Jackson Mississippi Police Officer Sgt. Richard McGahee Arrested And Charged After Accepting A Bribe

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - A Jackson police officer has been arrested and now faces charges of accepting a bribe, confirmed Attorney General Jim Hood.

Richard McGahee, 43, of Clinton has been indicted by a Hinds County Grand Jury for allegedly accepting a bribe in exchange for granting a field release for a suspect.

McGahee was arrested last night on the charge by investigators of the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Division with
assistance from the Jackson Police Department and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office.

McGahee presently serves as a Sergeant with the Jackson Police Department.

The Attorney General’s Public Integrity Division has been working with the FBI on this case.

McGahee was arraigned in Hinds County Circuit Court Wednesday morning in front of Judge Jeff Weill, who set bond at $15,000 and trial for February 11, 2013.

If convicted, McGahee faces up to 10 years behind bars.

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US Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against In Mississippi After Meridian Police, Lauderdale County Court, And State’s Youth Services Routinely Imprisoned Children Without Probable Cause And Due Process For School Dress Code Violations, Farts, Profanity, And Disrespect

MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI – The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has released investigative findings determining that children in predominantly black Meridian, Miss. have had their constitutional rights violated by the Lauderdale County Youth Court, the Meridian Police Department, and the Mississippi Division of Youth Services in what civil rights investigators allege is a school to prison pipeline with even dress code violations resulting in incarceration.

The Justice Department has been investigating the agencies since December 2011 and found that the police department arrests children without probable cause, violating the children’s Fourth Amendment protections of unlawful search and seizure.

Also in the findings letter the Civil Rights Division alleges that “Lauderdale County and the Youth Court Judges violate the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments by failing to provide children procedural due process in the youth court. Lauderdale County, the Youth Court judges, and the Mississippi Division of Youth Services violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments by failing to provide children procedural due process rights in the probationary process.”

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect against abuse of government authority in legal proceedings and fairness of due process rights, respectively.

“The system established by the City of Meridian, Lauderdale County, and DYS to incarcerate children for school suspensions ‘shocks the conscience,’ resulting in the incarceration of children for alleged ‘offenses’ such as dress code violations, flatulence, profanity, and disrespect.” The Justice Department findings letter noted.

Describing the “school-to-prison pipeline” the Justice Department findings letter noted of the alleged abuses by the police, “By policy and practice, [the Meridian Police Department] MPD automatically arrests all students referred to MPD by the District. The children arrested by MPD are then sent to the County juvenile justice system, where existing due process protections are illusory and inadequate. The Youth Court places children on probation, and the terms of the probation set by the Youth Court and DYS require children on probation to serve any suspensions from school incarcerated in the juvenile detention center.”

“The systematic disregard for children’s basic constitutional rights by agencies with a duty to protect and serve these children betrays the public trust,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. “We hope to resolve the concerns outlined in our findings in a collaborative fashion, but we will not hesitate to take appropriate legal action if necessary.”

About 62 percent of Meridian’s population is African American, and the Justice Department alleges that mostly African American children and children with disabilities are impacted by the unconstitutional policies.

The Justice Department alleged in its findings letter that two Youth Court Judges have consistently denied civil rights investigators access to information about the policies and practices of the Youth Court.

The Civil Rights Division is seeking to negotiate with Meridian officials on the findings and if an agreement is not reached, the Justice Department can sue them.

The Meridian Police Department declined to comment when contacted by ABC News. ABC News is also awaiting comment from the Mississippi Division of Youth Services, the county court and an attorney representing the city of Meridian.

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Lauderdale County Mississippi Running School To Prison Pipeline – Kids Imprisoned For Minor Offense, Like Talking Too Much

MISSISSIPPI – Officials in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, have operated “a school-to-prison pipeline” that violates the constitutional rights of juveniles by incarcerating them for alleged school disciplinary infractions, some as minor as defiance, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.

“Students most affected by this system are African-American children and children with disabilities,” the Justice Department said.

