SerpApi.Org
Rumors of an illegal bingo gaming conspiracy involving the Jefferson County Sheriff and his brother are political attacks contrived by Republican leaders to attack Democratic elected officials, both men allege.
Sheriff Mark Pettway and his brother, businessman Bruce Pettway, recently took to talk radio where they claimed vindication in a libel lawsuit and pointed at GOP state leaders as the source of their troubles.
“It’s part to sully my reputation, but also to take me out of office,” Mark Pettway, a Democrat, told Gary Richarson during the Gary Richardson Morning Show on WJLD 104.1 FM “They’ve been wanting to take me out of office since day one.”
Specifically, the men point to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
“This is coming from high up and being filtered down,” Bruce Pettway said. “Truly I don’t think everything they have done is about bingo but is about painting a picture of corruption.”
He pointed to Marshall’s 2019 seizure of more than $240,000 from Bruce Pettway’s business accounts based on unfounded claims that the money came from illegal gambling. A federal judge later ordered the money returned.
“They stole it,” Bruce Pettway said on the radio Monday.
AL.com’s calls and messages to the attorney general’s office were not returned.
“There are a lot of things that went into play there,” he said. “They lied in affidavits to do what they did.”
Pettway said he has served as a consultant to a bingo facility but never owned or managed any operation.
“I am a businessman. I did consulting services,” he said.
The statements that resulted in the lawsuit occurred a few years later, in 2024.
Bruce Pettway earlier this month won a major fight in his libel and defamation lawsuit against a conservative news site over comments linking him to illegal gambling.
“I thought Chris Brown was just an entertainer,” Pettway quipped on the radio. “I was like ‘why does Chris Brown have some dealings with me?’”
In his lawsuit, Bruce Pettway said statements made on “Alabama’s Morning News with JT” talk radio in 2024, which were then printed by 1819 News, were part of ongoing political efforts to defame him and his brother, the sheriff.
In October 2024, Bruce Pettway sued GOP chairman Brown along with 1819 News, on allegations that they purposely defamed his reputation by maliciously linking him to illegal bingo operations.
“The court finds, as a matter of law, that the statements made by defendant Christopher Brown and published by defendant 1819 News LLC constitute defamation per se under Alabama law,” Grant wrote in her order.
On Monday, the businessman repeated his legal argument that the bingo allegations were a ruse to tarnish both him and his brother.
Lawyers for Brown and 1819 News denied defaming Pettway in their court filings. An attorney representing 1819 News has, thus far, not responded to requests for comment.
Brown’s lawyers also pushed against monetary damages, arguing that the “excessive” fines would violate the U.S. Constitution.
Nevertheless, Brown complied with Pettway’s demand for a retraction in June 2024.
Both sides in Bruce Pettway’s case will return to court for the second portion of the case before a jury that will determine damages.
Sheriff Mark Pettway said political moves go beyond removing him from office and include a greater, more nefarious partisan goal of removing all county elections officials. Those include the sheriff, circuit clerk and probate judge.
“They want to control all the elections here and throughout all the United States,” he said. “They want to take control of everyone who is over elections.”
The sheriff told Richardson that he and his brother would have to be “the most sophisticated criminals in the world” to do all the things that they have been accused of doing by their detractors.
“You can believe the lie all day long but have some evidence,” Mark Pettway said. “Everybody in the world, local, state and federal have investigated us. What evidence has there been? None, because there is none.”
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit al.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
