Attorney John Neiman
MONTGOMERY-Attorney John Neiman, who represents Governor Bentley, on Wednesday, released a statement regarding the complaint filed by Ray Lewis, the former Chief of Governor’s Security Detail. Neiman’s complete statement is below.
“Mr. Lewis’ lawsuit is an outrageous abuse of the system. The bulk of his complaint is full of factual allegations the Governor denies, and those allegations ultimately be shown to be irresponsible and false. In addition, those allegations have nothing to do with the actual legal claims asserted by Mr. Lewis. He appears to have included those irrelevant factual allegations in his complaint for the purposes of sensationalizing what is a meritless legal case.
We will ask the Court to quickly dismiss Lewis’s legal claims, which are meritless through and through.
To understand why Lewis’ lawsuit is so outrageous, look to the article that he claims to be the basis for it—a 2014 al.com article where Mr. Lewis says Governor Bentley somehow ruined his reputation. That is a baseless claim by Lewis because Governor Bentley did not say negative things about Lewis in that article. To the contrary, that article says Governor Bentley “praised” Lewis “as having worked to put together the best security detail and Capitol police force the state has ever had.” In that article Governor Bentley said that Lewis “is a man of honor and integrity and I support him one hundred percent.” In that article Governor Bentley called Lewis “the man for the job.” In light of those statements, it is indefensible for Lewis to now seek hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State and Governor Bentley on the theory that Governor Bentley somehow defamed him in that same article.
Lewis’s claim that he was “constructively discharged” by Governor Bentley and lost money as a result of his work for the Governor is equally outrageous. Public records show that when Lewis worked for the state government, he made more than $661,615 over five years, based on the overtime he was paid. But he chose to quit. That was his choice—no one else’s. Public records show that as a result of his decision to quit, Lewis is now getting $87,387.60 per year in State retirement income, for life. But now he is trying to force the State to give him more money, and to go so far as to extract money from the pocket of a governor who has never even taken a salary since he took office.
The Governor’s legal team will tell the Court that Mr. Lewis’s allegations are irresponsible and wrong, and will pursue all appropriate remedies against this abusive lawsuit. We hope to have this lawsuit dismissed soon.”
Media Release/Office of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley
**********************************************************************
Governor Robert Bentley’s former chief of security, Wendall Ray Lewis, has filed a civil lawsuit against Bentley and his former senior political aide Rebekah Mason, claiming the two had a physical and sexual affair.
According to Lewis… he and others advising the Governor unsuccessfully tried to persuade Bentley to end the affair, to which he replied, “If they don’t stop treating her like some sort of … I’ll fire ’em all. In fact, I’ll fire anybody who continues to mistreat Rebekah.”
Some of claims from Lewis’ lawsuit:
Lewis claims that Bentley told him that he “was going to create a ‘501(c)(4) to get Rebekah paid.’” Lewis believes this 501(c)(4) was in fact the Alabama Council for Excellent Government non-profit. According to the suit, it was established in 2014 by Bentley’s former legal advisor Cooper Shattuck to advance the beliefs and policies of Bentley. Lewis says he was told by Bentley’s Chief of Staff Seth Hammett that Hammett had told Bentley Mason couldn’t be on the state payroll because of the relationship, and that was why they needed the 501(c)(4).
Lewis warned that the affair was a problem for the governor because “we use state vehicles, we use state planes, to move about. You’re requesting to put her in there, that’s a problem.” That prompted the governor to say “Ray, I know. I need you to go upstairs and break up with Rebekah for me.” And Lewis went.
Bentley’s ex-wife Dianne Bentley learned of the affair after members of the governor’s staff decided Bentley should use an iPad. His staff either did not tell him his iPad was synced to his iPhone, or he did not understand what it meant. So when he gave the iPad to Mrs. Bentley, he did not know she would receive his “steamy cell phone text messages to Mrs. Mason on the iPad.”
During the 2014 gubernatorial campaign Bentley had Collier “move money around” to pay several members of the governor’s staff, including Jon Barganier, Stephanie Azar and Byrne so that almost half a million dollars in salary would not show up on the governor’s budget. “According to Collier, those monies were federal funds and came from the Department of Homeland security.”
