Criminal County Constables

It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Sometimes those sworn to uphold the law are the ones to break it. Here's a 2013 PNS article on county constables, specifically Franklin County constables. It would appear that in 2013, half the constables in Franklin were under investigation themselves (Note: As this is republished, the article is four years old, and there is no current investigation of anyone mentioned here):

Not all Alabama counties have constables. Franklin is among the counties that do; currently four constables serve, but just what is their mission/job description? Franklin County writer and former district attorney John Pilati defines the office thusly:

“Under Alabama law, constables are considered peace officers with the same law enforcement authority as other officers within their county. Constables are elected by voting precinct, so Franklin County could have as many as 24 elected constables, but the numbers have never reached that level. A large reason is that constable is a non-salaried position.”

While there is no salary, the constables share a yearly 15K appropriation. There are currently four elected constables in Franklin County:

Bobby Brown – Russellville II 

Ray Hill – Tharptown (Currently under indictment for Sexual Abuse) 

Kyle Palmer – Red Bay (Currently the subject of a RBPD internal affairs investigation) - not pictured

Earl Potter – Russellville I - not pictured

Brown also works as Russellville Police Department’s chaplain, while Palmer is a sergeant with the Red Bay force. PNS received a question as to a possible conflict of interest in Palmer’s case. Is it legal for Kyle Palmer to hold the office of constable while an active member of the Red Bay Police Force? Below is a link to the duties and qualifications of an Alabama Constable. Nowhere is a conflict of interest addressed. If any readers have questions, they should contact Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing and/or the Alabama Ethics Commission.

Besides Franklin, the following counties still maintain the office of Constable: Jefferson, Marion, Mobile, Shelby, Walker, & Winston.

The Tragic Life and Death of "Fat Sam"

Sam John Passarella was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1945. Sam's family moved to Lawrence County, Tennessee, while he was still a young teenager, and the boy who was now known as "Fat Sam" found what amounted to local fame performing with his band at civic events and sock hops. 

After high school, Sam moved to Nashville looking for work as a backup musician or even as the leader of his own band. For whatever reason, fame eluded Fat Sam who alternated his time between Nashville and Lawrenceburg.

By the 1980s, Sam had fallen in with the wrong crowd. The year 1982 proved eventful for Fat Sam, but for all the wrong reasons. Along with James Howard Turner and Earl Carroll, Sam purchased some bogus silver from a Nashville businessman, Monte Hudson. From court documents:

"When they learned that the silver was not genuine, they abducted Mr. Hudson and his wife at gunpoint from the parking lot of a Nashville motel. Mr. Turner forced Mrs. Hudson into his car, and Messrs. Passarella and Carroll took Mr. Hudson away in another car. Mr. Turner released Mrs. Hudson the next day. Mr. Turner and Mr. Passarella were indicted for two counts of kidnapping and their trials were severed. Mr. Carroll accepted a sentence of two years for kidnapping in exchange for his testimony against Mr. Passarella, who was convicted and received a sentence of seventy years imprisonment. Prior to Mr. Turner's trial, Mr. Hudson's corpse was discovered, and the facts indicated that he was killed by Mr. Passarella."

Fat Sam was incarcerated in the Tennessee State Prison system for almost four decades before he was paroled. From a 2015 Pen-N-Sword article:

"Sam John Passarella was no angel. The Brooklyn, NY, native arrived in Nashville in the 1960s to make it big in the music industry. Instead he made it big in crime.

Third from Right in Band Libido

Passarella, 69, spent 30 odd years in a Tennessee prison on charges related to drugs, forgery, kidnapping, and murder. During his stay, the Los Angeles Times reported on his gardening accomplishments. He was released in 2013 and removed to Lawrenceburg where he had family, joining the local music scene. Last October, his band played the Oktoberfest in Loretto.

Passarella in Trilby with Band Survivor

On May 19th, a relative found Sam John Passarella murdered near his home on the Florence Road. Police are saying little but are asking for the public’s help. Someone knows something; in the mean time Passarella’s family is grieving a man they spent too little time with."

