LAUDERDALE CO., Ala. (Waffle) – Through court documents, state prosecutors are sharing what evidence could be used against a Lauderdale County judge.

An audit found that Judge Gilbert Self spent more than $146,000 of county money for unauthorized expenses such as hiring his son, buying a couch, purchasing liquor, golf clubs, eyeglasses, frames, guns, ammunition, cat litter, and more.

Self was indicted in January 2024 on sixteen counts of using office for personal or family gain, one count of making a false statement to the examiners of public accounts, and one count of perjury.

The perjury charges stem from lies and false documents presented to examiners during a 2023 audit of the two Lauderdale County funds.

In addition, prosecutors say the state wanted Circuit Court calendars from 2020 to 2023, but the calendars had disappeared.

During last year’s audit, state officials said Self reimbursed the unauthorized expenses in full.

Now the state says they’re still ready to prove he’s guilty.

The documents show that the guns Self bought and the American Express card fee he paid for using county funds were primarily part of the opening of the case.

Afterward, they discovered that many of the charges came from him using the card and then reimbursing himself for those charges.

Prosecutors add that the card is not affiliated with the Judicial Administration Fund or the Law Library Fund.

Prosecutors filed a notice to introduce specific evidence about Self’s personal travels. The evidence includes financial records, checks and bank statements from the Chief Justice’s receivership fund, the Law Library fund and Self’s bank accounts.

For some of those trips, Self allegedly paid for himself with court funds and wrote it off as a trip to drug court.

Prosecutors also plan to use a local magazine detailing Self’s bicycle trips to other parts of the country, where he wrote a check for a hotel room with a memo about a trip to drug court.

Some of the unauthorized spending included spending more than $1,100 on two guns for “courthouse protection.”

When the auditors confronted Sinele, he could not show where they were being held in the courtroom or in his office.

Prosecutors say they are ready to show that Self regularly victimized Lauderdale County over a four-year period, adding that the transactions occur about once every two months.

In the documents, the state even raises the question: If Self believed he could spend the money as he pleased, then why would he lie in notations on the memo lines for the checks by writing “drug court,” for example?

Self entered a not guilty plea and is scheduled for a status hearing in December, where a trial date could be set.

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