was police chief then, and prosecutors said he will testify he had no say in the departmental move.
Back on the job weeks later, Wilson was told to take a polygraph test as part of a state investigation into missing cash and drugs from the department's evidence locker. The investigation had already closed.
According to prosecutors, the order came from Mayor Wright who told investigators he didn't trust Wilson, and he "set him up" in a land-swap
scandal sweeping the city. Wilson passed the polygraph.
Prosecutors also claim Mayor Wright told a former police officer that Wilson was demoted because, "That (expletive) had me investigated, and told the FBI that me and Janey were crooked. That's why his (expletive) is on patrol, and he's going to stay on patrol and he's going to stay in that old raggedly vehicle."
The claims of retaliation come after Wilson tipped off federal authorities to the fraud scandal involving the mayor and Bayou La Batre City Grant Writer Janey Galbraith. Galbraith was convicted in the case last year.
Local 15 News tried several times to reach Mayor Stan Wright for comment about the pretrial motion, but station's calls were not returned. Assistant United States Attorney George May told Local 15 News he could not comment about the pretrial motion because it is part of pending litigation.