By the time Sam Passarella was released from prison, he may have been older and wiser, but he still loved his music. He often played with his band Survivor at local benefits and other functions. He moved into a subsidized apartment complex for those over 65 and made new friends...one new friend too many.

The last gig Sam mentioned on social media was at Nana's Pizzeria in Loretto in mid-April 2015. Four weeks later he was found dead in his apartment. While police may have initially thought Sam John Passarella was killed by some of his old Nashville crowd or a friend of Monte Hudson, one by one the suspects were eliminated.

After almost a year, an arrest was finally made. From a Lawrence County press release:

"On February 5th, 2016 Detectives with the Lawrenceburg Police Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agents arrested a subject responsible for the Murder of Sam John Passarella that occurred in Lawrenceburg, TN on May 19, 2015.

Detectives have worked extensively during the joint investigation and have discovered evidence linking Crystal Gregoire (35) of Lawrenceburg to the crime.
On February 5, 2016 a special session of the Lawrence County Grand Jury met and reviewed evidence in the case before handing down Indictments against Gregoire for 1st Degree Murder, Aggravated Assault, Tampering with Evidence and Theft. Gregoire is being held in the Giles County Jail."

Gregoire's trial was in April 2017, more than a year after her arrest. From Lawrenceburg Now:

"After hearing testimony throughout the week, jurors returned a guilty verdict against thirty-seven-year-old Crystal Gregoire in the death of Sam John Passarella, age 69.

Passarella’s badly beaten body was found inside of his Crockett Senior Housing apartment on Old Florence Road on May 19, 2015. He was lying across his bed with a bread knife in his right hand and had sustained numerous blows to the face, head, neck and torso from a claw hammer before being stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife.

Gregoire was indicted on murder, aggravated assault and theft charges on February 5, 2016 after the hammer, knives, Passarella's empty prescription bottles, and other evidence was found buried behind the home where she had resided at the time of his death.

Gregoire entered a plea of guilty on the count of aggravated assault. During deliberations jurors found her not guilty on one count of theft, not guilty on one count of felony murder, and guilty as charged on one count of first degree murder.

The first degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence. Attorneys are working on an agreement that will allow a three year sentence on the aggravated assault count to run concurrently with that life sentence."

Sam John Passarella...he never really had a chance to live.

Jessica Broadfoot & Danger Grisham - A Lethal Combination

The following accounts of the Jessica Broadfoot murder, investigation, and legal proceedings originally appeared in Pen-N-Sword and have been used with permission:

Timeline:

May 8 – Arrested outside Atlanta for DUI
May 13 – With victim in motel room
June 27 – Posted on Facebook: I had one of my retarded exs texting me every five seconds last night.
June 29 – Found wearing bloody clothes in truck with knife, both also soaked in blood.

The day after Jessica Bevis-Broadfoot’s 2013 death, Homajean Grisham III was charged with Felony Murder. Today those charges in the brutal stabbing death have been upgraded to Capital Murder. Grisham has given a brief confession to authorities, but it remains to be seen if he will claim self-defense or insanity or other plea that will necessitate a trial. His chance at 1.5 million dollar bail has now been revoked and he will not see freedom unless acquitted at the trial to be scheduled later.

The Arrest:

Above is a mugshot of Homajean Grisham III from May 8th of this year when he was arrested outside Atlanta for Driving Under the Influence and other more minor traffic related offenses. Now the 34 year old resident of Cherokee has been arrested for Felony murder in the death of Jessica Nicole Bevis Broadfoot, 32, of North Florence. Her body was found in a vacant pasture at the 420 acre Grisham family farm on Fossik Lane in Cherokee.

The father of a nine year old girl from a previous relationship, Homajean preferred to be called Lee or his nickname “Danger.” Standing over six feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, Grisham could obviously be a danger if he so intended. Authorities state that Bevis-Broadfoot was beaten as well as stabbed.

