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The post Marshall Ramsey: Out of the Darkness appeared first on Mississippi Today.

OXFORD — The case against a former Ole Miss student accused of killing Jimmie “Jay” Lee will remain open after a Lafayette County Circuit Court judge denied a joint motion to seal the entirety of the filings.

In a quick hearing Thursday, Judge Kelly Luther said he would consider sealing some filings on a case-by-case basis if asked to do so by the defense for Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. But Luther added he did not think that would be necessary, since it was unlikely any motions before trial would contain evidence that could prejudice a jury.

“The way discovery is done in today’s age, I don’t anticipate getting any of those items,” Luther said before denying the motion.

Kevin Horan, Herrington’s attorney and a representative from his hometown of Grenada, said he would draft the order and circulate it among the parties. Horan had hoped the motion, which was unusually supported by District Attorney Ben Creekmore, would be successful in order to reduce further pretrial publicity, including social media. The case has attracted national media attention, particularly when Herrington was arrested shortly after Lee went missing two years ago.

“We just move forward,” Horan said.

Luther’s ruling came after Mississippi Today filed a motion to intervene in the effort to close any filings before Herrington’s case goes to trial later this year. The news organization’s motion was supported by WMC-TV, a television station based in Memphis, Tennessee and WTVA, a station based in the Tupelo-Columbus area. The Mississippi Press Association had also issued a press release urging transparency and opposing the order.

Mississippi Today’s attorney, Henry Laird, commended Luther for following the process established by the Mississippi Supreme Court for closing cases.

“This is an example to other judges that this is how you work with the people, and this is how you work with the press,” Laird said.

Creekmore said there had been “some misconception” about the extent of the sealing requested by himself and Horan. Creekmore added his goal was not to seal the whole case file but to protect any motions entered before a jury.

“It wouldn’t have been a complete sealing,” he said.

On Monday, the day Luther had originally intended to rule on the motion to seal the file, he also issued an order from the bench to keep the trial in Lafayette County but pull jurors from another area, then sequester them in a hotel for its duration.

Creekmore was chiefly concerned about a motion confirming which county jurors will be pulled from leading to a flurry of media coverage in that area. He told Mississippi Today he thought the judge’s Thursday order will protect the integrity of the jury.

“I think you have to accept that Lafayette County is already aware of a lot of the facts of the case, and it would be difficult to find somebody who isn’t aware of the case,” Creekmore said.

In his 20 years in the courtroom, Creekmore said this case has drawn more scrutiny than many others he’s worked on, but he wasn’t able to say why.

“I don’t have an answer to that,” he said. “I can answer that question once the case is resolved. I’ve got feelings on it, but I think it would be speculative on my part to try to answer for an entire community.”

Lee was a well-known member of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community. His disappearance and death two years ago has led to protests outside the courthouse and efforts to memorialize him at local drag shows and pride events.

Herrington’s arrest also drew scrutiny in part because his family is connected in north Mississippi. A preliminary hearing setting bond detailed some of the evidence against him, including Google searches on his computer, text messages he exchanged with Lee the night Lee went missing, and K-9s that identified the smell of a dead body in his car.

But Herrington, through his attorney and family members, has maintained his innocence. As he walked down the Lafayette County Courthouse steps, Horan stated the case will go to trial.

“Certainly,” he said.

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Nearly five years after officials first named his company in the “largest public embezzlement case in state history,” Florida neuroscientist Jacob Vanlandingham has pleaded guilty to one federal charge of wire fraud.

Vanlandingham is the latest defendant to admit to some role in the Mississippi welfare scandal, which ensnared his former business partner, retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre. The two worked together, a civil lawsuit by the Mississippi Department of Human Services alleges, to channel funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to their pharmaceutical startup project called Prevacus.

But acquiring $1.9 million in federal welfare funds from the poorest state in the nation to develop a drug to treat concussions — an allegedly illegal use of the funds — was not Vanlandingham’s crime. Instead, he pleaded guilty to using some of the funds for himself, including for “gambling and paying off personal debts,” according to a federal court file.

