Attorney General Asks Judge To Revoke Probation For Tuscaloosa Private Investigator Charged With Stalking

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama Attorney General’s Office has asked a Hale County judge to revoke the probation of Tuscaloosa private investigator Michael Eugene Hearing after his arrest on a felony electronic stalking charge this week.

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In the Hale County case, Hearing previously pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and, on Sept. 8, 2023, received a 10-year sentence with a two-year split. Both the split and the underlying sentence were suspended, and he was placed on three years of unsupervised probation.

The filing points out that Hearing, 58, was charged and arrested in Tuscaloosa County on a new count of electronic stalking while on probation, violating mandatory conditions.

The motion was filed Thursday by Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office and signed by Assistant Attorney General Chenelle M. Smith.

As Patch previously reported, Tuscaloosa Police confirmed on Wednesday that a woman contacted police on June 14 after finding a tracking device on her vehicle. Investigators then determined the tracker was registered to Hearing.

He was later charged with first-degree electronic stalking — a Class C felony — booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Wednesday and released on a $30,000 bond.

It is unclear what his connection is to the woman or whether the device was placed as part of his work as a private investigator.

Tuscaloosa defense attorney Stuart Albea has been hired to represent Hearing.

“Mr. Hearing has dedicated much of his career to serving this community, and he firmly denies these allegations and looks forward to clearing his name in court,” Albea told Patch Thursday morning.

Records show Hearing is a former Tuscaloosa Police officer who began at the department in 1993 and left in 1997 for the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney’s Office before entering private practice as a licensed investigator.

His state PI license remains active, was renewed on June 18 and is set to expire in March 2027.

As for the case in Hale County, Hearing was indicted in 2023 on charges rape, sodomy and incest tied to alleged conduct roughly two decades earlier. He later entered a plea to second-degree assault and received three years of unsupervised probation in the Fourth Judicial Circuit.

A hearing date on the state’s revocation request had not been set as of Thursday.

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