The federal agency’s civil rights division seeks “meaningful negotiations” in 60 days to end the constitutional violations or else a federal lawsuit would be filed against state, county and local officials in Meridian, according to a Justice Department letter dated Friday to those officials.

The letter also names two Lauderdale County Youth Court judges, Frank Coleman and Veldore Young.

State and local officials couldn’t be reached immediately for comment Friday.

“The systematic disregard for children’s basic constitutional rights by agencies with a duty to protect and serve these children betrays the public trust,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant U.S. attorney general, said in a statement. “We hope to resolve the concerns outlined in our findings in a collaborative fashion, but we will not hesitate to take appropriate legal action if necessary.”

In 2009, the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility in Meridian was the target of a federal class-action lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center that alleged children and teens were subjected to “shockingly inhumane” treatment, the center said.

The alleged mistreatment included youngsters being “crammed into small, filthy cells and tormented with the arbitrary use of Mace as a punishment for even the most minor infractions — such as ‘talking too much’ or failing to sit in the ‘back of their cells,’” the center said in a statement.

In 2010, Lauderdale County officials and the center reached an agreement to reform the jail system and consider alternatives to sending youths to the detention center, said the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group.

“I think this is evidence of a broken system where the most vulnerable population of kids are not receiving their constitutionally guaranteed rights,” Jody Owens II, managing attorney for the center’s Mississippi office, told CNN.

On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department accused Meridian police of automatically arresting all students referred by the city’s public schools and then sending them to the county juvenile justice system, “where existing due process protections are illusory and inadequate,” the federal letter says.

The police department command staff and officers characterized their agency as a “taxi service” for the schools and juvenile detention facility, without assessing the circumstances of the alleged charges against students, the Justice Department said.

“The Youth Court places children on probation, and the terms of the probation set by the Youth Court and DYS require children on probation to serve any suspensions from school incarcerated in the juvenile detention center,” the Justice Department letter said.

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BROKE: 16 States Now Rationing Prescription Drugs For Medicaid Patients

WASHINGTON, DC – Sixteen states have set a limit on the number of prescription drugs they will cover for Medicaid patients, according to Kaiser Health News.

Seven of those states, according to Kaiser Health News, have enacted or tightened those limits in just the last two years.

Medicaid is a federal program that is carried out in partnership with state governments. It forms an important element of President Barack Obama’s health-care plan because under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–AKA Obamcare–a larger number of people will be covered by Medicaid, as the income cap is raised for the program.

With both the expanded Medicaid program and the federal subsidy for health-care premiums that will be available to people earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, a larger percentage of the population will be wholly or partially dependent on the government for their health care under Obamacare than are now.

In Alabama, Medicaid patients are now limited to one brand-name drug, and HIV and psychiatric drugs are excluded.

Illinois has limited Medicaid patients to just four prescription drugs as a cost-cutting move, and patients who need more than four must get permission from the state.

Speaking on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, Phil Galewitz, staff writer for Kaiser Health News, said the move “only hurts a limited number of patients.”

“Drugs make up a fair amount of costs for Medicaid. A lot of states have said a lot of drugs are available in generics where they cost less, so they see this sort of another move to push patients to take generics instead of brand,” Galewitz said.

“It only hurts a limited number of patients, ‘cause obviously it hurts patients who are taking multiple brand name drugs in the case of Alabama, Illinois. Some of the states are putting the limits on all drugs. It’s another place to cut. It doesn’t hurt everybody, but it could hurt some,” he added.

Galewitz said the move also puts doctors and patients in a “difficult position.”

“Some doctors I talked to would work with patients with asthma and diabetes, and sometimes it’s tricky to get the right drugs and the right dosage to figure out how to control some of this disease, and just when they get it right, now the state is telling them that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get all this coverage. You may have to switch to a generic or find another way,’” he said.

Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia have all placed caps on the number of prescription drugs Medicaid patients can get.

