Two state officials confirmed to Mississippi Today that state and federal authorities are examining what role, if any, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey played in the August acquittal of former Capitol Police officer Steven Frederick for DUI.
The sheriff is already under scrutiny with regard to the self-described “Goon Squad” inside his department. Five former deputies and a Richland police officer have already pleaded guilty to the Jan. 24 attack on two Black men, which included a warrantless forced entry, torturing and sexually abusing suspects, using “clean” thrown down weapons, planting evidence, beating suspects to coerce confessions, stealing property, conspiring to create cover stories and obstructing justice. Sentencing is set for federal court in January.
On March 12, Frederick, who has been dating Bailey’s daughter, was charged with driving under the influence after crashing a state-owned Mississippi Department of Public Safety vehicle. A diagram shows he ran over three road signs before stopping in a concrete ditch.
A diagram shows how now-ex Capitol Police officer Stephen Frederick ran over three road signs before stopping in a concrete ditch. Credit: Courtesy of Mississippi Highway Patrol
After a breathalyzer test, the trooper said over the radio that Frederick had a blood alcohol level of 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol video. The ticket listed the level as 0.12.
“Twelve years of my life gone over one stupid mistake,” Frederick told the trooper. “I just lost my f—ing career, man.”
He initially told the trooper he was “trying to clear my head” and had only two beers, but he later admitted he had been drinking liquor, according to Highway Patrol videos obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, now part of Mississippi Today.
Frederick arrived at the Covington County Jail at 11:49 p.m. Less than an hour later, Covington County Sheriff Darrell M. Perkins ordered Frederick released without bond.
“I released him to Bryan Bailey,” Perkins said. “He told me he carried him [Frederick] to the hospital. He was bruised up.”
At the scene, Frederick had refused medical treatment, according to the Highway Patrol video.
Authorities have learned that after the accident, Bailey contacted a prosecutor, asking what would happen if a trooper didn’t appear for a DUI hearing. The prosecutor replied that, if the trooper failed to appear, the case would be dismissed.
That’s exactly what happened on Aug. 9. Trooper Daniel Loftin failed to appear, and Covington County Justice Court Judge Bobby Wayne Mooney dismissed the case.
Loftin was one of four troopers scheduled for that day in justice court. He was the only one who didn’t appear.
Capitol Police officer Steven Frederick ran over two road signs before stopping in a concrete ditch. Credit: Courtesy of Mississippi Highway Patrol
Historically, courts subpoena witnesses so that they will appear to testify, but in more recent years, some courts use email to deliver these subpoenas.
On Aug. 3, Justice Court Clerk Cassidy Booker emailed Troop J Capt. Claude Smith of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, asking him to make sure Loftin and three other troopers appeared at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9.
MCIR has obtained the email exchanges between Smith and the other troopers. The records show that Smith emailed Loftin about appearing in court and that Loftin received the email.
Neither Loftin nor Sheriff Bailey have responded to requests for comment.
An unsuccessful candidate for the state Legislature wants to file an election challenge over the Hinds County ballot shortage issues, but she’s worried she won’t have the necessary money to fund the litigation.
Sharon Moman, the Democratic nominee for House District 56, lost her bid for the legislative seat that covers portions of Hinds and Madison counties to a Republican candidate.
She told Mississippi Today that she heard from countless Hinds County voters who tried to vote for her on Election Day, but they simply decided to leave their polling precinct after poll workers told them they had no ballots.
“The ripple effect with a lack of ballots just continued all day long,” Moman said.
Moman received roughly 2,564 votes or 33% of the total vote. Her Republican opponent, Clay Mansell, received 5,043 votes, or roughly 66% of the total vote. Mansell declined to comment on a potential election challenge.
In Mississippi, Black voters are more likely to support Democratic candidates, while white voters are more likely to vote for Republican candidates, making it extremely difficult for Moman to win the House district.
But the Jackson suburban area contains a high concentration of college-educated voters, who, nationally, have been more likely to vote for Democratic candidates in recent years.
“I’m disappointed,” Moman said. “I want to file a challenge because that 33% number I got was just disappointing to see. People are going to incorrectly think it’s not a winnable district for a Democrat or for a woman.”
