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Stan Stabler, head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, responds to statements made by Spencer Collier, the now former head of ALEA, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in Montgomery, Ala. Gov. Robert Bentley fired Collier Tuesday.

A year ago, Stan Stabler could have ended all this, but that would have required him telling the truth about his boss. Instead, he accepted a promotion and lied in a press conference to protect that boss, Gov. Robert Bentley.

If Stabler were just another Montgomery politician or state capital bureaucrat, that might not be such a big deal. But he's not. Stabler, at least of this writing, is still Alabama's top cop, secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

If Alabama has a crooked cop at the top of its ranks, then we still have a big problem, Luv Guv or no Luv Guv. That's something a lot worse than carrying on an affair, and it's something that should scare every Alabamian.

Let's rewind to that day last year.

On March 23, former ALEA Sec. Spencer Collier and Gov. Robert Bentley held dueling press conferences. In the first, Collier went public with his knowledge of Bentley's affair with Mason. In the second, Bentley denied that he had done anything wrong but making inappropriate comments, which had been surreptitiously recorded by his wife and later leaked to the media through family and former staffers.

But before Bentley faced the media equivalent of a firing squad that day, he asked his newly appointed ALEA secretary, Stabler to rebut some of Collier's claims.

In particular, he denied that he had seen explicit texts.

"First, the allegation and implication from Mr. Collier in reference to me intercepting a sexually explicit text in August of 2014 is completely false and without merit," Stabler said.

Two weeks later, Stabler sent an op-ed to newspapers throughout the state, again disputing Collier's claims.

Fast forward a year.

Here's what we know now.

According to testimony taken during the Alabama House impeachment investigation, that op-ed and other statements sent out by Stabler were at the very least edited, if not written, by Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

According to testimony given by Ray Lewis, who had been Stabler's boss when Stabler served as the governor's bodyguard, Stabler indeed took note of the governor's texts, including his sudden, increased use of emojis.

And according to testimony from Heather Hannah, Dianne Bentley's once chief of staff, Stabler had some divided loyalties.

According to the investigators' report, "Hannah testified that Stabler would 'feed Ms. Bentley information about the affair and the whereabouts and how they were communicating and where they were going. And even if it wasn't listed on a flight log, Stan would still tell us what was going on.'"

Hannah had left the governor's office in June of 2014, but she said she continued to talk to Stabler about the affair.

"Soon after I left I did talk to Stan Stabler on several occasions when he would be expressing concern about Governor Bentley's whereabouts with Rebekah Mason," she told the committee investigators. "Sometimes he would share that with me I guess because he couldn't get in touch with Ms. Bentley sometimes out of concern for her and just keeping me aware of what was going on."

But when forced to make a choice, Stabler sided with the governor over Dianne. Ahead of the governor's second inauguration, the first lady had been reluctant to go. She told Stabler she would attend but not to tell the governor.

"When Governor Bentley and Stabler arrived back in the office that evening, Stabler told Governor Bentley what Ms. Bentley had said," investigators wrote in their report. "He told Governor Bentley that, although he did not want to betray Ms. Bentley's trust, "I work for you."

I work for you.

That's what he told the governor, according to his own testimony to the House committee investigators.

But there's just one thing. Stan Stabler might have worked for the governor, but he was supposed to work for you, and for me, and for Mrs. Bentley, and for every other Alabamian.

He was supposed to be a public servant, and when his moment came to serve the public, to tell the truth that day last year, instead he accepted a promotion, to then have risen from the governor's bodyguard to the head of the state's largest law enforcement agency.

He was supposed to look out for the people.

Instead, he looked out for himself.