Reached Wednesday, Vanlandingham said he didn’t want his narrow guilty plea to be misconstrued as an admission of stealing welfare money.

“The case was very complicated but it really boiled down to one count of wire fraud, not any finding of welfare fraud,” said Vanlandingham’s Florida attorney Thomas Findley.

Both Favre and Vanlandingham have denied the allegations in the ongoing civil suit and Favre has not been charged with a crime. Vanlandingham founded Prevacus in 2012 and Favre was one of its largest investors and promoters. The startup is defunct today after selling the idea of its concussion drug to another company.

In January of 2019, Prevacus entered a $1.7 million contract with Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit that the state welfare agency, Mississippi Department of Human Services, had entrusted to spend millions of federal grant funds.

“The purpose of the scheme … was for Vanlandingham to unlawfully enrich himself by making materially false and fraudulent representations that he would use certain funds, including funds obtained from MDHS through MCEC, to develop a pharmaceutical treatment for concussions,” reads the charge.

Vanlandingham pleaded guilty to a bill of information, a charging document that the government uses when a defendant agrees to waive a formal indictment, and was released on a $10,000 bond on Wednesday. The charge related to a $400,000 wire transfer from Mississippi Community Education Center to Prevacus on July 16, 2019, which occurred about a month after the state auditor’s investigation began.

The single count of wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Vanlandingham’s sentencing, along with the sentencings of six others who have pleaded guilty, has not been scheduled as each defendant continues to cooperate with federal investigators as part of their pleas.

The federal case against Vanlandingham stems from the government’s probe, beginning in 2020, into the misspending or theft of federal public assistance funds. The federal investigation did not begin until State Auditor Shad White, who originally investigated a tip brought forward by an agency employee to then-Gov. Phil Bryant, made six arrests and then turned the case over to federal authorities in February of 2020. Auditors have estimated between $77 million and $98 million was misspent or not properly documented.

“I applaud federal prosecutors for their continued work on this case,” White said in a press release Wednesday. “I’m grateful for my team at the Auditor’s office and the FBI for digging up the facts related to this case. We will continue to assist federal prosecutors as needed going forward.”

The welfare agency director John Davis and nonprofit founder Nancy New both pleaded guilty within the scheme in 2022 but have not been sentenced. An additional four defendants who pleaded to state or federal charges between 2020 and 2023. Each defendant has agreed to aid federal authorities in their ongoing investigation. The trial for an eighth defendant, former professional wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., is scheduled for January.

The bill of information against Vanlandingham was signed by Todd Gee, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Mississippi who left the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section to fill the Jackson-based appointment.

But Vanlandingham’s bill of information was signed by two other senior officials from the U.S. Department of Justice — Glenn S. Leon, the chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, and Margaret A. Moeser, the chief of the DOJ’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section — signaling Washington’s role in the ongoing investigation.

Many of the crimes associated with the welfare scandal come with a five year statute of limitations.

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ROLLING FORK — For years, the fate of a project known as the Yazoo Pumps has bounced back and forth in a game of political ping pong. Now, with a retooled pumps proposal, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is inching closer to a new flood control plan for the South Delta.

Partnering agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, which vetoed the Yazoo Pumps in 2008 under President George W. Bush, are still studying the draft environmental impact statement that the Corps released in June. The EPA vetoed the project in part because of its impact on the area’s ecologically significant wetlands, a point that conservationists around the country have continued to argue amid attempts to resurrect the pumps project.

The June draft EIS, which the Corps says it collaborated on with the EPA, proposes slightly less aggressive pumping than in the 2008 version in addition to buyouts for property owners in the floodplain. The proposal also limits the pumps’ operation to a certain stretch of the year, aiming to balance the needs of the wetlands with those of local farmers.

The agency held its first in-person public meetings for the report on Monday in Rolling Fork. The public has until Aug. 12 to submit comments (click here for the report and instructions for submitting comments). The Corps’ timeline suggests it will have a final EIS by November, and then a final decision in December from the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor.

