Witness in Gov. Hunt Trial Says Lawyer OKd Political Funds Use

Gov. Guy Hunt’s 1987 inaugural director testified Friday that a lawyer wrote a memo in 1986 saying Hunt could personally use inaugural money--a use the state now contends is a felony.

Hunt, the first Republican governor of Alabama in this century, is charged with personally using $200,000 from a tax-exempt Hunt Transition and Inaugural Fund Inc. set up in December, 1986, the month before he was sworn in for his first term. A conviction on the felony charge would automatically force Hunt from office midway through his second four-year term.

Atty. Gen. Jimmy Evans contends that Hunt and three associates siphoned away the $200,000 in a money-laundering scheme that routed the funds through campaign accounts to Hunt’s own. A state prosecutor testified that Hunt used it to pay his income taxes and buy personal items, such as a marble shower for his home at Holy Pond.

But Judith Pittman, Hunt’s inaugural director, testified that she set up the guidelines for the inaugural fund on the advice of Charles Pinckney, a Birmingham attorney, who approved use of the money for personal matters.

Pinckney’s memo to the inaugural committee said: “There is no prohibition on what these funds can be used for. They can be used for previous debts and even personal items. But even though it is legal, I don’t think it would be prudent to use the money for personal matters.”

Pittman also testified that she wrote a memo approving political uses of the inaugural funds when she served as director of the 1987 inaugural committee.