Numerous precincts in Hinds County ran out of ballots on Election Day, which left some voters waiting in line for hours and caused others to give up and go home. Several voters submitted sworn affidavits to state courts expressing frustration over the fiasco.
The ballot shortages spurred legal action from multiple organizations before the normal poll closing time at 7 p.m., and a chancery court judge ordered all Hinds County precincts to stay open until 8 p.m. to allow more people to vote.
State law allows candidates to file an election challenge over the general election by Monday, November 27.
In an election challenge, the chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court appoints a special judge to provide over the litigation. The special judge would make an initial determination if a candidate should receive any type of relief, but the decision would be appealable to the state Supreme Court.
Though the Hinds County ballot shortage situation is unique, it’s unclear how much say, if any, the state courts would have over Moman’s scenario.
The Mississippi Constitution gives the state House of Representatives exclusive jurisdiction over general election contests with House races. If Moman wants to file such a challenge with the 122-member chamber, state law requires her to do so with the clerk of the House no later than 30 days after the general election.
A House committee would likely be formed to investigate the election challenge, and they could conduct a hearing to receive arguments from both Moman and her Republican opponent on whether they should grant any type of relief.
In either scenario, a candidate would likely have to pay an attorney to spend resources filing briefs, researching case law, paying court fees and securing potential witnesses to testify — funds Moman says she does not have.
If Moman does not file such a challenge with the clerk by Thursday, December 7, then Mansell will be the new state lawmaker for the district.
The Delta State University faculty senate called on the dean of the liberal arts college to immediately resign last week in a no-confidence vote, citing a failure to advocate for faculty and an ineffectiveness in handling tenure and promotion.
The 11-3-3 vote by the body elected by faculty to represent their concerns questioned the leadership of Ellen Green, a biology professor who was appointed interim dean in 2020. It is an extraordinary action at Delta State where faculty can’t remember a time the faculty senate writ-large has taken such a vote.
“There have been allegations of ethical lapses and bias in decision making that raise serious doubts about Dr. Green’s ability to make impartial and ethical choices in the best interest of the college and its community,” the resolution states.
Ellen Green, a biology professor at Delta State University, was appointed interim dean in 2020. Credit: Courtesy of Delta State University
By Tuesday, it was unclear if Green was going to step down. A university spokesperson said the administration had no comment on the vote, and Green did not respond to an inquiry by Mississippi Today.
Christopher Jurgenson, a biochemistry professor andthe faculty senate president, said that Daniel Ennis, the university president, told him the interim provost, Leslie Griffin, would be handling the administration’s response to the resolution.
If Green doesn’t resign, “we need a response and a justification,” Jurgenson said. “That’s what I’ll ask for. If I don’t at least get that, I will demand it.”
At the very least, Jurgenson expects the administration to have a discussion with Green. But it’s still early in the process.
The two-page resolution comes after reporting by Mississippi Today that included Green’s role in hiring Kent Wessinger, a business consultant, to be the interim co-chair of the music department despite his lack of experience in higher education administration and history of domestic violence allegations. Months earlier, the chair of the department had been killed.
In one instance, Green recommended denying tenure to Jamie Dahman, a music faculty member who other members of administration and Wessinger had taken issue with, on the basis that he had “aggressively pounded the table” during a department meeting, an allegation that was not substantiated by a recording of the meeting or eyewitness accounts.
The resolution also cites a lawsuit from an Iranian art professor who claimed he was discriminated against by the university in part because his department chair, who is Turkish, allegedly wanted to replace him with a fellow Turk. The professor, Mansoor Shams, alleged that as part of an effort to push him out, Green invited him to her office, surprised Shams with his department chair and the Human Resources director, then locked the door until he agreed to resign.
After a federal judge ruled the casecould go to trial earlier this year, Delta State decided to settle as the campus is staring down the prospect of multimillion-dollar budget cuts.
Jurgenson said that the faculty senate was most concerned with the deposition of Lisa Giger, the HR director, in which she verified some of Shams’ allegations and stated that it is Delta State’s normal practice to not permit employees to consult a lawyer when they are offered non-renewal contracts.
“The fact that the university was sued, and Ellen was named in the lawsuit isn’t necessarily a big deal because it happens all the time,” he said.