“Some people say it’s a matter of you know states are throwing things up against the wall to see what might work, so states have tried, they’ve also tried formularies where they’ll pick certain brand name drugs over other drugs. So states try a whole lot of different things. They’re trying different ways of paying providers to try to maybe slow the costs down,” Galewitz said.

“So it seems like Medicaid’s sort of been one big experiment over the last number of years for states to try to control costs, and it’s an ongoing battle, and I think drugs is just now one of the … latest issues. And it’s a relatively recent thing, only in the last 10 years have we really seen states put these limits on monthly drugs,” he added.

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Public Schools In Jackson Mississippi Agree That They Will Stop Handcuffing Children To Poles, Railings, Desks, And Chairs As Punishment

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI – Public schools in Jackson, Mississippi, will no longer handcuff students to poles or other objects and will train staff at its alternative school on better methods of discipline.

Mississippi’s second-largest school district agreed Friday to the settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which had sued over the practice of shackling students to a pole at the district’s Capital City Alternative School.

Nationwide, a report from the U.S. Department of Education showed tens of thousands of students, 70 percent of them disabled, were strapped down or physically restrained in school in 2009-10. Advocates for disabled students say restraints are often abused, causing injury and sometimes death.

The Mississippi lawsuit was filed in June 2011 by Jeanette Murry on behalf of her then-16-year-old son, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It said staffers routinely restrained students for hours for offenses as minor as dress code violations, forcing them to eat lunch while chained to a stair railing and to shout for help when they needed to go to the bathroom.

The settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, says all district employees will stop handcuffing students younger than 13, and can only handcuff older students for crimes. In no case will employees shackle a student to a fixed object such as a railing, a pole, a desk or a chair.

“It’s apparent there were severe problems that we hope now are being addressed and will be alleviated,” Lee told lawyers in court Friday, just before signing the settlement order.

Troubles at the alternative school helped spark the proceedings that have jeopardized the accreditation of the entire 30,000-student district.

The suit also reinforces criticism of alternative schools statewide. A 2009 report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that such schools “overemphasized punishment at the expense of remediation.” That report urged that alternative schools focus instead on “intensive services delivered by a well-qualified staff in a highly structured but positive environment,” so that students could return to and succeed at regular schools.

Nationwide, there are no federal standards, although legislation is pending in Congress. The U.S. Department of Education says Mississippi is one of 13 states with no statewide rules governing restraints.

National experts have said seclusion and restraint should only be used in emergencies when there’s a threat of someone getting hurt. But people who aren’t properly trained resort to restraints when students get out of control, they say.

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Riot At Privately Owned Adams County Mississippi Correctional Facilty Leaves One Guard Dead And Others Injured – Contract Facilty Houses Federal Prisoners Including Illegal Immigrants

NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI – A prison guard was killed and several employees injured Sunday in a riot at the Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, Mississippi, officials said.

The 23-year-old guard appeared to suffer “blunt trauma to the head,” said Adams County Coroner James Lee.

The riot, which began about 2:40 p.m., was still going on Sunday night, the facility’s operator said in a statement. Local and state law enforcement officials as well as authorities from the Federal Bureau of Prisons were helping the facility quell the violence.

“The disturbance is contained within the secure perimeter of the facility, with no threat to public safety,” the statement said.

Five employees and one inmate were taken to a hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries, while additional staff members were being treated at the prison.

Johar Lashin told CNN that he’d heard a lot of noise and commotion when he talked around 6 p.m. with his brother Jawad, an inmate at the Natchez facility serving time for aiding and abetting illegal immigrants. His brother said he was not participating in the riot, despite pressure from other inmates to do so.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

Rusty Boyd, a spokesman with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, said Sunday evening that 45 to 55 units from that state agency are helping corrections officers deal with the situation.

The facility is a 2,567-bed prison that houses adult men who are in the United States illegally and charged with crimes. It is owned by the Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America.

Warden Vance Laughlin described the facility as quiet and with “few problems” in a March 2010 article in The Natchez Democrat, a few months after it opened to incarcerate illegal immigrants detained for mostly low-security crimes. At that point, it contained more than 2,000 inmates — more than two-thirds of whom were of Mexican descent, although scores of nationalities were then represented.

