An Alabama judge improperly spent more than $140,000 from funds used to support court operations, including hiring his son as a law clerk and paying him without documentation of his son’s hours and purchasing guns and furniture, according to the results of a state audit.

Although Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Gil Self repaid most of the funds, the audit found he either did not have documentation or was not allowed to make the purchases, according to the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts’ audit of the Presiding Circuit Judge’s Judicial Administration Fund for the 11th Judicial Circuit.

The audit covers the period between July 1, 2019 and July 31, 2023. The audit’s findings were disclosed on Friday.

Auditors found more than $112,000 in undocumented or unallowable expenses, including:

• checks to the presiding circuit judge and others
• personal meals and alcohol
• personal travel, including travel expenditures (airfare and hotel) for guests
• personal items, including electronics, eyeglasses, handguns, ammunition, kitty litter, car wash supplies, flowers, framing, golf items and furniture not located on courthouse property

During the audit, Self hired his son as a law clerk, paid bonuses to a former assistant and paid other contract employee wages totaling nearly $28,000, according to the audit.

But auditors could not verify that work was performed.

“Timesheets or other supporting documentation were not provided to document or substantiate hours worked or bonuses given. A contract was not provided for the law clerk position, nor was the law clerk hired through the routine Alabama Administrative Office of Courts’ process as were other employees of the Court,” the audit found. “Additionally, payroll taxes were not withheld from these payments and a Form W-2 or Form 1099 was not provided for each calendar year.”

Self told the Alabama Daily News that the pandemic disrupted his office’s accounting procedures.

“I agree the proper bookkeeping during COVID was really virtually non-existent,” Self said, according to the outlet. “It was sloppy. We didn’t follow acceptable accounting principles, primarily because there’s no one trained or experienced in those principles here that were in charge of the books during that period of time.

“But the buck stops with me and I accept full responsibility for the mistakes that were made.”

He said the gun purchases were for protection at the courthouse and stored there, and that his son was applying to law schools at the time and he thought clerking in the office would be good experience for him.

“I thought he’d be here several months and then go on to law school, then the pandemic hit,” the judge said.