Most of those who came to give their thoughts on Monday supported what the Corps laid out despite the added restrictions on the pumps’ operation.

“You’ve heard a lot of people say turn the pumps on at a lower elevation, turn them on earlier,” said Peter Nimrod, chief engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board and a supporter of the Yazoo Pumps for years. “We completely agree, but if this is all we’ve got, we’ll take it. It’s a great project.”

The June study proposes turning the pumps on when the backwater reaches 90 feet of elevation (from sea level), as opposed to the 87-foot starting point the 2008 version had. The new study also suggests two options for when to allow the pumps to run: One is from March 15 until Oct. 15, and the other from March 25 until Oct. 15. Those windows are meant to give the wetlands enough time to absorb rain during the winter while also allowing farmers time to plant their crops.

The report details that about 1,800 structures, about half of which are homes, would see some flooding if there were a repeat of the 2019 events.

In the proposal, the 101 structures, including 55 homes, that are in the 90-foot flood level zone would have mandatory buyouts. The Corps estimates that those buildings flood about every two years. There would also be a voluntary buyout or floodproofing option for 231 more structures, 95 of which are homes, that are between the 90-foot and 93-foot levels, or the five-year floodplain. There are another 1,500 or so structures, including 759 homes, that would have flooded in 2019 and would see some flood risk benefits from the pumps, the report says.

Most of the structures that would be affected, either through buyouts or flood reduction, are between Eagle Bend and Rolling Fork, as seen in the map below:

In addition to the pumps proposal, the June report also lays out a “non-structural” alternative, which wouldn’t include the pumps and extend the option of voluntary buyouts to the roughly 1,500 structures beyond the 93-foot level.

Of the dozen or so people who gave comments on Monday night, just one talked about the merits of that option.

“There are people who lost their homes, there are people who are still living in the flood areas who don’t have the resources to move, so I think (the non-structural) option lends itself to those individuals,” said Anthony White, a teacher in Sharkey County, adding that the job opportunities in agriculture aren’t what they used to be because of growing farm technology.

While the agency is expecting a final decision on the project in December, the June report left out crucial details, namely how much the different proposals would cost. Critics have long said the cost of building the pumps far exceeds that of non-structural, less ecologically-invasive options, such as buying out or floodproofing homes, or paying landowners through conservation easement programs. But the June study is entirely missing a cost-benefit analysis, a common tool the agency uses to evaluate potential projects.

“We’re still working on the benefits and costs,” said Robyn Colosimo, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Project Planning and Review, adding that the final EIS in November will include some of those details.

The 2008 version came with a $220 million price tag, but that number appears to be far below what the project would cost today. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents the South Delta and who has come around on the pumps idea after previously not supporting the idea, has estimated in recent years that the number is around half a billion dollars. American Rivers, an advocacy and conservation group opposing the pumps, estimates the price is actually more than double that.

The South Delta’s flooding issues trace back to the flood control work the Corps has done over the last century along the Mississippi River. In the 1960s and 70s, the agency built the Steele Bayou control structure as well as the Yazoo Backwater levee along the Yazoo River. When the Mississippi River reaches a certain flood stage, the Corps closes the control structure, which is a set of gates, to prevent river water from backing up into the South Delta.

The problem, which was most pronounced in the record-setting flood of 2019, comes when flooding from the river happens at the same time as flooding from rainfall north of the gates. With the gates closed, the rainfall landing in between the levees along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers has nowhere to go.

After the 2019 flood, Delta residents, farmers, and statewide elected officials have amplified their calls for the federal government to carry the pumps project across the finish line. The astonishing inundation hit over 500,000 acres, and for some areas lasted about half the year. In some parts, the flooding forced locals in some parts to commute via boat just to get from their house to their car. State officials estimated that the catastrophe cost the Mississippi agricultural industry half a billion dollars.

In the years since, the EPA has repeatedly switched its stance on the Yazoo Pumps. During the end of the Trump administration, the EPA decided to exempt the project from the 2008 veto, citing a slightly different project design. The new proposal also introduced data suggesting that the wetlands were more reliant on rainfall during the winter months than the floodwater that the pumps would be used for.

