Former Lauderdale Co. judge Gil Self sentenced to 12 years in prison

LAUDERDALE CO., Ala. (WAFF) - Former Lauderdale County Judge Gil Self was sentenced to 12 years on Wednesday.

Self was convicted on multiple charges, including using his office for personal gain, making false statements, and perjury in November 2025 after an eight-day trial.

Self, who became a circuit judge in 2009, was convicted of using county funds to buy a couch, prescription glasses, and vacations disguised as judicial conferences/classes.

Self was found guilty on 17 of the 18 charges he was facing, including 14 counts of using his office for personal gain; a charge that carries a potential sentence of two to 20 years in prison.

For the first time since the investigation began, Self publicly spoke right before receiving his punishment.

He apologized to the community, to his family and to the office in general. Self explained when addressing the court that he first stepped foot into the fifth floor courtroom 45 years ago while in high school and from there he was tied to it: serving as an attorney, then a judge and now being sentenced to prison in it and taken out in handcuffs.

A process that he normally saw from the other side of the bench.

Now he’s appealing and his attorneys say the process is far from over though.

“We’ve previously indicated there are substantial legal issues that were raised during the trial, all which have been preserved,” Attorney Mark White said. “Last time I was standing out here on this outdoor patio I said we were in the first quarter, well we’re now at halftime.”

Self is out on an appeal bond of $20,000 and will be while the appeal process takes place.

“It will go to a Supreme Court of Alabama, court of current appeals in the Supreme Court of Alabama,” White said. “Then it will be reviewed there for errors in the law and we had raised a number of constitutional issues as well as legal issues in the case. So those will be preserved and will have to be addressed on appeal.”

Self was sentenced to:

Count 1- 24 months

Count 2- 24 months

Count 3- Not guilty - This count was in reference to Self employing his son and using the Law Library Fund to pay him.

Count 4- 48 months

Count 5- 36 months

Count 6- 36 months

Count 7- 48 months

Count 8- 48 months

Count 9- 48 months

Count 10- 48 months

Count 11- 48 months

Count 12- 48 months

Count 13- 36 months

Count 14- 36 months

Count 15- this is the misdemeanor, 6 months

Count 16- 24 months

Count 17- false representation, 24 months

Count 18- perjury, 36 months

In total, that adds up to over 600 months that Self was sentenced to, however, the presiding judge ruled that some would run concurrently so ultimately Self will serve 144 months. Judge Jolley denied all other alternative option requests, such as probation, community service, etc.

My first apology needs to go to my community,” Self said ahead of the sentencing. “I have failed them, and in that same community, it was those 12 jurors that we selected, and I respect their decision. I respect their verdict. I own it. I have suffered consequences, and I will continue to suffer the consequences. That’s on me. I ask them for their forgiveness. I put them through a long trial.

In kind of a general sense to you, Judge Jolley — I owe an apology because I have shamed it, stained, embarrassed it — I broke the very trust of the office. It is crushing to me that an institution that I have respected, adored all my adult life, that I have harmed.

Ahead of his sentencing, prosecutors filed a 34-page sentencing brief outlining Self’s financial crimes. In those documents, the prosecution said “what should have been public service was Self service.”

The State wanted Self to serve five years in a state penitentiary as part of a 20-year sentence.

Self’s attorneys filed a motion asking for no prison time at all. His legal team says that 58 people wrote character letters for the presiding judge, Tim Jolley, to read over before the sentencing.

Judge Jolley says that he respects how much of the community showed up today but that he had to remain true to the fact that the law needs to treat everyone equally, especially those who were elected to uphold it.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also weighed in on Wednesday’s sentencing:

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