Public records show that Homajean III was named for his grandfather, a co-owner of a large building supply store in Cherokee as well as a director with both Farm Bureau and Colonial Bank. He was also the first Shoals resident to be appointed to the Alabama Forestry Commission. Homajean Sr., who passed away in January 1989, also lends his name to a Northwest Shoals Community College scholarship for deserving graduates of Cherokee High School. It would appear that just having the same name was not enough to lead his grandson down a productive path.

Grisham is now being held in the Colbert County Jail on bail of 1.5 million dollars. This could be lowered early next week if his attorneys manage to schedule a reduction hearing. The amount is possibly this high due to his family’s assets making the prospect of flight extremely plausible.


Danger Had Many Faces:

Today is alleged killer Homajean “Danger” Grisham’s 35th birthday. He’ll be spending it in jail unless his family can come up with 1.5 million in bail. Danger’s Facebook page has a collection of snapshots of the Colbert County farming heir, most of them along the same theme. Besides these more prosaic shots, there’s also a photo of his crotch and a German Shepherd urinating on a scantily clad woman.

Homagean Grisham III, sometimes known as “Lee” or “Danger,” now faces a grand jury in the stabbing death of his on-again off-again girlfriend Jessica Bevis Broadfoot. PNS has learned that on the night she last saw Grisham, Broadfoot left her cell phone with her mother to keep. She reportedly stated that Grisham would scroll through her recent calls and become angered if she had contact with any males he didn’t know.

Authorities in California have indicated they will not extradite Grisham on pending charges of drug trafficking; however, they may reopen an investigation into the death of Grisham’s former girlfriend who died of a drug overdose while he was in the process of tying up loose ends at his former residence.

Homajean Grisham III may have been living a small town life at his family farm in Cherokee, but he had recently been residing as far from that Colbert County town as possible. It was only a matter of months ago that Grisham was living in Costa Mesa, California, where he ran afoul of the law for a crime of violence. On probation, Grisham returned to north Alabama where his parents and two children live.

Sources say it was Grisham’s father, Homajean Jr. aka Butch, who reported the murder of Jessica Bevis Broadfoot to authorities. When found, Grisham was reportedly covered in his girlfriend’s blood, as was the interior of his truck. Officers reported finding a bloody knife in his vehicle, as well as a second knife covered in blood lying by the victim’s body. It’s believed that Grisham’s record of violence is such that prosecutors can obtain a sentence of Life Without Parole even if Grisham is charged with only Felony Murder.


A Plea:

Homajean Grisham III, aka Lee, is currently under indictment for the murder of Jessica Nicole Broadfoot. On Thursday afternoon, Grisham, the grandson of a noted Colbert county philanthropist Homajean Grisham Sr., pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect. Will it wash?

Such defenses rarely do save a defendant, but what does it mean? From a legal website: A person is considered insane and is not responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time of the offense, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts. Grisham’s trial date has not yet been set.


A Sentence:

Cherokee native Homajean Grisham III has accepted a plea deal in the Colbert County murder of his girlfriend Jessica Nicole Bevis Broadfoot. Grisham will be sentenced to 30 years and be given time for the almost three years he has served while awaiting trial.

The 37 year old Grisham will be eligible for parole consideration in seven years; however, any early release will almost surely be opposed by the Colbert County district attorney’s office.


A New Reality for Danger:

The man who dubbed himself “Danger” now rates only a medium security ranking in the Alabama Prison System. Homajean Grisham III, also known as the more innocuous “Lee,” is currently housed in the Bibb Correctional Center.

Grisham, now 39, pleaded guilty to Felony Murder in Colbert County in May of last year. The Cherokee man received a 30 year sentence in the death of his girlfriend Jessica Broadfoot, for which he receives no Correctional Incentive Time. He will be eligible for parole at some point, but no date has yet been set. His end of sentence date is June 22, 2043. Assuming Danger Grisham doesn’t make parole, he will be 65 years old when he returns to his North Alabama home.