Mississippi Today
Felony jail time could await law enforcement officers who sexually abuse detainees, parolees under House bill
Mississippi law enforcement officers who sexually abuse those detained or on supervised release could face up to five years in prison under a bill pending in the Legislature.
For more than a year, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times have investigated and exposed allegations of sexual assault and abuse involving sheriffs and deputies across the state.
Under Mississippi law, it is a crime for officers to have sex with those behind bars, but the law does nothing to prohibit officers from sexually exploiting those they arrest or detain.
To close that loophole, state Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, has introduced HB1540, which has been referred to the House Judiciary B Committee. “Someone in a position of trust should be held to a higher standard,” she said.
Jill Collen Jefferson, president of JULIAN, a civil rights and international human rights law firm, said she knows of “many instances when women have ‘consented’ to sleeping with law enforcement officials because they were threatened with charges or fines. To me, this bill is a cold look in the mirror for the state, and I hope that it signals a migration toward acceptance of women’s rights across Mississippi and the nation, accompanied by a reining in of law enforcement.”
Shawanda Canady says she was handcuffed and sexually abused by an officer who is now the chief at the Lexington Police Department, now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a sworn statement, Canady said police rushed into her home in Goodman on Sept. 10, 2018, while she was talking to her grandmother on the cellphone.
Police arrested Canady’s partner and took him to the patrol car, she said, and that then-Officer Charles Henderson cuffed her hands behind her back and held her captive for more than an hour.
“The streets have been talking about how you have a fat cat and I would like to know what it’s like,” she quoted him as saying. “If I asked you to have sex, is it because you want to have sex with me or because you don’t want to go to jail?”
Then Henderson digitally penetrated her and asked if she had a condom, she said.
She moved closer to her cellphone in hopes of speaking to her grandmother, only for Henderson to grab the phone, she said.
“I told him I would wake my kids up if he didn’t let me go,” she said. “Henderson then threatened to call DHS [the Department of Human Services].”
In about 15 minutes, her aunt arrived, she said, and Henderson released her.
Afterward, Canady said she complained to the city council.
A couple of months later, she said Henderson came up to her, shone a flashlight in her face and said, “So, we can buy new cars but not pay fines. Do we need to have another session like we did last time?”
She said he then put handcuffs on her and said, “If you keep running your mouth, I’m going to take you to Greenwood so you will never see the light of day again.”
She said she spent the next three weeks in jail.
Lexington City Attorney Katherine Riley said Chief Henderson was “never charged with a crime against Ms. Canady.” She said the Goodman city attorney told her to press charges, but she never did.
Jefferson replied that when Canady tried to press charges, the Holmes County Justice Court rejected her filing.
Justice Court Clerk Dedra Edwards responded that no one is disallowed from filing, but that if the charge is already filed in municipal court, it can’t be filed, too, in justice court because that would constitute double jeopardy.
Jefferson said Canady tried multiple times to press charges, but the city would not do so.
Riley said video evidence conflicted with Canady’s story about the alleged incident at her car.
Asked what that video evidence was, she replied, “I have not seen the video and have only heard that it was a video from across the street that showed he did not approach the vehicle as she described. But I cannot verify that information.”
Jefferson said there is “no video evidence of what Henderson did to Ms. Canady in her home, and we know of no video evidence outside of that.”
In a sworn statement, former Officer Maytrice Shields said male officers at the Lexington Police Department used their power to coerce women they detained to have sex.
They threatened to ticket or arrest women who refused to have sex with them, and they would toss tickets in return for sexual favors, she said. The police station would be littered, she said, with “dirty clothes and underwear, among other things.”
Shields said Chief Henderson began “an inappropriate consensual relationship” after hiring her in December 2022. A sexually harassing atmosphere pervaded the department with some officers joking “about using pink cuffs and sodomizing each other,” she said.
A month later, when she informed Henderson that she wanted to end the relationship, he responded by suspending her. When she tried to turn in her camera, she said he snatched her arm, and when she pulled her arm away, he pushed her and choked her.
She never returned to the station.