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Mississippi Supreme Court Upholds Pardons By Outgoing Governor, Again

MISSISSIPPI – The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday denied the state attorney general’s attempt to have it reconsider its assent to controversial pardons — several of them for convicted killers — issued earlier this year by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour.

The decision was made “without comment,” court spokeswoman Beverly Pettigrew Kraft said by e-mail.

Attorney General Jim Hood has been a harsh and persistent critic of the 214 pardons and clemencies issued by Barbour in January, shortly before the governor left office.

Besides questioning whether some convicted of violent crimes should so easily walk free, he has argued some of the pardons were invalid because they did not meet a state constitutional requirement that notices be filed each day for 30 days in newspapers based where the crimes were committed.

But Mississippi courts have consistently upheld the pardons.

The state Supreme Court was among them, ruling in March that Barbour had complete power to pardon and his authority could not be challenged.

In a statement afterward, Barbour said the decision “reaffirmed more than a century of settled law in our state,” but acknowledged that his pardons have been difficult for those who themselves or had family members victimized by those who went free.

Hood, a Democrat, didn’t give up his legal fight after that decision. In a brief filed with the state’s high court later in March, he argued the case should be reheard because the “private personal rights” of the victims, as provided by the state constitution and Mississippi Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights, were violated by the pardons.

Barbour, who also is former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has said that he believes in redemption and that people deserve second chances. Most of the pardons involved convicts who had already served their time and have since been released from prison for their crimes, but four were convicted murderers who had worked as “trusties” at the governor’s mansion.

Victims’ families have denounced the former governor for not meeting with them to discuss his reasons why he would show such leniency to these men.

They included relatives of Tammy Ellis, who was gunned down by David Gatlin in 1993 as she held her 6-week-old son.

Other convicted killers who, like Gatlin, received full pardons and were named in Hood’s brief include Charles Hooker, who was convicted in a 1991 murder, and Anthony McCray, convicted in a 2001 murder.

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Mississippi TSA Assistant Federal Security Director Ruben Orlando Benitez Charged With Stabbing Death Of Co-Worker

MISSISSIPPI – One of the top federal Transportation Security Administration officials in the state of Mississippi has been arrested in connection with the killing of TSA worker Stacey Wright.

On Sunday, D’Iberville police found Wright, 43, stabbed to death in her apartment there.

Authorities said Ruben Orlando Benitez, 45, who serves as assistant federal security director for screening for the TSA in Mississippi, has been arrested.

Bond has been set for $3 million by Justice Court Judge Albert Fountain.

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Gulfport Mississippi Police Officer Adam Dedeaux And Girlfriend Arrested For Felony Child Abuse

GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI – A Gulfport Police officer and his girlfriend were arrested Thursday and charged with Felony Child Abuse involving the woman’s two-year-old child.

Adam Dedeaux, 30, of Gulfport; and Kristen Eason, 28, of Bay St. Louis, were both being held at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center on $50,000 bond each.

The investigation began after police received information that Eason’s son showed signs of abuse.

“Child abuse alone is a difficult case, and you always have to follow the facts and go with the facts,” said Deputy Chief Leonard Papania. “The facts of this case pointed both to Adam Dedeaux and Kristen Eason, and that is what it is. We have made those arrests. We’ve worked closely with the District Attorney’s Office throughout the investigation.”

“we investigated it and we pursued it, and it is our intent to see that it is prosecuted and all parties are held accountable.”

Dedeaux is a nine year veteran of the Gulfport Police Department, assigned to the patrol division. He was placed on administrative leave from all his duties when the investigation started.

Deputy Chief Papania said the decision to put Dedeaux on leave was made because of the seriousness of the allegations.

“It’s disappointing that the number of professionals that we have working for this police department and throughout the Gulf Coast any time that a police officer is arrested for criminal misconduct,” Papania said. “It puts a bad light on all of us. And for that I, we have to be extra vigilant in our work to make sure that the public can continue to trust us.”

