OurTupelo

A former Capitol Police officer has been accused of violating the civil rights of a handcuffed man whose head he slammed into the hood of a car and kicked in 2022. 

Jeffery Walker, a former officer with the Flex Unit, was in federal court Wednesday. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison for one charge of deprivation of rights under the color of law. 

The person Walker is accused of injuring is identified in court records as E.S. 

On July 27, 2022, Walker was on duty and driving an unmarked car when he tried to stop E.S.’s car, but E.S. did not pull over and led Walker on a chase, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. 

Three unnamed Jackson Police Department officers joined in the chase until Walker cut E.S. off, which caused Walker to hit a tree and E.S. to swerve into a yard. Walker and the JPD officers approached E.S.’s car, pulled him out, put him on the ground and handcuffed him. 

The indictment states Walker grabbed E.S. by the back of the neck and slammed his head into the car hood, before putting him back on the ground and kicking him in the head and face. 

Magistrate Judge Andrew Harris approved an unsecured $10,000 bond for Walker. 

Walker’s trial is scheduled for Feb. 10, 2025 with U.s. District Judge Henry Wingate. 

The former Capitol Police officer also faces an excessive force lawsuit filed last year stemming from an incident that happened weeks after the 2022 incident. 

On Aug. 14, 2022, Sherita Harris was a passenger in a car driven by her friend. As the car waited for a traffic signal to turn green on State and Amite streets, the lawsuit alleges Walker and Capitol Police Officer Michael Rhinewalt approached the car from behind, turned on its emergency lights and directed the car to pull over. 

Shortly after the driver pulled over, Rhinewalt began to shoot into the car, according to the lawsuit. The driver fled to avoid bullets, but Harris was hit in the head and slumped over in her seat.

She was taken to the hospital where she had surgery to remove bullet fragments from her head, according to the lawsuit. The injuries left her with lingering issues including with her speech and cognitive abilities. 

As of December, the lawsuit remains active. The lawsuit seeks $3 million in damages, and the case is expected to go to trial in October 2025. 

The officers offered a different account. 

Walker was called as a witness in a September 2022 preliminary hearing for Sinatra Jordan, the driver of the car, who has been charged with fleeing law enforcement, assault of a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. 

NBC News reported about Walker’s testimony in which he said the car ran a red light and took off after the officers got out of their cruisers. Walker and Rhinewalt chased the car and said they heard gunshots coming from it and saw items thrown out of the window. 

The car crashed into a curb and they saw the driver with a black object in his hands, prompting them to return fire. 

Jordan remains at the Raymond Detention Center and is expected to go to trial in March 2025.

The post Ex-Capitol Police officer faces federal civil rights charge appeared first on Mississippi Today.

New hires by state and by local governments would receive less benefits upon retirement under recommendations approved Wednesday by the 10-member board that governs the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System.

Lee County Chancery Clerk Bill Benson, a member of the board, said during the meeting he did not support all aspects of proposed changes in the plan for new hires, but said he would endorse the changes to ensure that current retirees and current public government employees receive the benefits they were promised.

The recommendation endorsed by the board on Wednesday would not change any of benefits for current employees and retirees. The new proposal is similar to recommendations the board made last year, but state lawmakers did not adopt.

The ultimate decision on whether to create a tier 5 that would entail a different and smaller benefits package for new employees rests with the Legislature. On Wednesday the PERS board simply endorsed creating a tier 5.

The hope is that a tier 5 for new employees would address the financial woes many people say exist for PERS, which currently is providing some type of retirement benefits for about 350,000 current public employees and retirees.

The recommendation made by the board would not include a guaranteed cost of living adjustment. The current plan includes an annual 3% cost of living increase that many members take at the end of the year as a so-called 13^th check. Some PERS Board members said they do not think it is financially viable to continue the current COLA for new employees.

“A guaranteed COLA is the big elephant in the room,” Benson told fellow board members Wednesday. “… I will support (a new play for new hires) based on that, we need to sustain what was promised to existing employees.”

Benson and others at the meeting said reducing benefits for new hires would help stabilize the system long-term, but noted the system will still need more funding in the meantime.

The key elements in the recommendations the board approved Wednesday with one dissenting vote and one not voting is creating a hybrid plan where a portion of the pension benefits for the new hires would be through a guaranteed defined benefit plan while the other portion would be through some type of investment package, such as a 401K, where the benefits would be determined by investment earnings.

