The attorney representing a newspaper publisher and reporter arrested and indicted on charges they disclosed grand jury secrets says his clients are the victims of a prosecutor who is “after people he has a problem with.”

Ernie White, a Brewton attorney, told AL.com on Thursday that Atmore News publisher Sherry Digmon and reporter Don Fletcher – both who face felony charges of revealing grand jury evidence – are facing criminal charges over a dispute related to the non-renewal of Escambia County Superintendent Michele McClung’s contract.

Digmon, 72, also co-owner of The Atmore News, is an Escambia County School Board member who voted against renewing McClung’s contract. The vote occurred during a highly contentious Oct. 12 school board meeting. Fletcher, 69, is not a school board member.

“(District Attorney Steve Billy) was pulling for her to be renewed,” Ernie White said. “He went to the board of education and talked on behalf of the superintendent and, when (the board voted against renewal) he apparently took offense to that and hit us up with these charges.”

Also charged is 47-year-old Ashley Fore of Brewton, a bookkeeper at the school system. Fore was charged with allegedly revealing grand jury evidence to the media. The charges against all three each carries a possible five years in prison.

The charges stem from the publication of an Oct. 25 story in The Atmore News, written by Fletcher, in which he is alleged to have disclosed that a subpoena had been issued related to an investigation into the use of COVID-19 funds within the Escambia County School System.

Fletcher also wrote a story about how Escambia County authorities had seized cell phones of the four school board members who voted not to renew McClung’s contract.

Billy has not returned calls to his office.

Ethics complaint

Digmon, on Wednesday, was also charged with two counts of ethics violations for using her position for “personal gain by selling ads” in the Atmore Magazine and/or Grace Publishing LLC, which she has a financial interest in, and receiving a financial gain in excess of $2,500.

White said Digmon was only charged after she voted down McClung’s contract.

“She would gain advertising from the board of education on small ads congratulating seniors or putting a business card (into the paper),” White said, adding that the Escambia County School System shut down the practice after consulting with the Alabama Ethics Commission.

He said the advertisement was allowed under former Escambia County Superintendent John Knott, as well as under McClung’s tenure, which began in 2021. He said an opinion from the Ethics Commission then led to the practice to be shut down.

“The superintendent texted my client and said all was well,” White said. “When (McClung) was non-renewed, she changed her mind.”

McClung has also not returned calls for comment.

Media attention

The charges against Digmon and Fletcher, coming down on Friday, have created a wave of national attention in recent days. White has said he’s been contacted by The Washington Post, CNN and the New York Post, among other outlets as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists – a press freedom group based out of New York.

Media law and ethics experts, in recent days, have blasted the District Attorney’s decision to levy criminal charges against journalists for publishing what they said was leaked material.

Kelly McBride, senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at The Poynter Institute, said while Fore might have committed a crime for disclosing grand jury evidences to the news organization, the news outlet itself did not commit an offense by publishing it.

“There is a nuance there,” McBride said. “Otherwise, the way you interpret the law is prior restraint, which is generally frowned upon as the violation of the free press protection of the First Amendment.”

Jared Schroeder, associate professor of journalism at the University of Missouri, said that given the facts he is aware of in the case, there is no grounds for Billy to pursue charges against Digmon or Fletcher for publishing the information they received, even if it was protected under a state grand jury secrecy law.

“It’s understandable that a grand jury operates in secrecy and traditionally should be respected,” Schroeder said. “But the line crossed here is that there is no liability for someone who publishes information about this.”

He added, “According to this law, if you’re part of the grand jury, you cannot talk or if you have information about (a grand jury proceeding) through your work, you cannot talk. But that’s a difference from publishing information that is a matter of public concern. It’s a concerning move.”

Said White, the attorney for Digmon and Fletcher, “I’ve been practicing law 43 years and I have seen this happen. I’m shocked about it yet.”

Talk of Atmore

The arrests are roiling Atmore, a small southwestern city near the Alabama-Florida state border known as the home of a tribal casino and a large state prison.

The county’s three judges — Circuit Judges Jeffrey White and Jeffrey Stearns, and District Judge James Coale — have recused themselves from Digmon and Fletcher’s cases, acknowledging a prior professional relationship.

Retired Autauga County Circuit Judge Ben Fuller was assigned to the case on Thursday through an order by Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker.

Digmon and Fletcher can’t discuss the case publicly as part of their bond conditions.

Few public officials in Atmore have made comments about the arrests, or the fallout over the superintendent’s contract, in recent days.

“I have grand kids in the school system, and a son and a daughter-in-law (employed) in the schools and I won’t make any comment,” said Councilman Webb Nall.

Joyce Petty, who owns Atmore Flower Shop next door to The Atmore News, said the situation is the talk of the town.

She said she doesn’t know all the details of the case, but acknowledged there has been plenty social media banter about it.

“I was blown away over it,” she said, referring to the revelations about Digmon and Fletcher’s arrests.