The agency changed courses yet again in 2021 under the Biden administration, restoring the 2008 veto. But last year, after pressure from top Mississippi officials like Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Corps and EPA came together to draft a new pumps proposal, which is what appears in the June report.

Of the two pump options presented (one from March 15 to Oct. 15, and the other from March 25 to Oct. 15), farmers in attendance Monday night preferred the March 15 option because it would allow them to plant crops earlier.

Reid Carter, a farmer in Rolling Fork, explained that even the earlier option could leave farmers struggling during the start of the season.

“March (15th) is early to middle corn planting season,” Carter said. “And with the pumps being turned on on that date, they said it’d take three to six weeks (for the pumps to drain the floodwater), which is still a lot of time.”

While not at Monday night’s event, conservation groups have remained vocal against any pumps project. Earlier this year, American Rivers again listed the Big Sunflower and Yazoo rivers on its “Most Endangered Rivers,” writing that the pumps would result in “an astounding loss of critical habitat that cannot be reasonably mitigated.”

After the news last year that the EPA and Corps were taking another look at the Yazoo Pumps, several groups blasted the decision in a press release.

“We are stunned that the Biden administration would choose to advance a plan that abdicates its conservation, climate, and environmental justice commitments by willfully putting the vetoed Yazoo Pumps back on the table,” Jill Mastrototaro, Mississippi Policy director for Audubon Delta, said in a press release last year.

The post Fate of on-again, off-again Yazoo Pumps expected by December despite no price tag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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If you think it’s a slow time in the world of sports, don’t tell that to Xander Schauffele, the Summer Olympics, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame or the Atlanta Braves who now use ambulances instead of a team bus. Today’s discussion involves The Open Championship, the Atlanta Braves hospital ward, next week’s big Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame celebration and the Paris Olympics.

Stream all episodes here.

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For over three years, Caitlin and Jake Miles of Biloxi have poured everything they have into starting a family.

Their journey has been complex and emotional — including two surgeries and multiple fertility treatments, all while Jake, a member of the United States Navy, traveled thousands of miles away on deployments.

As the bills pile up and negative results take their toll, the journey to motherhood for women and families who undergo fertility treatment can be hard. Recognizing this, a national grant was developed to offset the cost of one cycle of IVF for five women — including Caitlin.

“It was almost to that point where we were wanting to give up,” Jake said. “The financial struggle of doing it the last time, having enough time to save up and raise the money again. Then going through all the pain, and all the stuff that she has to go through to get ready for the procedure — having this grant flipped our whole outlook 180 degrees and for the better.” 

The grant is the result of a partnership between The Wyatt Foundation and The Conceive Foundation to provide $15,000 grants to five couples nationally who are in need of IVF to grow their families. The Wyatt Foundation is the nonprofit arm of Inception Fertility, a fertility care company. The Conceive Foundation is the nonprofit arm of Caden Lane, a company that sells apparel and accessories for newborns. 

Caitlin and Jake Miles share a home near the marshes of Biloxi. They got married in February 2021, and after unsuccessful attempts at starting a family, the couple discovered Caitlin had uterine fibroids — non-cancerous tumors that grow on the womb. Black women and those with a family history of uterine fibroids are at the highest risk of developing them, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

“My mom had them, my grandmother, my aunts — we’ve all had them. I didn’t know up until that point that I had them, though,” she said. “I went and had surgery and got what I thought was all of them removed. We tried again, were unsuccessful, and then he deployed.” 

Jake Miles, a Navy first class petty officer, is periodically deployed to locations around the world for months at a time. 

“Very stressful would be the best way of describing it,” he said. “Being deployed, while we’re doing it, being on the other side of the planet for six months, with an 8 hour or 12 hour time difference — it’s hard.” 

After seeking out a different medical provider, Caitlin’s suspicions were confirmed: despite undergoing major surgery to have the uterine fibroids removed, she had more of them. She underwent surgery again and healed, but attempts at conceiving naturally continued to be unsuccessful for the couple. 