Under the current plan, all of the benefits are guaranteed each month. Board member Randy McCoy who voted no said he could not support changing the program so that all of the month benefit was not guaranteed.

Under an example presented to the board Wednesday, a current employee with 30 years of service earning $60,000 per year at retirement would, based on projections, earn 87% of his or her current work salary upon retirement, including federal Social Security payments. Importantly, those benefits would increase 3% annually based on the guaranteed COLA.

By contrast, the same retiree under the PERS board recommendation would receive 84.1% if the earnings from the investment portion of the pension package increased by 7% annually. But there would be no guaranteed COLA, though, a cost of living increase could be awarded each year.

Some members conceded that a less attractive pension package could make it difficult to recruit people to work in the public sector where the salaries are often less than those provided in the private sector.

Kelly Riley, director of Mississippi Professional Educators, said her group is concerned about the proposal for new hires, “especially its impact on the teacher pipeline and recruitment and retention.”

“We believe it will only deepen and exacerbate our state’s teacher shortage,” Riley said. “New teachers under this tier 5 would contribute the same 9% as those in tier 4, but rould receive fewer guaranteed benefits.”

The financial issues facing PERS have been an ongoing headache for the Legislature with widespread and long-term ramifications. The system has about 350,000 members including current public employees and former employees and retirees. The system provides pension benefits for most Mississippi public employees on the state and local government levels, including schoolteachers. Members of PERS comprise more than 10% of the state’s population.

The system has assets of about $32 billion, but debt of about $25 billion.

During the 2024 session, legislation was passed to strip a key power of the PERS’ Board – to set the percentage of the employee paycheck governmental entities contribute to the pension program.

To deal with long-term financial issues, the PERS Board had planned a 5% increase over three years to 22.4% that the employers or governmental entities contributed to each paycheck. Governmental entities, particularly local governments and school districts, said to pay for the increase they would be forced to reduce services and lay off employees.

While stripping the power from the PERS Board to set the employer contribution rate, the Legislature also enacted a 2.5% increase over five years instead of the 5% increase over three years planned by the PERS Board.

In addition, the Legislature provided a one-time infusion of $110 million into the system.

The board on Wednesday debated holding off on endorsing the recommendation.

“I just got this around 8 last night and I don’t see the rush for us to recommend something,” said board member state Treasurer David McRae. “… I want to get this right. This is going to be a generational change for Mississippi.”

Board Chairman George Dales, former longtime state insurance commissioner, said the Legislature “could still do this on their own” without a PERS board recommendation. Others noted a recommendation from the board would be helpful and politically pragmatic for the Legislature.

State Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, a board member, said that even if the state were to adopt more limited benefits, local governments in the system could still provide more, at their own cost.

The post Mississippi PERS Board endorses plan decreasing pension benefits for new hires appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Don’t look now, but Mississippi boasts two superb college basketball teams.

State and Ole Miss both have won 10 of their first 11 games. Both are nationally ranked. Both are exceptionally well-coached. In their backcourts, where postseason basketball games are won and lost, they are remarkably proficient.

They better be.

In modern parlance, things are about to get real. That goes for every team in the Southeastern Conference.

For years – no, for decades – we have heard the same old song and dance, season after season, about how the SEC hoops is better, deeper, than it has ever been. Guess what? This season, it is true. This season, the SEC is the best league in college basketball. It isn’t close.

Ole Miss is 16th and State 25th in this week’s coaches poll. But consider this: Five of the top seven are SEC teams. Six of the top 11 are SEC teams. Half of the top 16 and nine of the top 25 are SEC teams.

Better yet, consider: The worst record of any SEC team as this is written belongs to South Carolina. The Gamecocks are 8-3. On Tuesday night, they defeated Clemson, a top 25 team from the Atlantic Coast Conference, 91-88.

After Tuesday night’s games, the SEC’s cumulative record stands at 154-20. That’s astounding. That’s also a winning percentage a tad under 90 percent. And yes, many of those victories were over bad teams. But many weren’t.

State slaughtered Pitt of the ACC. Ole Miss cold-cocked Louisville, also of the ACC, at Louisville. Furthermore, Missouri knocked off then-No. 1 Kansas, and Auburn has four victories over ranked teams and hammered Ohio State by 38 points. Undefeated Tennessee won at Illinois. Undefeated Florida boasts victories over North Carolina, Arizona State, Virginia and Wake Forest. Alabama has toppled North Carolina and Houston, among others. Vanderbilt, picked last in the SEC preseason poll, has won nine of its first 10. We could go on and on and on, but surely you get the idea.