Taken together, Green’s actions have contributed to a culture of fear at Delta State that must be confronted because most people on campus don’t operate that way, Jurgenson said. Some faculty who were not senators were concerned that Green or other members of administration would target them if a no-confidence passed.
Jurgenson said he told faculty that “no one is going to lose their job who needs to be here.”
“There was some worry about retaliation, which I don’t think was founded,” Jurgenson said. “I said, ‘Ellen is not a dictator, she can’t do anything to you.’ The culture here has been along the lines of people who have been worried about backlash, but I don’t think under Dan’s leadership it’s like that. The way the university is run right now, it’s about policy.”
Were Green to resign, it would be the latest turnover to shake Delta State’s administration. In August, the provost, Andy Novobilski, resigned for “family reasons” but has stayed to advise the president, Daniel Ennis.
But the turnover at the top, Jurgenson said, is a sign that the administration is getting into shape under Ennis and responding to the faculty’s desire for more accountability. He added that turnover among provosts and deans is normal on college campuses, even if that hasn’t been the case at Delta State.
“Here oddly enough that doesn’t tend to happen,” he said.
Plus, Jurgenson said the administration asks so much from faculty who are expected to take on extra tasks in departments where key positions have gone unfilled for years or work over the holidays.
“The administration is always asking us to do things,” he said. “There needs to be some give and take.”
There would appear to be bigger things to worry about than Green’s situation like the impending budget cuts or the accreditor’s upcoming site visit.
“It’s stressful, I would rather not be dealing with it,” Jurgenson said. “I don’t want to be at odds with administration. I don’t want an administration where we have to do this.”
Before Green became dean, she was the chair of the university’s science and mathematics division and the president of the faculty senate.
Ella Fitzgerald sings at Downbeat, a New York City jazz club, while Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt (Milton) Jackson, and Timme Rosenkrantz listen.
Ella Fitzgerald, the “Queen of Jazz,” made her debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She had planned to go on stage and dance for Amateur Night, but when the Edwards Sisters danced before her, she decided to sing instead. That break led to others, and she became a sensation after a song she co-wrote, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” became a major hit in 1938.
She battled racism, ordered by Pan-Am to leave their flight to Australia. Despite missing two concerts there, she went on to set a new box office record in Australia. She helped to break racial barriers, refusing to perform before segregated audiences. The NAACP awarded her the Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award.
Fitzgerald became the first Black woman to win a Grammy. In her music, she innovated with scat singing, sang be-bop, jazz and even gospel hymns. She performed with her own orchestra, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and her Song Book series became a huge critical and commercial success.
She performed in Hollywood films, and her most memorable take on television came when her voice shattered a glass. When the tape was played back, her voice broke another glass, and the ad asked, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”
By the time she died in 1996, she had won 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mattel has now designed a doll after her, part of the Barbie Inspiring Women Series, which “pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time — courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations to dream bigger than ever before.”
On Monday, the mother of Dexter Wade finally got to tell her son goodbye.
The 37-year-old man, who had been battling mental illness, wandered across I-55 on March 5 when an off-duty officer driving a Jackson police cruiser ran into him and killed him. Jackson police have not released the officer’s name.
Wade’s mother, Bettersten, repeatedly called police to see if they had found her son, who vanished days before his death. They told her they couldn’t find him.
But the family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, said Wade’s wallet, which contained an identification card with his home address, was found in his jeans. “There is no excuse, not even incompetence, for not notifying a next of kin of an identified man’s death,” he said in a statement.
After his death, Wade was buried in a pauper’s cemetery, where graves are marked with numbers instead of names. It wasn’t until August that his mother finally learned what happened. His body was exhumed last week and was buried Monday at Cedarwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Jackson.
The story made national news.
Last month, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called what happened an “unfortunate and tragic accident,” but at Monday’s memorial service, activist Al Sharpton called what happened a travesty.
“That could have been my son,” Sharpton told those gathered at New Horizon Church in Jackson. “That could have been your son.”
His life “mattered, and we’re going to let it matter all over this country,” Sharpton said. “We’re here to demand Justice for Dexter Wade.”
Crump pointed to the discovery of the wallet as proof “there was a concerted effort to keep the truth and manner of his death from his family.”