“Our job just got tougher today because the faith of the community in police has a bad shadow,” Papania said.

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Jackson Mississippi Police Officer Adrienne Coleman Arrested In Texas, Fired, Charged With Possessing Narcotics

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI – A Jackson police officer arrested recently in Texas on a drug charge is no longer on the force.

Jackson Police Department spokeswoman Colendula Green confirmed this evening that Adrienne Coleman, age unknown, has been let go by JPD following her arrest in Texas on March 31 for possession of narcotics.

Green said she had no details of that case, since Texas authorities handled the investigation.

She wasn’t sure how long Coleman had been with JPD but added she wasn’t a veteran of the force.

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Federal Lawsuit Charges Covington County Mississippi Deputy Sheriff Chris Jones With Wrongful Arrest And Excessive Force After Following Man Home And Attacking Him In His Own Back Yard

COVINGTON COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI – A Covington County man has filed a suit against a Covington County sheriff’s deputy alleging false imprisonment and abuse.

The case was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. It also lists Covington County as a defendant.

Scott Clifton “Toby” Davis of Seminary claims Deputy Chris Jones illegally arrested and attacked him on Jan. 13, 2010, after following him to his home.

The complaint states Jones followed him for six miles without flashing his lights or attempting to stop Davis.

The lawsuit, which represents only one side of the issue, then alleges Jones accused Davis of falsely claiming the residence was his and of possessing or selling an illicit drug. The suit states the officer eventually confirmed the residence was Davis’ but continued to accuse him of illegal sale or possession of an illicit drug.

After the incident escalated, Davis “fled in fear to the back of the house,” where he was hit with a stun device and subdued by the officer, according to the lawsuit.

He was arrested and taken to Covington County Jail. After his attorney arrived, bail was set and he was allowed to bond out.

Davis claims excessive force was used in the arrest.

He later was prosecuted in Justice Court for resisting arrest, but all charges were dismissed.

He is seeking compensatory damages including the cost of medical care in an amount to be determined by a jury.

Davis is represented by attorney Robin L. Roberts of the firm Roberts & Blackledge in Hattiesburg.

Roberts said he believes the suit is a “meritorious case” and that it “speaks for itself.” He did not provide any other statement other than he believes the case will go to court a year from now.

Covington County Sheriff Ben Ford declined to comment.

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Suspended Natchez Mississippi Police Officer Dewayne Johnson Fired After Conviction For Stealing Credit Cards

NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI – Natchez officials have voted to fire Dewayne Johnson, a police officer recently convicted of stealing credit cards from a man he arrested.

The Natchez Democrat reported that city aldermen voted on the matter Tuesday.

Johnson was found guilty March 2 of the theft of Jason Ellard’s credit cards. Federal prosecutors plan to retry Johnson and officer Elvis Prater on several counts on which a jury was unable to reach a verdict. .

Prater was acquitted of the beating of James Daniel Ellard, Jason Ellard’s brother.

The officers were each indicted on eight civil rights counts related to the beatings of the brothers, who were arrested in 2009.

Prater remains on unpaid administrative leave until remaining counts are retried in a new trial starting June 20.

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Jackson Mississippi Police Officer James Keeler Arrested, Charged After Efforts To Obtain Quantities Of Oxycontin And Other Opiates From Multiple Doctors

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — A Jackson police officer has been arrested in a drug investigation, federal officials said.

James Keeler, 45, was arrested Thursday as a result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs that lasted several months, said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Joel Reece.

The DEA contacted the Jackson Police Department, which cooperated and handed over Keeler, Reece said. JPD officials said as of Friday, Keeler is no longer employed by the department.

Keeler is accused of doctor shopping to get prescriptions for Oxycontin, Percocet and other opiates, Reece said. He obtained the drugs from veterans’ centers in Jackson and Biloxi, in addition to other hospitals and pharmacies, Reece said.

