by Anna Wolfe, Mississippi Today
June 26, 2025

Four years ago, agents from the state auditor’s office arrested Tunica nonprofit operator Mardis Jones in what the office trumpeted as the second-largest embezzlement case in its history and demanded Jones return over $1 million to the state.

The charges accused Jones of stealing $750,000 from a home rehabilitation program he was supposed to be administering while turning away needy rural residents living in crumbling houses.

But his defense attorney attacked holes in the case, and last month, a local jury found Jones not guilty of the criminal charges. Now, the state has made no indication it will bring a civil case to try to claw back the money from him.

Jones’ nonprofit Tunica County Housing Inc. secured a subcontract with the county through the North Delta Regional Housing Authority in 2014 to run the county’s home rehabilitation program funded with casino revenue. For his work, vetting applications and managing expenses, Jones earned $12,000 a month.

At the core of the criminal case were “strange money transfers” and a finding that several of the people whose applications for home rehab were approved allegedly never received any repairs to their homes. According to the auditor’s office, investigators found less than 20% of the nearly $2 million Jones’ nonprofit received went to the contractors working to rehab homes.

“Once again, an arm of government trusted a private organization to run a government program, and a large percentage of the program’s spending was flat out stolen,” State Auditor Shad White said in a press release after the arrest.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch echoed White, saying, “These funds – hundreds of thousands of dollars – were meant to help the elderly, handicapped, and poverty stricken. But the funds never got to the vulnerable citizens who needed it most.”

Jones’ lawyer Carlos Tanner explained to Mississippi Today that the program operated with an extreme backlog, and that “some of the people they were claiming didn’t get their houses done actually did” by the time the trial was held this year.

The program was poorly administered, Tanner said, meaning that even if a person’s application was approved and a rehab contract prepared, county officials could direct Jones to put someone else’s repair job ahead of his or hers.

“But just because it was run like a first weekend lemonade stand does not mean Mardis Jones stole money,” Tanner said.

Tanner said the investigators gathered paltry evidence, only looking at details that fit their narrative. While Jones did earn a large salary through his contract, Tanner said prosecutors never presented evidence that Jones converted money that was supposed to be used on home rehabilitation to his personal use.

Investigators got a warrant to seize Jones’ electronics, Tanner said, but “they never bothered to search it.”

“The two OSA (Office of the State Auditor) officials who were running the investigation, I questioned them about it during trial, and neither of them could tell me where the computer was, where the phone was, or what the contents were,” Tanner said.

Jacob Walters, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office, defended the way the investigators handled the case, saying, “The state auditor’s office is never going to turn a case we investigated over to a prosecutor unless we’re fully confident in the work that we did.”

At the time the auditor’s office announced the Jones arrest, it also said it delivered a demand letter ordering Jones to repay over $1 million, the money it alleged he stole plus interest and investigative expenses.

It’s up to the attorney general or local district attorney to decide how to prosecute auditor investigations, or in Jones’ case, what happens to the civil demand now that a jury found him not guilty in the criminal case.

When a person receives a demand alongside his or her arrest, regardless of what happens with criminal charges, the claw back can be enforced through civil litigation — much like the case against several defendants in a stunning Mississippi Department of Human Services fraud case, which began in 2020 and has yet to be resolved. Walters said the demand against Jones is still the office’s next-largest in history, second only to the welfare scandal.

The government might choose to pursue civil litigation, even if criminal prosecution is unsuccessful, because there is a lower burden of proof to win civil cases.

But the attorney general’s office told Mississippi Today last month that it had not received the Jones demand letter from the auditor, meaning it has nothing left to enforce.

Walters said the auditor’s office sent the letter along with the case file four years ago, but that with a turnover in attorneys prosecuting the case, the auditor had to resend the file last year. If the attorney general’s office no longer possesses the demand document, Walters said, “it’s an incredibly easy problem to resolve.”

“Just reach out to us with a single phone call or email and we can get it to you,” Walters said.

After the interview, the auditor’s office sent the demand letter by email, and the attorney general’s office confirmed it was received.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Defendant in auditor’s ‘second largest’ embezzlement case in history goes free 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 factual and balanced account of the embezzlement case involving Mardis Jones without overt ideological framing. It reports statements from both government officials criticizing the alleged misconduct and the defense attorney’s rebuttals, highlighting weaknesses in the prosecution’s case. The tone remains neutral, avoiding partisan language or loaded terms. It focuses on the procedural aspects, jury verdict, and potential civil actions without advocating for a political viewpoint. The article provides context from multiple perspectives, adhering to objective reporting rather than promoting a specific ideological stance.

by Candice Wilder, Mississippi Today
June 24, 2025

Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and Jackson State University have reached a tentative agreement to settle the months-long federal lawsuit filed by a former faculty senate president who was placed on leave pending termination last fall. The settlement would give Dawn Bishop McLin her job back as a tenured professor. 

McLin’s case is the latest in a series of lawsuits against the state’s college governing board and the historically Black university. Two others have cited gender discrimination when it comes to the board’s presidential search and its selection process. 

The proposed agreement, which is still being hammered out by attorneys, would return McLin to her position as psychology professor. It would also restore the roughly $38,000 in research grants she lost after her termination, as well as $10,000 in pay for summer school courses she would have taught this semester, all totaling $48,000. 