Riley said the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office investigated Shields’ allegation of choking and “determined that the charge was unfounded by the witnesses that were present. … None of the witnesses saw her being choked, specifically the witness behind the dispatcher desk who saw the entire interaction.”
Jefferson responded that the sheriff’s office never really investigated what happened with Shields and what she witnessed.
Former Deputy Kendrick Slaughter said Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree asked him to tell two women under arrest that, if they would have sex together, their charges would be dropped.
Grassaree faces an April 8 trial in U.S. District Court on allegations he lied to FBI agents when they questioned him about whether he requested sexually explicit photographs or videos from Elizabeth Layne Reed, who was jailed for four years without a trial.
A new federal indictment accuses him of trying to destroy digital evidence on the cellphone that deputies gave Reed. After receiving nude photographs she took inside the jail, he reportedly wrote back, “Body looks perfect.”
In 2019, Reed told investigators that she had been coerced into having sex with two deputies who offered her a cellphone in exchange for her compliance. Instead of punishing the deputies, she claimed in a lawsuit against the county, Grassaree demanded she send him explicit pictures and videos of herself.
“It made me terrified to trust anybody,” she told the Times and Mississippi Today. “Women in jail and prison need to be protected.”
A few months after Eddie Scott became sheriff of Clay County in 2012, a woman accused him of coercing her into a sexual relationship after she was arrested.
Promising to use his influence in their rural community to keep her out of prison, she said, the lawman drove her to a hog farm to have sex in his patrol car on at least five occasions, and she provided copies of love letters Scott wrote her in prison as proof.
The revelations could have led to an internal investigation, a criminal inquiry or a public reckoning for the newly installed sheriff. Instead, powerful officials in Clay County took no action.
And the allegations didn’t end there.
Amber Jones of West Point said Scott repeatedly took her from the jail to an apartment, where he coerced her to have sex during her eight-month stay in 2017 and 2018. “I felt like I was worthless, like I didn’t have any control over my own body,” she said in a 2022 interview. “There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
In sworn testimony, Scott declined to say whether he had ever had sex with her, citing his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
He also took the Fifth when asked if he tried to have a “threesome” with Jones and another female trusty from the jail.
Jones said the nightmare for her didn’t end when she left jail. She said the sheriff coerced her to send nude photos through Snapchat, the disappearing-photo app.
The sheriff denied these were nude photos. He said they were only “body shots” of Jones’ tattoos he has since turned over to the FBI.
After Jones posted on Facebook what she said had happened to her, she was arrested twice on drug charges after she said drugs were planted in her car. A recording of a purported drug dealer appears to corroborate her story.
After Mississippi Today and The Times ran the story on Scott on July 19, the sheriff created a Facebook post where he called the article “completely slanted, one sided and a story without any basis in fact. The article did not mention the fact that in late 2021, I reported these allegations to the local District Attorney’s Office, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations [sic] and requested the allegations be investigated. The article fails to mention that the investigating agencies declined to do anything based on a lack of credible evidence.”
District Attorney Scott Colom said Sheriff Scott contacted one of his investigators about Jones’ allegations and asked if the office could investigate.
The prosecutor said the investigator told the sheriff, “No, we don’t have the capability. Ask MBI to investigate.”
Bailey Martin, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said the agency found no record of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigating Sheriff Scott.
Former Parole Board Chairman Steve Pickett, who also served as a deputy sheriff and justice court judge, noted that the new bill extends beyond those in custody to include others who can be sexually abused, such as those still on probation, parole or other supervised release.
A lot of sentences in Mississippi include lengthy probation periods, he said.
“Folks confuse confinement with jail, but if you have a 10-year probation you are serving, you can be revoked at any time,” he said. “Unfortunately, some bad apples hold positions of power and have control over people who typically have no voice or access to an attorney. They remain vulnerable to those with the power to take their freedom.”
Last year, McClean pushed for a bill to repeal the spousal exception in the rape statute. It became law.
She hopes to do the same thing with this bill on officers. “The fact that it’s not criminal has got to be shored up,” she said. “These cases are falling through the cracks.”