“Quantities involved stretch the imagination that they would be for personal use,” Reece said. “The abuse of prescription drugs is our fastest growing problem, not just here but in the whole country. It does not have any socioeconomic boundaries. We have a unit devoted to nothing but these types of investigations.”

Keeler was being held Friday at the Rankin County Detention Center on $40,000 bond.

“The Jackson Police Department does not condone this officer’s alleged involvement and his arrest should not be an indictment of the entire department,” JPD said in a news release.

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A-Hole Mississippi Judge, Nutcase Talmadge Littlejohn, Jailed Lawyer Who Refused To Recite The Pledge Of Allegiance In His Courtroom

NEW ALBANY, MISSISSIPPI – A Mississippi judge yesterday jailed a lawyer who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in his courtroom.

Attorney Danny Lampley, 49, was taken into custody Wednesday morning after Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn cited him for criminal contempt of court for failing to recite the 31-word pledge at the outset of the morning’s proceedings at the Lee County courthouse.

An October 6 order signed by Talmadge notes that Lampley was being charged for his “failure to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance as ordered.” Lampley, the judge added, “shall purge himself of said criminal contempt…by standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in open court.”

Lampley, pictured in the mug shots at right, was jailed for nearly five hours before Littlejohn ordered his release so that the lawyer could be present for a “previously set hearing before the Court.” The attorney, no longer in stripes, returned to the Tupelo courthouse after being sprung from jail.

It is unclear whether Lampley, who does not believe citizens are required to recite the pledge, will again be sanctioned by Littlejohn if he takes a pass on the pledge.

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DNA Tests Free Two Innocent Men Imprisoned For 30 Years – A Third Died In Prison

HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI – A judge in Hattiesburg, Mississippi today threw out the guilty pleas of two men who had spent three decades in prison for rape and murder after DNA tests showed they were innocent. The decision comes too late, however, for a third man who died in prison eight years ago.

Bobby Dixon, Phillip Bivens and Larry Ruffin were sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Eva Gail Patterson of Hattiesburg in 1979. Larry Ruffin died behind bars in 2002.

The Innocence Project filed a petition in July on behalf of Dixon and Bivens and a separate petition on behalf of Ruffin just yesterday. The advocacy group had lobbied for new DNA tests of the evidence from the 1979 rape, and tests showed that the DNA matched that of another man Andrew Harris, who is currently serving a life sentence in a Mississippi prison for a 1981 rape.

Bobby Dixon was released from prison last month in order to undergo treatment for terminal cancer, but Bivens, now 59, remained behind bars. He attended the hearing in his prison jumpsuit before being set free by the judge’s ruling.

“It was a good result in a tragic situation,” said Emily Maw, director of the Innocence Project New Orleans and lawyer for Dixon, Bivens and the Ruffin family. “This is a particularly sad case. Another man committed the crime and then let these men sit in prison for 30 years. We hope it will have an impact on how we look at confessions and guilty pleas.”

Dixon and Bivens had pleaded guilty in 1980 to the crime and claimed that Ruffin was the rapist. Dixon claimed in an interview with the Jackson Clarion-Ledger that he fingered Ruffin after police beat him. Ruffin insisted on taking his case to trial continued to maintain his innocence until his death in a prison accident.

Judge Robert Helfrich said he did not rule on Ruffin’s petition because it was received Wednesday and he had not had time to review it. Maw said that she expects the petition for Ruffin’s posthumous exoneration will not be taken up until a grand jury has decided whether to charge Andrew Harris with Patterson’s rape and murder.

The results of the DNA test make Ruffin the second inmate to have been exonerated posthumously by DNA testing. In 2009, DNA tests showed that Texas inmate Tim Cole did not commit the 1985 rape for which he was serving time. Cole died in prison in 1999.

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Ocean Springs Mississippi Police Officer Lt. Steven Futral Arrested, Suspended, Charged With Child Pornography For Images On His Home Computer – Faces Additional Charges After Child Pornography Was Found On His Department Laptop

OCEAN SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI – Ocean Springs Police Lt. Steven Futral has been arrested again today, this time charged with three additional counts of possession of child pornography.