They turned to IUI, or intrauterine insemination which, too, was unsuccessful. Caitlin found out their last round of IUI didn’t take just as Jake was deploying again in February 2023. From there, after discussions with Caitlin’s doctor, the couple decided that the next step would be a cycle of IVF.

“I went into it (IVF treatment) with the opinion of, ‘This is going to work.’ Unfortunately, it didn’t. And that was very hard for both of us,” she said. 

IVF is a process where eggs, collected from the ovaries, are fertilized outside of the body and then placed in the uterus. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the average cost of one cycle of IVF is $15,000. Despite Caitlin working in health care and Jake being an active member of the U.S. Military, neither have insurance that covers more than a small portion of the costs associated with their fertility treatments.

An estimated 2.1% of babies born every year are conceived using some form of assisted reproductive technology like IVF, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Age is an important determinant of whether or not an IVF cycle will be successful. For patients younger than 35, 42.6% of assisted reproductive technology cycles are successful. For patients over 40, that falls to 28%, the CDC estimates.  

“We were taking time to heal and see how we are going to proceed forward. And then the grant fell in our laps” after a friend texted her the application, Caitlin said. 

“She knew that I’ve been struggling and thought in the kindness of her heart to send me the link, knowing that we were at a standstill for what we were going to do,” she said. “I applied and here we are.”

Applicants had to verify that they had “unexplained infertility” and submit a video detailing their fertility journey. Caitlin filmed hers in her car on a busy day before heading into work — “raw and real.” From a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, she was one of the five recipients selected. 

“It’s been a huge positive impact,” Jake said. 

Dr. John Preston Parry is the founder of Positive Steps Fertility, a fertility clinic in Madison with locations across Mississippi and Louisiana. Positive Steps specializes in fertility testing and treatment. 

“When people are getting IVF, they’ve been trying everything short of IVF to get a family,” Parry said. “If they could get spontaneously pregnant, they wouldn’t bother their time with a fertility specialist. (There are) low cost, low tech measures — we’re about $500-600 a month for oral medication and insemination. If you could get pregnant with that, why would you get a $20,000 solution like IVF? Most people wouldn’t. So it’s really that they’ve done everything else.” 

The Miles couple was faced with more uncertainty earlier this year when access to IVF was threatened in Alabama after the state’s supreme court ruled that frozen embryos could be considered children. The decision had a ripple effect, and IVF became a national talking point.

“I remember coming home and asking Jake like … what is happening? I didn’t know how to react except for like ‘This could be ripped away from us. This could be the only way that we could get pregnant and it’s being ripped away from us,’ said Caitlin. “It was a very scary time to know that something that has brought so many babies to people’s families could be nonexistent.”

Many politicians came out in support of ensuring IVF remained legal and accessible, but some leaders in Mississippi have blocked efforts to protect access to IVF. U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith who blocked federal legislation that aimed to protect IVF, and Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson likened a bill that would protect access to IVF in Mississippi to “backdoor abortions” and “cloning.”

“It is a time of vulnerability for fertility patients across the US. And I think particularly here in the Deep South. And I also think there are many people who say they are deliberately coming after IVF and fertility. Which is sad, because most women and most people want to respect and protect those who love children and who want families,” Parry said. “So, it’s concerning that judges and legislators will act against the interests of their constituents, as well as the good of the state. Because helping families is important.”

The grant has lit the way for the couple’s fertility journey. Still, the process has not been without difficulty. 

“It’s just hard because usually I like to be the person that can fix problems for her. Having to stand there and just be supportive and help where I could, but not being able to actually do something about it — that was the hard part,” Jake said.

As others in Caitlin’s life are having children, she shared that while she is happy for them, it’s tough not to ask: why not me?

“I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to be a wife and a mom and the fact that we’re both about to turn 35 in the next few weeks — not having a child has been hard. This isn’t what I ever expected of my life,” Caitlin said. “I have an amazing husband and I’m just like — why hasn’t this happened for us? I’ve got so much motherly love to give and I’m just like … is it going to happen for me, you know?”

