Alabama Attorney General Troy King asked Roy Johnson late last year to hire a friend's mother while King's office was investigating the state's two-year college system and Johnson, its chancellor.

King said Saturday, when contacted about the request, that he didn't think much of it at the time. But now that the issue has become public, he will step aside from the investigation of Johnson, who was fired in July. King said he will ask St. Clair County District Attorney Richard Minor to oversee his staff's work.

"Looking back now, it probably was not the best decision," King said. "If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't do it."

King asked Johnson to find a job for Ann Hinderer, whose son Marc Bass is a deputy attorney general for King. King said he and Bass are friends, and Bass was a top aide working on special projects for King and traveling with him.

Hinderer was hired Jan. 3 at Southern Union State Community College for $20,980 a year as a cashier in the business office, records show.

It's not clear from Southern Union records available last week if Hinderer, 56, had to compete with other candidates for the job.

Johnson, who previously had been Southern Union president, said Friday he did not want to discuss Hinderer's hiring. "I'm just not commenting on that," Johnson said. He praised King as "an honest, Christian guy. I have the highest regard for him."

Johnson would say only that after he became chancellor in 2002, many people contacted him for help with getting jobs or finding work for their friends and relatives.

The state school board fired Johnson following revelations by The Birmingham News about jobs and contracts that Johnson's family received in the system. Part of a joint investigation under way by King and federal prosecutors involves jobs and contracts given to Johnson's relatives and friends.

Efforts to reach Bass and Hinderer for comment failed.

King said he didn't see anything wrong with helping Bass find a job for his mother.

"He asked me if I'd be willing to get her resume to Dr. Johnson, and I did," King said.

Inquiry dates to '04

King, who this month was elected to a full four-year term, was appointed attorney general by Gov. Bob Riley in March 2004. State and federal prosecutors have been investigating Alabama's two-year college system for some time, dating back to at least September 2004, when federal agents raided the Alabama Fire College in Tuscaloosa.

The firefighter-training school, on the Shelton State Community College campus, has been under intense scrutiny, and investigators have expanded their work into other areas of the two-year college system since the raid, according to court filings and interviews with system officials who have appeared before a federal grand jury.

The investigation has led to a state lawmaker resigning his post and pleading guilty; a guilty plea from a former Fire College official; and indictments of a Jasper banker and two Fire College employees.

King said he would not discuss how much he knew about the investigation's focus on Johnson when he contacted him about Hinderer's job. "I was aware that there was an investigation ongoing into parts of postsecondary education," he said, declining to elaborate.

King said he called Johnson and asked for his help in finding a job for Hinderer, who he said previously worked for a veterinary clinic. "If there was anything available based on what I knew about her son, I thought she would work hard for the state," he said.

"Roy called back," King said. "He said he thought it might work out."

'No quid pro quo'

King said he never discussed exchanging favors with Johnson when Hinderer was hired. "There was no suggestion of any quid pro quo," King said. "It's not really an uncommon thing. A lot of people I know, a lot of people I don't know, I try to help."

King hired Bass, 33, as a deputy attorney general last year, placing Bass in the executive division as an aide who worked directly with him. Bass received his Alabama law license in 2004. He now writes criminal appeals briefs for the state, King said.

King said he also contacted Johnson in the early part of 2005 to ask his help in finding a job in the two-year system for Virginia Rogers, whom King said he knew from her days as Gov. Fob James' commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. King said he did not know if Johnson found Rogers a job.

Personnel records from the two-year system available last week did not show Rogers on the system payroll. Efforts to reach Rogers for comment Saturday failed.

King said he had other conversations with Johnson after his office began its work with U.S. Attorney Alice Martin's staff in the criminal investigation. But he said, "I never talked to him about the investigation."

King said he believes he still may be able to work on other parts of the two-year college investigation that don't involve Johnson. "We'll be making decisions in conjunction with the U.S. attorney's office about what is proper and what is improper," he said.

Efforts to reach Martin for comment failed.

King said he didn't do anything improper in his dealings with Johnson. He said he understood his actions could be perceived as inappropriate.

"It's unfortunate in Montgomery that no good deed goes unpunished," he said.