The additional charges stem from images found on his police laptop, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd.

Futral was initially arrested Monday night on one count of possession of child pornography stemming from images found on his home computer.

He has been suspended without pay from the Ocean Springs Police Department.

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Veteran Mississippi State Police Trooper Steve Hood Drives Off Road, Crashes, Dies

MISSISSIPPI – A Mississippi state trooper is dead following a pursuit in the northeastern part of the state.

Authorities say Master Sgt. Steve Hood’s car left the highway late Friday and hit a tree near the Crossroads Military Park.

The Highway Safety Patrol says it doesn’t know why Hood was involved in the chase, but the other vehicle has been located.

The crash occurred near the border of Lee County and Prentiss County.

Hood had been a trooper since 1982.

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Red Light Cameras Outlawed In Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI – Among the bills signed into law by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday is House Bill 1568, which bans the use of cameras to catch motorists running red lights.

Jackson is among several cities in Mississippi that uses or was considering using cameras as ways to reduce accidents and raise revenues through automated ticketing. Columbus has already resolved to remove its cameras in anticipation of Barbour’s signing the bill. Other cities that were reportedly considering installation of the cameras include McComb, Natchez, Southaven and Tupelo.

The Capitol City has cameras at eight intersections around the city and a three-year contract with the company that manufacturers them, reported WAPT last week. City officials have until Oct. 1 to take down the cameras.

Mississippi joins at least eight other states in banning the automated technology, including neighboring Arkansas. Six other states are debating using cameras, which studies suggest work well to reduce the numbers of drivers who run red lights.

A story published in USA Today in 2007 cited two such studies: one in Philadelphia, Penn., and the other in Virginia Beach:

The Philadelphia study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an industry group, examined red light violations using a two-step approach. First, researchers found that violations dropped by 36% after yellow lights were extended to give drivers more warning that the light was about to turn red. After red light cameras were added, remaining violations dropped by 96%.

“There’s a dramatic change in driver behavior when red light cameras are used,” says Richard Retting, senior transportation safety engineer for IIHS. “The jury is in on that question.”

The Virginia Beach study, conducted by Old Dominion University, examined signal violations at four intersections before red light cameras were installed, while they were operating and after they were removed in 2005. Violations more than tripled by August 2006.

“That’s a huge jump,” says lead researcher Bryan Porter, an associate professor of psychology at Old Dominion. “The rate of red light running was actually higher” than before the cameras were installed.

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Red Light Cameras Outlawed In Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI – Among the bills signed into law by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday is House Bill 1568, which bans the use of cameras to catch motorists running red lights.

Jackson is among several cities in Mississippi that uses or was considering using cameras as ways to reduce accidents and raise revenues through automated ticketing. Columbus has already resolved to remove its cameras in anticipation of Barbour’s signing the bill. Other cities that were reportedly considering installation of the cameras include McComb, Natchez, Southaven and Tupelo.

The Capitol City has cameras at eight intersections around the city and a three-year contract with the company that manufacturers them, reported WAPT last week. City officials have until Oct. 1 to take down the cameras.

Mississippi joins at least eight other states in banning the automated technology, including neighboring Arkansas. Six other states are debating using cameras, which studies suggest work well to reduce the numbers of drivers who run red lights.

A story published in USA Today in 2007 cited two such studies: one in Philadelphia, Penn., and the other in Virginia Beach:

The Philadelphia study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an industry group, examined red light violations using a two-step approach. First, researchers found that violations dropped by 36% after yellow lights were extended to give drivers more warning that the light was about to turn red. After red light cameras were added, remaining violations dropped by 96%.

“There’s a dramatic change in driver behavior when red light cameras are used,” says Richard Retting, senior transportation safety engineer for IIHS. “The jury is in on that question.”

The Virginia Beach study, conducted by Old Dominion University, examined signal violations at four intersections before red light cameras were installed, while they were operating and after they were removed in 2005. Violations more than tripled by August 2006.

