Adams County board hears plans for new public defenders office

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Newly appointed Adams County Public Defender Jeffrey Harness said he’s selected four attorneys to help him represent people charged with crimes who can’t afford to hire their own lawyers.

Attorneys Lydia Blackmon, Tim Blalock, Zach Jex and Aisha Sanders will be working with Harness, who was appointed by Circuit Judge Lillie Blackmon Sanders as the county’s chief public defender.

At Sanders’ request, the Adams County Board of Supervisors last month agreed to create the public defenders office to replace the previous practice of retaining nine private attorneys the court randomly calls on to represent criminal defendants.

The costs of paying the five attorneys and other expenses is projected at about $320,000 a year. It’s more money than the previous system but is considered a better way to ensure accused criminals’ rights to effective legal representation are secured. Harness said the five attorneys selected are committed to adequately defending their indigent clients.

The attorneys will continue in their private practices, and Harness said he’ll continue serving as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from Jefferson County.

It’s uncertain how many hours the part-time defenders will be working in Adams County courts. Harness noted Adams County generally has about 30 to 40 criminal cases per court term. He said Blackmon and Sanders will not be representing clients in cases being heard by Judge Sanders, who’s related to the two attorneys.

The board agreed to continue to jointly operate the E-911 system with Natchez for dispatchers taking emergency police, fire and ambulance phone calls. The total annual cost is about $657,000 with the county and city evenly sharing the expenses on a 50-50 basis.

Natchez and Adams County officials continue to reassess their jointly funded recreation program and plan to visit Vicksburg on Friday to see how the city operates its parks and sports venues. While Natchez and Adams County boards consolidated their recreation programs in 2015, the joint venture has not lived up to expectations.

The Board of Supervisors agreed to help the city demolish the old A&P grocery store to make way for an expanded parking lot for the new business that will occupy the now-vacant Regions bank building on Franklin Street. The county will provide heavy equipment and operators for the demolition project. Natchez and Adams County workers are tearing down the long-closed grocery store as part of the accommodations state and local governments are providing to attract Loss Prevention Services and its 200 employees expected to work in the adjacent bank building.

County workers continue their clean-up operations after Hurricane Delta roared through the region Oct. 9. Strong winds downed more than 200 trees, destroyed four houses and damaged 26, according to Adams County officials. They’re planning to get county workers into neighborhoods next week to remove storm debris gathered by residents for curbside pickup, said county road manager Robbie Dollar.

Jack Blaney told county supervisors his plans to organize a “minuteman” group has been “misconstrued” to mean it’ll be promoting “bigotry and hate.” “I never brought that up,” he said, pointing to his previous meeting with the board two weeks ago to discuss his plans to help law-enforcement authorities. Blaney noted then he wanted to donate money to purchase tasers for law officers, and he vaguely mentioned the “minutemen” group he planned to organize in the Kingston area to address public safety. Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten has said he doesn’t want such a group of civilians.