John Pilati
The former district attorney of Franklin County faces a shoplifting charge after his arrest at Walmart in Russellville.
The Russellville Police Department said John Fredrick Pilati, 57, was arrested at 3:35 p.m. Tuesday. He's charged with shoplifting $500 or less, which is a misdemeanor.
Pilati was released on bond after being in custody for less than an hour.
Pilati, publisher of the Franklin Free Press, also is on the Alabama Sex Offender Registry.
He was convicted in 2007 after facing charges that "between March 2001 and February 2004, while serving as district attorney, Pilati started and personally administered a drug-testing program for individuals suspected or convicted of misdemeanor drug violations. The evidence also demonstrated that during the course of administering some of these tests, Pilati repeatedly fondled the genitals of young men who ranged in age from 16 to 20 years old," according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
On both the Alabama and Franklin County sex offender online registries, his crime is listed as "deprivation of civil rights."