Ilyssa Daly contributed to this report, which was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Baxter Kruger to become Mississippi’s new U.S. attorney in the Southern District and Scott Leary to become U.S. attorney for the Northern District.
The two nominations will head to the U.S. Senate for consideration. If confirmed, the two will oversee federal criminal prosecutions and investigations in the state.
Kruger graduated from the Mississippi College School of Law in 2015 and was previously an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District. He is currently the director of the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security.
Sean Tindell, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety commissioner, oversees the state’s Homeland Security Office. He congratulated Kruger on social media and praised his leadership at the agency.
“Thank you for your outstanding leadership at the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security and for your dedicated service to our state,” Tindell wrote. “Your hard work and commitment have not gone unnoticed and this nomination is a testament to that!”
Leary graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law, and he has been a federal prosecutor for most of his career.
He worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Tennessee in Memphis from 2002 to 2008. Afterward, he worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford, where he is currently employed.
Leary told Mississippi Today that he is honored to be nominated for the position, and he looks forward to the Senate confirmation process.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Trump nominates Baxter Kruger, Scott Leary for Mississippi U.S. attorney posts appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article presents a straightforward news report on President Donald Trump’s nominations of Baxter Kruger and Scott Leary for U.S. attorney positions in Mississippi. It focuses on factual details about their backgrounds, qualifications, and official responses without employing loaded language or framing that favors a particular ideological perspective. The tone is neutral, with quotes and descriptions that serve to inform rather than persuade. While it reports on a political appointment by a Republican president, the coverage remains balanced and refrains from editorializing, thus adhering to neutral, factual reporting.
After more than 10 months closed due to mold, asbestos and issues with the air conditioning system, Thalia Mara Hall has officially reopened.
Outgoing Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba announced the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall during his final press conference held Monday on the arts venue’s steps.
“Today marks what we view as a full circle moment, rejoicing in the iconic space where community has come together for decades in the city of Jackson,” Lumumba said. “Thalia Mara has always been more than a venue. It has been a gathering place for people in the city of Jackson. From its first class ballet performances to gospel concerts, Thalia Mara Hall has been the backdrop for our city’s rich cultural history.”
Thalia Mara Hall closed last August after mold was found in parts of the building. The issues compounded from there, with malfunctioning HVAC systems and asbestos remediation. On June 6, the Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office announced that Thalia Mara Hall had finally passed inspection.
“We’re not only excited to have overcome many of the challenges that led to it being shuttered for a period of time,” Lumumba said. “We are hopeful for the future of this auditorium, that it may be able to provide a more up-to-date experience for residents, inviting shows that people are able to see across the world, bringing them here to Jackson. So this is an investment in the future.”
In total, Emad Al-Turk, a city contracted engineer and owner of Al-Turk Planning, estimates that $5 million in city and state funds went into bringing Thalia Mara Hall up to code.
The venue still has work to be completed, including reinstalling the fire curtain. The beam in which the fire curtain will be anchored has asbestos in it, so it will have to be remediated. In addition, a second air-conditioning chiller needs to be installed to properly cool the building. Until it’s installed, which could take months, Thalia Mara Hall will be operating at a lower seating capacity of about 800.
“Primarily because of the heat,” Al-Turk said. “The air conditioning would not be sufficient to actually accommodate the 2,000 people at full capacity, but starting in the fall, that should not be a problem.”
Al-Turk said the calendar is open for the city to begin booking events, though none have been scheduled for July.
“We’re very proud,” he said. “This took a little bit longer than what we anticipated, but we had probably seven or eight different contractors we had to coordinate with and all of them did a superb job to get us where we are today.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Jackson’s performing arts venue Thalia Mara Hall is now open appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article presents a straightforward report on the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, focusing on facts and statements from city officials without promoting any ideological viewpoint. The tone is neutral and positive, emphasizing the community and cultural significance of the venue while detailing the challenges overcome during renovations. The coverage centers on public investment and future prospects, without partisan framing or editorializing. While quotes from Mayor Lumumba and a city engineer highlight optimism and civic pride, the article maintains balanced, factual reporting rather than advancing a political agenda.