Tuesday night, after Mississippi State polished off Central Michigan 83-59 in the Bulldogs’ annual visit to Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Chris Jans was asked if his team was prepared for the SEC season. It begins Jan. 4.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Jans answered. “But ready or not, we’re gonna find out soon enough. I love it. We’re excited.”

Beard, a guest on Mississippi Today’s Crooked Letter Sports podcast this week, said much the same.

“All the leagues say, ‘We’re the best,’ but this year it’s undeniable,” he said. “All you have to do is turn on the TV and watch. … It’s daunting, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun competing in this league. … If we play Ole Miss basketball, we can win any game on our schedule.”

Yes, and if they have an off night, they can lose any league game as well. Same goes for State.

What I like most about both teams are their backcourts, their guard play. While big men – centers and power forwards – often get the most attention, really good guards are what you must have to win in March in college basketball. Both Ole Miss and State are terrific in the backcourt.

Ole Miss point guard Jaylen “Juju” Murray, one of the best largely untold stories in college basketball, has been phenomenal. He has averaged 4.7 assists and just 1.3 turnovers per game. That’s better than a 3-to-1 ratio, which is outstanding. He can score, too, shooting nearly 50 percent from three-point range and hitting 96 percent of free throws. He grew up not much more than a pop fly from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and, as a freshman, helped St. Peters reach the Elite Eight.

Shooting guard Sean Pedulla, a transfer from Virginia Tech, is his team’s leading scorer at 14 a game. Matthew Murrell, another off guard, is in his fourth season in Oxford. A second team All-SEC pick last year, Murrell is steadily moving up the Ole Miss career scoring list. In those three guards, Beard has 12 years of invaluable, high level college basketball experience – and is why Ole Miss has turned the ball over about half as many times as its opponents.

State’s backcourt is likewise exceptional starting with home-grown Madison Ridgeland Academy guard Josh Hubbard, who won the Bailey Howell Trophy as a freshman and averages 18 per game this year. Jans added transfer Claudell Harris to his guard mix this season, and he’s special as well. A Louisiana native, Harris began his college career at Charleston Southern and then transferred to Boston College where he averaged 14 points a game as a junior. Harris had scored more than 1,300 points before he ever got to Starkville. In today’s basketball parlance, he can evermore shoot that rock.

Another common superlative: Both State and Ole Miss are balanced, scoring-wise. The Bulldogs feature seven players who average seven points or better per game. The Rebels have five players who score in double figures per game, and eight who average seven or more.

The teams share at least one more similarity. Both have at least one more huge test – and excellent preparation – before the brutal SEC schedule that awaits.

State plays at Memphis this Saturday. One week later, Ole Miss plays at Memphis. Penny Hardaway’s Tigers are ranked No. 21 and will provide a talent level and atmosphere quite similar to what the Bulldogs and Rebels will face in the SEC.

For a welcomed change, both teams open SEC play at home on Jan. 4, when Georgia plays at Ole Miss and State plays host to South Carolina.

Ready or not, here it comes.

The post Ole Miss and Mississippi State basketball teams are terrific, and they better be in this SEC appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Chris Beard has his second Ole Miss basketball team ranked No. 17 nationally in the latest Associated Press basketball poll. Beard, whose first Ole Miss team won 20 games, has lost only once and that by two points to Purdue, which lost in the national championship game last season. Beard talks about his team’s early success and what it faces in the SEC, which boasts five of the top seven ranked teams in college basketball.

Stream all episodes here.

The latest from rick cleveland

Ole Miss and Mississippi State basketball teams are terrific, and they better be in this SEC

by Rick Cleveland
December 18, 2024December 18, 2024

The post Podcast: Ole Miss basketball coach Chris Beard joins the podcast appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Drone On appeared first on Mississippi Today.

T.O. Richarson, 36, rolls up after transporting a log load to Hermanville. Dust devils swirl in his wake, dancing behind the log hauler he calls… his baby.

The weather is perfect. High, blue skies on a hot day made tolerable by a slight breeze refreshing enough to cool hard-working men like T&T Logging owner T.O. Richardson and his crew, masters in their elements, who prefer the outdoors, working with their hands and expertly operating humongous machinery clearing land of timber. 

In this case, a 110-acre tract of land in Jackson. 

