Category: Regional News

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A longtime Mississippi lawmaker faces up to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of willfully making a false statement on a tax return — a conviction that does not preclude him from seeking reelection this year.

Democratic Rep. Earle Banks of Jackson appeared before U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate and admitted he had failed to report more than $500,000 of income from the 2018 sale of real estate.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 21. Banks, 68, is funeral director and attorney. He has been in the House since 1993.

“Mr. Banks has cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and today he had an opportunity to speak directly to the judge,” his attorney, Rob McDuff, said in a statement Wednesday. “He admitted his mistake in failing to report on his tax return the proceeds from the sale of this land that been in his family for many years.”

A federal charging document was first filed against Banks, under seal, on April 14. It was unsealed Thursday. The document shows Banks claimed adjusted gross income of $38,237 even though he knew he had received more than $500,000 from the sale of real estate.

Banks is unopposed as he seeks reelection this year in House District 67, which is entirely in Hinds County.

Conviction of many felony charges disqualifies people from holding public offices in Mississippi, but convictions for manslaughter or violating federal tax laws do not prevent people from seeking or holding office, including a legislative seat.

Banks ran unsuccessfully for a Mississippi Supreme Court seat in 2012.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the appointment of four state court judges in the majority-Black county that is home to Mississippi’s capital city — appointments that drew protests from local residents who said white state officials were stomping on civil rights.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate issued the temporary restraining order at the request of the NAACP, and he set a May 22 hearing to consider extending the order.

The national civil rights organization, its Mississippi chapter and its local chapter in Jackson filed a federal lawsuit April 21, hours after Gov. Tate Reeves signed laws to expand state policing in the capital city of Jackson, establish a court with an appointed judge and authorize four appointed judges to work alongside the four elected circuit court judges in Hinds County.

Members of the majority-white and Republican-led Legislature who pushed for the changes said they were trying to curb crime in Jackson. Local residents protested that state officials were usurping power in Jackson and Hinds County, which are majority-Black and governed by Democrats.

Under one of the laws, Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Randolph was supposed to appoint four circuit judges by this week to serve until the end of 2026 — most of the current four-year term.

“Thanks to an emergency motion we filed last last night, Chief Justice Randolph cannot begin any undemocratic court packing in Jackson until NAACP v. Reeves moves forward,” the national NAACP posted Friday on Twitter. “We are prepared to fight for our freedom.”

Another lawsuit that challenges the new laws is pending in Hinds County Chancery Court. Three Jackson residents who are plaintiffs in that lawsuit testified Wednesday that having appointed rather than elected judges would rob them of equal rights because the state constitution requires the election of most judges.

Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas was considering a request for a temporary restraining order similar to the one Wingate issued in federal court.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday released what he said were all of his text and email messages related to a welfare fraud investigation — including money spent on building a university volleyball arena that was pushed by NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre.

The 436 pages of messages had several that already appeared in court filings, including exchanges from 2017 to 2019 between the governor and the retired quarterback, with Favre saying he had agreed to raise money for the volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi and asking Bryant for help with that effort.

From 2016 to 2019, the Mississippi Department of Human Services misspent more than $77 million in welfare money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in the U.S., according to the state auditor. Prosecutors have said the department gave money to nonprofit organizations that spent it on projects such as the $5 million volleyball facility on the Hattiesburg campus.

Bryant, a Republican, finished his second and final term as governor in January 2020. Weeks later, the first criminal charges were filed against six people, including John Davis, a Department of Human Services director chosen by Bryant.

Bryant earned a degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1977, more than a decade before Favre played football there. Favre’s daughter started playing volleyball there in 2017.

Messages released Thursday show Favre and Bryant discussed the possibility of financial help for the volleyball project from Davis and Nancy New, a Bryant ally who ran a nonprofit organization that had Human Services contracts to spend welfare money.

Bryant has previously said he found out in July 2019 that welfare money might have been misspent. In a text that month, Favre wrote to Bryant: “I want you to know how much I love Nancy New and John Davis. What they have done for me and Southern Miss is amazing.”

Favre wrote that he and New’s organization “were planning to do workshops and youth clinics in the new Vball facility” but “I was informed today that she may not be able to fund her part. I and we need your help very badly Governor and sorry to even bring this up.”

Bryant responded: “I will handle that… long story but had to make a change. But I will call Nancy and see what it will take.”

Days later, Bryant texted Favre to say the state auditor was reviewing Human Services contracts.

“Don’t want to get anyone in trouble for improper expenditures,” Bryant wrote.

In a video posted online Thursday hours before he released text and email messages, Bryant repeated what he has said before — that he was the 2019 whistleblower who told the auditor’s office about misdeeds at the Department of Human Services.

“The fact is, I did nothing wrong,” Bryant said in the video. “I wasn’t aware of the wrongdoings of others. When I received evidence that suggested people appeared to be misappropriating funds, I immediately reported that to the agency whose job it is to investigate these matters.”