Mississippi Today
‘Hurdles waiting in the shadows’: Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor
On his last day as mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba recounted accomplishments, praised his executive team and said he has no plans to seek office again.
He spoke during a press conference outside of the city’s Thalia Mara Hall, which was recently cleared for reopening after nearly a year of remediation. The briefing, meant to give media members a peek inside the downtown theater, marked one of Lumumba’s final forays as mayor.
Longtime state Sen. John Horhn — who defeated Lumumba in the Democratic primary runoff — will be inaugurated as mayor Tuesday, but Lumumba won’t be present. Not for any contentious reason, the 42-year-old mayor noted, but because he returns to his private law practice Tuesday.
“I’ve got to work now, y’all,” Lumumba said. “I’ve got a job.”
Thalia Mara Hall’s presumptive comeback was a fitting end for Lumumba, who pledged to make Jackson the most radical city in America but instead spent much of his eight years in office parrying one emergency after another. The auditorium was built in 1968 and closed nearly 11 months ago after workers found mold caused by a faulty HVAC system – on top of broken elevators, fire safety concerns and vandalism.
“This job is a fast-pitched sport,” Lumumba said. “There’s an abundance of challenges that have to be addressed, and it seems like the moment that you’ve gotten over one hurdle, there’s another one that is waiting in the shadows.”
Outside the theater Monday, Lumumba reflected on the high points of his leadership instead of the many crises — some seemingly self-inflicted — he faced as mayor.
He presided over the city during the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in crime it brought, but also the one-two punch of the 2021 and 2022 water crises, exacerbated by the city’s mismanagement of its water plants, and the 18-day pause in trash pickup spurred by Lumumba’s contentious negotiations with the city council in 2023.
Then in 2024, Lumumba was indicted alongside other city and county officials in a sweeping federal corruption probe targeting the proposed development of a hotel across from the city’s convention center, a project that has remained stalled in a 20-year saga of failed bids and political consternation.
Slated for trial next year, Lumumba has repeatedly maintained his innocence.
The city’s youngest mayor also brought some victories to Jackson, particularly in his first year in office. In 2017, he ended a furlough of city employees and worked with then-Gov. Phil Bryant to avoid a state takeover of Jackson Public Schools. In 2019, the city successfully sued German engineering firm Siemens and its local contractors for $89 million over botched work installing the city’s water-sewer billing infrastructure.
“I think that that was a pivotal moment to say that this city is going to hold people responsible for the work that they do,” Lumumba said.
Lumumba had more time than any other mayor to usher in the 1% sales tax, which residents approved in 2014 to fund infrastructure improvements.
“We paved 144 streets,” he said. “There are residents that still are waiting on their roads to be repaved. And you don’t really feel it until it’s your street that gets repaved, but that is a significant undertaking.”
And under his administration, crime has fallen dramatically recently, with homicides cut by a third and shootings cut in half in the last year.
Lumumba was first elected in 2017 after defeating Tony Yarber, a business-friendly mayor who faced his own scandals as mayor. A criminal justice attorney, Lumumba said he never planned to seek office until the stunning death of his father, Chokwe Lumumba Sr., eight months into his first term as mayor in 2014.
“I can say without reservation, and unequivocally, we remember where we started. We are in a much better position than we started,” Lumumba said.
Lumumba said he has sat down with Horhn in recent months, answered questions “as extensively as I could,” and promised to remain reachable to the new mayor.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post 'Hurdles waiting in the shadows': Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
The article reports on outgoing Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s reflections without overt editorializing but subtly frames his tenure within progressive contexts, emphasizing his self-described goal to make Jackson “the most radical city in America.” The piece highlights his accomplishments alongside challenges, including public crises and a federal indictment, maintaining a factual tone yet noting contentious moments like labor disputes and governance issues. While it avoids partisan rhetoric, the focus on social justice efforts, infrastructure investment, and crime reduction, as well as positive framing of Lumumba’s achievements, aligns with a center-left perspective that values progressive governance and accountability.
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