Judge resets gag order hearing in murder case of former Decatur officer
DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — A Morgan County judge has granted a motion to move the gag order hearing in the murder case against a former Decatur police officer.
Mac Bailey Marquette is facing the murder charge for the Sept. 29 on-duty shooting of Stephen Perkins outside of Perkins’ home. A temporary gag order in the case was issued March 22 and a hearing on whether to make the gag order permanent was set for Monday, April 8.
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The gag order bars out-of-court public discussions of the case or releases of information by the parties involved, including attorneys on all sides.
But on Wednesday, a motion to continue the hearing was filed citing several of the city personnel listed have “long-standing plans to be out of town” the week of April 8. The motion said neither the State of Alabama, nor the defense, opposed the rescheduling.
Now, Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott has reset the hearing for May 20.
In a court filing Monday, the Morgan County District Attorney’s Office requested 19 subpoenas for the gag order hearing.
The subpoena list includes several ranking employees of the Decatur Police Department (DPD) including Police Chief Todd Pinion, three employees of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and Decatur City Councilman Hunter Pepper. You can see the full list of people subpoenaed for the hearing here.
Last week, after that gag order was issued, the conservative Alabama website 1819 News released what appears to be Marquette’s body camera footage from the night of the Perkins shooting. The website says it’s video that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) provided to the Morgan County DA’s Office in the Marquette investigation, but it is not clear how they got access to the video.
News 19 doesn’t own the rights to the video and has not aired it. News 19’s parent company Nexstar requires its stations to obtain permission from the video’s original owner in order to air it.
You can see all of our prior reporting on Marquette’s case and the death of Stephen Perkins on this page.
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