Logging consists of cutting down trees and bunching them together with a feller buncher. Next, a skidder is used to haul the cut timber from the forest to a loading deck, where the trees are processed by a loader and placed on a log hauler for transport to a mill.

“It’s a business not built for everyone,” said Richardson. “Every job is different. Different and loud. Some jobs are just a clear-cut, clear everything and trees are replanted, starting from scratch. Some we just go in and thin out timber. On some, we clear out the bigger trees to give the smaller ones a chance to grow.”

“Not only can my logging company cut your timber, we can also gravel the road to your house or deer camp. We cruise timber too,” said Richardson, a process used to evaluate the amount of trees in an area and the value of the land it is on.

Richardson was “Lil Man,” back in the day, a 3-year-old, he says, “soaking up the game” from his dad, Thomas J. Richardson, who worked the fields and the family farm as a 9-year-old, when his father gave him a cultivator and mule. 

The game, Richarson speaks of, is logging. He carries on as the third generation of a business with over 40 years of experience. The seeds were planted in Richardson early and he knew he wanted to be just like his father. “Work boots and a cap, instead of a suit and tie,” said Richardson, remembering, adding with emphasis, “not a gangsta in the streets, a baller or an entertainer. A working man. I knew early I wanted to work for myself. Have my own business. And that comes from my daddy. He taught us hard work. He instilled that in us.”

“At 10 years old, I started my own business. Asked my mom to buy me lollipops. Oh, she looked at me funny, but she bought them. Thirty-four suckers, I was making 17 dollars a day while my friends and other kids were out playing somewhere.”

“Out of high school, I even went to college to become an accountant. I moved to Atlanta. I was thinking maybe I’d find my way doing something in the electrical field, too. But logging… it was in my heart, in my blood.”

“I remember telling my dad,” Richardson says, smiling at the memory. “He had this magnificent smile on his face. I knew I was on the right path.”

“Now look, it wasn’t easy. But those trials and tribulations made us into what we are now. We’re self-made and pressure-tested approved. It’s a load that might be too heavy for some people, too overwhelming, but that load for us is just right.” 

Contact T&T Logging company, located in Edwards.

(601)339-1652

Open 24 hours, 7 days a week.

The post T.O. Richardson and T&T Logging, a 3rd generation business in Hinds County appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Holland’s Opus appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Kiss Kiss appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After nearly 10 hours of jury deliberation, a Lafayette County circuit judge declared a mistrial on Wednesday in the capital murder case trial of Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., a Grenada native accused of killing a fellow University of Mississippi graduate to preserve their secret sexual relationship.

Judge Kelly Luther’s ruling came around 8:25 p.m. after the jury informed him a second time that they were unable to reach an agreement. Both times, the jurors were gridlocked 11-1, and it is not known in which direction they were leaning as the judge told them to not say if they had more votes for a guilty verdict or acquittal.

“All right, I thank you for your effort,” Luther said. “You’ve been out nine and a half hours. I’m gonna declare a mistrial.”

The prosecution had built a circumstantial case against Herrington, arguing he was the last person to see Jimmie “Jay” Lee alive before the avid social media user stopped responding to texts and calls from family and friends on July 8, 2022. His body was never found. In October, a judge declared Lee legally dead at the request of his parents.

The first time the jury informed Luther they were gridlocked, around 3 p.m., they asked what would happen if they couldn’t reach a verdict. Luther ordered them back for further deliberations.

The second time, the judge asked for a show of hands if any jurors believed they could reach a verdict.

“I don’t want you tilting the windmills,” Luther said.

Luther then informed the defense and prosecution that he would entertain a motion for a new trial in the next few weeks and that he assumed, if the case returned to court, the two parties would once again seek a new venue from which to select a jury for the case.

“Just my mind reading the jury, I think we were hopelessly deadlocked,” Luther said.

Herrington will remain on bond.

READ MORE: Jury deliberations begin in trial of Ole Miss grad accused of killing Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee

The post ‘Hopelessly deadlocked’: Judge declares mistrial in Tim Herrington trial appeared first on Mississippi Today.

So much to cover on this week’s podcast but Southern Miss’s surprising hire of Marshall coach Charles Huff tops the list, and USM athletic director Jeremy McClain joins the podcast to discuss. Also, a recap of the high school state championships, more college football and, in case no one has noticed, we have two Top 25 basketball teams in Mississippi.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Jeremy McClain talks Huff Hire appeared first on Mississippi Today.