Story Archive

Thou Shalt Not

An Alabama judge has set bail for Richard Lee Shahan, 53, at $100,000 — and if he manages to raise that bail, he must agree to house arrest under electronic monitoring to ensure he doesn’t leave the country. Shahan, a former pastor at the First Baptist Church in Homewood, is accused of murdering his wife, who was found stabbed to death; he was arrested as he tried to board a plane for Germany with $27,000 in cash in his luggage. Prosecutors say they waded through 3,000 of his emails and determined that after Germany, he planned to then head for Kazakhstan, and never return to the U.S. Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Leigh Gwathney says the emails show Shahan planned to “begin a new life with his boyfriend, who he intended to marry. He had no home to return to and he had said his goodbyes to his family.” Nonsense, says Shahan’s attorneys, who say prosecutors “are doing everything they can to try to manufacture a murder case.” Rather, they say, he was simply heading to Germany for a three-year stint as a missionary. (RC/Birmingham News) ...A position as a missionary, the missionary position — what’s the difference?