The Mississippi Department of Human Services, with a new director, filed a civil lawsuit last year against Favre, three former pro wrestlers and more than three dozen other people and businesses to try to recover more than $20 million of the misspent money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.

No criminal charges have been filed against Bryant, and he is not being sued. Attorneys for some of the defendants in the civil suit have filed court papers that include text-message exchanges between Bryant, Favre and others about spending welfare money on the volleyball arena.

In November, Bryant’s attorney cited executive privilege in seeking to block a subpoena that sought more information from the former governor. In March, three news organizations — the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, the Mississippi Free Press and Mississippi Today — filed papers opposing Bryant’s effort to seal any information he would provide to the court.

“After much thought and discussion with counsel, I’ve made the decision to forgo any arguments about executive privilege on my text messages in this matter and simply release them all,” Bryant said in Thursday’s video. “Frankly, I’m tired of paying legal fees to respond to lawsuits that I’m not a party to in order to protect my privacy and an executive privilege that should exist for future governors.”

Davis pleaded guilty last year in the welfare misspending case, as did New. Like Bryant and Favre, New attended the University of Southern Mississippi. As part of her guilty plea, she acknowledged her organization directed welfare money toward the volleyball arena and a pharmaceutical project backed by Favre. No criminal charges have been brought against Favre.

CONWAY, Miss. (AP) — A man who escaped from a Mississippi jail and is suspected in a Monday night killing died after barricading himself in a home and setting it on fire during an armed standoff with deputies, authorities said Wednesday.

Plumes of smoke emanated from the charred remains of the home in Conway, hours after a body was recovered. Dylan Arrington, 22, perished inside the home, setting it ablaze after shooting a deputy in the leg, Leake County Sheriff Randy Atkinson told The Associated Press.

“He inflicted that kind of terror after escaping from jail, killing people and shooting law enforcement. But that guy won’t be killing anyone else,” Atkinson said.

In a statement posted online in the evening, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones said the remains had been positively identified as Arrington. The cause of death was under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have been pursuing Arrington and three other inmates who broke out over the weekend from a Mississippi jail under federal scrutiny. Arrington is suspected of killing a man and stealing his pickup truck after the escape.

The owner of the torched Conway home said he saw someone matching Arrington’s description hiding inside a trailer behind his house on Tuesday evening. He notified the sheriff’s office and fled with his family. Investigators searched the property, but there was no trace of Arrington. They continued the search through the night with drones and a helicopter.

Around 7 a.m. Wednesday, Atkinson and a deputy returned to the property with the homeowner. After a short meeting, the homeowner discovered Arrington inside. He sprinted outside and alerted the officers, who were standing in the driveway. Arrington then exchanged gunfire with them through a window, striking the deputy in the leg, Atkinson said.

Within a two-hour period, the house was set ablaze from within, he said. Investigators waited until the fire was out before they approached the home and found a body.

The injured deputy was transported to a hospital where he was stabilized.

Multiple law enforcement agencies continued searching parts of the state, after the Leake County Sheriff’s Office told residents to “please keep your doors locked and have no keys or weapons in your vehicles.”

The U.S. Marshals Service and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are among the agencies assisting in the search.

Police said Anthony Watts, a 61-year-old church pastor, was shot and killed Monday around 7 p.m. on Interstate 55 in Jackson after he pulled over to help a man who had wrecked a motorcycle. That man shot Watts several times and then stole his Red Dodge Ram, police said. Watts died at the scene.

The suspect in that shooting fit the description of Arrington, Jackson Police Chief James E. Davis said.

Casey Grayson, Corey Harrison and Jerry Raynes are the other three prisoners who escaped Saturday night from the Raymond Detention Center, a facility near Jackson, through breaches in a cell and the roof. Jones said the men might have camped out on the roof before fleeing and going their separate ways.

Raynes was spotted on surveillance footage at a service station in Spring Valley, a suburb of Houston, at 11 a.m. Sunday, Jones said Wednesday in a statement. Investigators believe he fled to Texas after stealing a Hinds County Public Works vehicle, which was recovered in Spring Valley. It was unknown whether Raynes traveled alone.

The four escapees had been in custody for various felony charges, most involving theft. Arrington had charges of auto theft and illegal possession of a firearm, WAPT-TV reported.

Watts’ stolen Red Dodge Ram, which has tan trim and Cowboys stickers on the front and the back, was last seen heading south on I-55 in Terry, Mississippi, police said.

Investigators also believe a stolen Chevy Silverado is connected to the escape.

Raynes, Grayson and Harrison remained at large.

In July, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered a rare takeover of the Raymond jail after he said deficiencies in supervision and staffing led to “a stunning array of assaults, as well as deaths.”

But before the appointed receiver was scheduled to assume control over the jail Jan. 1, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the lower court’s order until it ruled on the county’s motion for reconsideration.