Trial of Harvey Updyke starts today

Harvey Updyke didn’t play football for the University of Alabama.

Harvey Updyke didn’t attend the University of Alabama.

But the former Texas State Police Officer did something in Alabama’s name that will love on long in infamy: He poisoned the oaks at Toomer’s Corner, which are always dressed in toilet paper after the Auburn Tigers have victory. In 2010, he called the Paul Finebaum Show and told millions of listeners he had done the dirty deed, so annoyed he was after the Tide lost to their hated Auburn rivals.

According to Al.com, Updyke was charged with “two felony counts of first-degree criminal mischief, two felony counts of unlawful damage to property from a crop facility and two misdemeanor counts of desecrating a venerated object.”

The oaks themselves have been mixed in their reaction to the herbicide, with some of them showing signs of a reaction to herbicide and other foilage not. It is not thought that Toomer’s Oaks will make a full recovery – and it will be a miracle if they make any one at all.