Parry emphasized the importance of research when navigating infertility. Both on the front end, when deciding which clinicians are the best for your circumstance, and after the fact: if IVF or other reproductive technology is unsuccessful, a thorough investigation into why matters. 

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 91,771 babies were born in 2022 with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technology.

Caitlin and Jake will begin their IVF cycle with the support of the grant in August.

The post IVF grant revives hope for Mississippi couple’s parenthood journey appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A joint effort to seal filings in the case against a former Ole Miss student accused of slaying Jimmie “Jay” Lee is very unusual, a legal expert told Mississippi Today. 

The petition states that due to “significant” media coverage, the only way Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr.’s right to a fair trial will be secured is if the judge agrees to seal all pretrial documents, including docket entries, motions, exhibits, subpoenas and notices. It was first reported by the Oxford Eagle. 

Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore and Herrington’s attorney, Rep. Kevin Horan, filed the motion together. 

It is unusual to see prosecutors partnering with the defense to seal cases, said Mississippi College School of Law professor Matthew Steffey, because they work on behalf of the public in lieu of more archaic forms of vigilante or community justice. Therefore, the public has a right to know what the district attorney is doing on its behalf. 

Plus, Steffey noted that defendants in Mississippi have a constitutional right not just to a speedy trial, but also to a public one. Herrington’s family, who is from Grenada, has maintained his innocence in interviews with news outlets, and dozens of people, including powerful local officials, have written letters to the court on Herrington’s behalf.

“It is not simply in our legal tradition to hold criminal trials in secret,” said Matthew Steffey, a Mississippi College law professor. “You make it secret enough, then it’s a ‘star chamber,’ albeit with jurors.” 

So far, the case has been handled by Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Gray Tollison.

The joint motion comes little over a month after Horan filed his own motion seeking a change in venue.

Also citing the media attention Herrington’s case has received, Horan’s motion argued that Herrington could not receive a fair trial in Lafayette County. He attached articles from multiple news outlets as well as screenshots of social media activity from Justice for Jay Lee, a group organized by Lee’s friends that has held protests outside the courthouse and called on police to find Lee’s body.

A ruling has yet to be made on either motion, but Horan has been successful in negotiating on behalf of Herrington in the past. A few months after Herrington was denied bond, Horan and the district attorney’s office came to an agreement that set bail, and Herrington was released.

Steffey said that judges very rarely grant change-of-venue motions, in part because the internet allows news to easily spread beyond specific communities. 

“Changing venues doesn’t put the trial on the moon,” he said. 

It’s one thing, Steffey added, for judges to seal specifics in a case in order to protect a police investigation or the names of witnesses. In Derek Chauvin’s trial, for example, the judge ordered the jury remain anonymous to preserve the officer’s right to a fair trial.

“But everything so that nobody has any kind of knowledge of the conduct of the case?” Steffey asked. “Do they intend to call and pick a jury in secret?” 

Lee, a well-known member of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community, went missing on July 8, 2022. 

Herrington was arrested two weeks later. Police later determined that he had been in a sexual relationship with Lee and that his apartment was the last place Lee went. That night, a few minutes after Lee messaged that he was coming over, Herrington Googled “how long does it take to strangle someone gabby petito,” then “does pre workout boost testosterone.” 

The theory of the case that prosecution presented during an earlier preliminary hearing is that Herrington killed Lee to keep their casual sexual relationship a secret — something Herrington’s defense attorney deemed “sensational.”  

The Oxford Eagle reported that while Herrington’s trial is set for October, court officials said the date is expected to be pushed to December, after the height of football season, considering the lack of hotels and the possibility that jurors will be brought in from surrounding areas.

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Not many people would have done what Joe Biden just did. He came to the conclusion, with a lot of help after a terrible few weeks, that he was not the best choice to defeat Donald Trump and stepped aside. He put the country first. And history will note this day.

Now things get interesting.

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