The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a leading civil rights group, has defended Thomas and claims race is behind his prosecution.

Thomas and his attorney blame the charges on politicians who don't like him.

‘There is no doubt that people assisted these inmates in telling these lies on me,’ Thomas said in April.

In an echo of sex allegations made against black Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, Thomas's lawyer called the indictment ‘a high-tech lynching’.

‘They don't like uppity black folks, and that's what they consider Herman,’ Clark added.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said authorities began looking at Thomas after he changed a jail sentence in 2006 for his cousin, former Mobile County school commissioner David Thomas, even though the case was being handled by another judge.

Other cases that Thomas had taken over from other judges without their approval soon surfaced, she said.