IHL attorney Pope Mallette also requested a motion for the settlement agreement to be closed to the public, which prompted U.S. District Judge  Henry Wingate to question the move by the taxpayer-funded governing board. 

“The court does not seal public money,” Wingate said in response to Mallette’s request. 

The parties spent much of the morning in separate rooms discussing the settlement and hashing out attorney fees. 

Last year a faculty panel reviewed the university’s basis for McLin’s termination and recommended she be reinstated to her job “as a tenured faculty member fully restored,” the original court filing states. 

The exact circumstances of her termination weren’t released, but members of the faculty senate executive committee have said McLin was apparently placed on leave without any written warning and accused of harassment, malfeasance and “contumacious conduct,” a term stemming from IHL policies that means insubordination. 

Marcus Thompson, who has since resigned as Jackson State University president, did not respond to the panel’s recommendation, putting McLin in a state of limbo, ultimately forcing her to resign. 

McLin, who was elected as JSU’s faculty senate president in 2020, received support from the American Association of University Professors, a national organization that backs academic freedom, and fellow colleagues following her termination. Thompson ignored multiple letters from the professional organization. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post JSU and IHL tentatively settle professor's lawsuit 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 reports on the tentative settlement of a lawsuit involving Jackson State University and the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning without expressing a clear ideological stance. The language is factual and neutral, focusing on the legal and procedural aspects of the case, the parties involved, and the financial terms of the settlement. While it touches on sensitive topics such as wrongful termination and academic freedom, it maintains a balanced tone by presenting statements from both sides, including the judge’s concerns and the university president’s lack of response. The article adheres to objective reporting without promoting a specific political viewpoint.

by Simeon Gates and Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
June 24, 2025

Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon to reflect Gov. Tate Reeves’ statement.

Gov. Tate Reeves says will not block the execution of Mississippi’s oldest and longest-serving inmate, which is set for Wednesday evening.

Reeves said in a statement Tuesday that he rejected a clemency petition for Richard Jordan. The Republican governor said Jordan admitted being guilty of kidnapping Edwina Marter, at gunpoint, from her family’s home in coastal Harrison County in 1976 while her 3-year-old son was sleeping, and of forcing Marter to drive into a forest and killing her by shooting her in the back of the head.

“Following this premeditated and heinous act, Mr. Jordan demanded and was paid a $25,000 ransom prior to being apprehended by law enforcement,” Reeves said.

Jordan, 79, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Reeves said considering clemency requests in death penalty cases is “a somber responsibility” that he takes seriously.

“Justice must be done,” he said.

The governor issued his statement hours after a prison reform advocate publicly implored him to spare Jordan’s life.

“I’m here today to ask our Christian governor to do the Christian thing and show mercy – mercy on a man that has spent 49 years in prison and has done everything he could do to atone for his crime,” Mitzi Magleby said outside the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Reeves declined to block the only two executions Mississippi has carried out since he became governor – one in 2021 and one in 2022.

Jordan was first convicted in 1976 for kidnapping and killing Marter, and it took four trials until a death sentence stuck in 1998.

One of Marter’s sons said Jordan should have been executed long ago.

“I don’t want him to get what he wants,” Eric Marter, who is 59 and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, told Mississippi Today. “If you want to spend the rest of your life in jail, then I would rather you not get that, and if that means you get executed, you get executed.” 

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied Jordan’s request for a stay of execution. Jordan had a separate request for a stay awaiting consideration at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The appeals court wrote that Jordan has received repeated review of his claims in state and federal courts for nearly 50 years.

At this point, “finality acquires an added moral dimension,” the appeals court wrote. “Only with an assurance of real finality can the State execute its moral judgment in a case. Only with real finality can the victims of crime move forward knowing the moral judgment will be carried out.”

Magleby, who has met Jordan, said he has been a model prisoner and is extremely remorseful. She said she believes life without parole would be a sufficient and humane punishment. 

“I believe that it is more of a penalty to do life without parole,” she said. “The death penalty gives you an out-date. Life without parole does not.”

She also delivered a petition asking Reeves to prevent Jordan’s execution. That petition had more than 3,000 signatures.

The news conference was put on by Magleby and Death Penalty Action, who are supporters of Jordan’s cause.

If Jordan’s execution goes forward as scheduled, supporters plan to hold protest vigils Wednesday outside Parchman and the Governor’s Mansion and online.

Human rights group Amnesty International released a statement Tuesday opposing the execution.

 “Governor Tate Reeves is the only person with the power to spare Jordan’s life,” the group said. “He must use this power to halt this execution, commute Richard Jordan’s sentence and work towards ending the death penalty in Mississippi more broadly.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Death penalty foes ask governor to stop execution 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 factual report on the decision by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves not to block the execution of Richard Jordan, the state’s longest-serving death row inmate. The language remains neutral, providing statements from the governor, victim’s family members, prison reform advocates, and human rights groups without editorializing. It highlights perspectives both supporting and opposing the execution, focusing on legal proceedings, moral considerations, and public reactions. The piece reports on the ideological positions of involved parties (such as advocates for clemency and victims’ relatives) but itself does not promote a specific political viewpoint, maintaining balanced and objective coverage.