“That’s a huge jump,” says lead researcher Bryan Porter, an associate professor of psychology at Old Dominion. “The rate of red light running was actually higher” than before the cameras were installed.

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Another Coverup Of Police Murdering A Black Man? – Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI – Police in Mississippi want you to believe that Billey Joe Johnson, Jr. died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head while in park during a routine traffic stop. Police want you to forget that Billey Joe was black, his girlfriend was white, and that the angry white father keeping them apart was a friend of the police officer on the scene.

They also want you to forget that the official report has one glaring inconsistency in the death of an all-star high school football player weighing several major scholarship opportunities.

But Johnson’s family and the NAACP are questioning whether Johnson died from a self-inflicted gunshot. A lawyer for the family has said Johnson’s wounds did not appear to be consistent with a shotgun wound.

Willie Gaines, head of the George County chapter of the NAACP, said he, like many others in the community, believes Johnson had too much to live for to take his own life. The morning of his death, he was scheduled to attend an awards banquet. [Denver Post]

A witness heard two shots, not one, at the scene where Billey Joe died, according to an independent investigation launched by the Mississippi NAACP. The pathologist in that investigation has indicated that it would be impossible for a bullet from a self-inflicted shot to enter in the manner that it did. He also said that given the length of Billey Joe’s arms and the length of the shotgun, it would have been impossible for him to hold the weapon and fire it at himself. [dead link, via Color of Change e-mail]

Even with this evidence, will the truth ever come out? Did the cop shoot Johnson? Did the father of his girlfriend, who had been ordered not to see the boy? All we know is that on the night in question, Johnson tapped on the girl’s window, where her mother was waiting or hiding or happened to be passing by in the inside hallway. The mother called the police and Johnson took off. Color of Change notes: “This fact was not a part of the original story given by the police.”

Later, he was stopped for what the police say was a pair of traffic violations: running a red light and blowing a stop sign. The cop claims he was taking Johnson’s driver’s license back to the car when he heard a shot and the sound of glass shattering. He turned and saw Johnson’s last moments…

Appeared Here

Another Coverup Of Police Murdering A Black Man? – Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI – Police in Mississippi want you to believe that Billey Joe Johnson, Jr. died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head while in park during a routine traffic stop. Police want you to forget that Billey Joe was black, his girlfriend was white, and that the angry white father keeping them apart was a friend of the police officer on the scene.

They also want you to forget that the official report has one glaring inconsistency in the death of an all-star high school football player weighing several major scholarship opportunities.

But Johnson’s family and the NAACP are questioning whether Johnson died from a self-inflicted gunshot. A lawyer for the family has said Johnson’s wounds did not appear to be consistent with a shotgun wound.

Willie Gaines, head of the George County chapter of the NAACP, said he, like many others in the community, believes Johnson had too much to live for to take his own life. The morning of his death, he was scheduled to attend an awards banquet. [Denver Post]

A witness heard two shots, not one, at the scene where Billey Joe died, according to an independent investigation launched by the Mississippi NAACP. The pathologist in that investigation has indicated that it would be impossible for a bullet from a self-inflicted shot to enter in the manner that it did. He also said that given the length of Billey Joe’s arms and the length of the shotgun, it would have been impossible for him to hold the weapon and fire it at himself. [dead link, via Color of Change e-mail]

Even with this evidence, will the truth ever come out? Did the cop shoot Johnson? Did the father of his girlfriend, who had been ordered not to see the boy? All we know is that on the night in question, Johnson tapped on the girl’s window, where her mother was waiting or hiding or happened to be passing by in the inside hallway. The mother called the police and Johnson took off. Color of Change notes: “This fact was not a part of the original story given by the police.”

Later, he was stopped for what the police say was a pair of traffic violations: running a red light and blowing a stop sign. The cop claims he was taking Johnson’s driver’s license back to the car when he heard a shot and the sound of glass shattering. He turned and saw Johnson’s last moments…

Appeared Here