Some are calling for a federal investigation, including U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “The system owes Mr. Wade’s family an explanation for the callous manner in which his untimely death was mishandled,” he said in a statement.
Jackson City Councilman Kenny Stoked apologized Monday to the family, and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens says his office is reviewing the case.
The debacle was made worse last week when his mother asked to be present when his body was exhumed, but authorities went ahead without her.
In 2019, her 61-year-old brother, George Robinson, died after Jackson police officer Anthony Fox was accused of striking him in the head and slamming him to the ground. Fox, who was named Officer of the Year in 2014, was convicted of manslaughter resulting from culpable negligence and received a five-year sentence.
The Mississippi attorney general’s office is now asking the state Court of Appeals to reverse Fox’s conviction. “Fox could not reasonably have foreseen that death was likely to follow from an everyday effort to subdue a resisting, non-compliant suspect using traditional non-lethal means,” the office wrote.
“They had to exhume [slain NAACP leader] Medgar Evers to get justice” in 1994 when his killer was finally convicted, Crump said. “They had to exhume Dexter Wade to get justice.”
According to the Hinds County coroner’s office, it was about 8 p.m., two hours after sundown, when Wade tried to cross the southbound lanes of I-55 on March 5. The officer struck him, and the coroner ruled the death accidental. The autopsy found meth and PCP in Wade’s system.
Upon seeing the prescription bottle with Wade’s name, the coroner’s office contacted Hinds Behavioral Health Services, which confirmed he was a patient and provided the mother’s name and phone number, according to the coroner’s notes.
But when a deputy coroner tried to call, there was no answer, according to records. But Wade’s mother says she never received a call.
According to records, the deputy coroner checked with Jackson police several times, and when no one claimed the body, Wade was buried July 14 at the Hinds County Penal Farm.
Crump said Wade suffered multiple blunt force injuries to his skull, ribs and pelvis, according to the initial findings by pathologist Dr. Frank Peretti. The crash also severed Wade’s left leg.
“Just keep fighting with me,” his mother told those gathered, “because it ain’t over yet.”
This is the 1907 Ole Miss football team, which was outscored 195-6 in six football games. Seated far right, on the second row, is the team’s coach Frank Mason, who had been the first football coach at Harvard. The team did not fare well against the “Farmer Boys” of Mississippi A&M. (Courtesy Ole Miss Athletics)
Ole Miss and Mississippi State will play football for the 118th time Thursday in Starkville. The weather forecast calls for partly cloudy skies, a slight chance of rain and a football-friendly 50 degrees at kickoff.
Rick Cleveland
And here’s what you should know about that: 116 years ago, on a miserable Thanksgiving Day, Ole Miss and Mississippi State players could only have dreamed of such balmy weather.
Every State and Ole Miss fan has a favorite Egg Bowl. Mine has to be the 1907 rendition played at the State Fairgrounds, just down the hill from the Old Capitol. Despite what many believe, I am too young to remember much of it. Thankfully, the Clarion-Ledger dispatched a reporter to cover the event for the next day’s newspaper and for future generations. The reporter didn’t get a byline, but he got one hell of a story, as we shall see.
The biggest headline read: “UNIVERSITY WENT DOWN BEFORE THE FARMER BOYS.”
The subhead read: “A Great Game of Football Was Played in Mud and Water, But Great Crowd of Wet Spectators Enjoyed the Fun.”
The reporter’s lead paragraph was short and to the point: “A&M 16, University 0.” That’s it. The writer not only got the score in the first paragraph, the score WAS the first paragraph.
But one hundred and sixteen years later, I am here to tell you: The writer buried the lede. You will see.
The unnamed reporter did do a splendid job of setting the scene: “Rain began to fall Wednesday evening, continued in a drizzling kind of way till midnight, when the upper regions were thrown wide open and the rain came down in torrents until late on the day of the big game. The grounds are naturally low, with no drainage whatever, but in dry weather are well-suited for the business of playing football. During the past three days, the Fair management has been busy, filling up low places, leveling off and improving the grounds as much as possible, but all to no avail as far as the conditions were concerned yesterday afternoon.”
The conditions were apparently no better for the estimated 2,500 fans who braved the elements, as our intrepid reporter wrote: “The road and walks from State Street to the ball grounds were about as bad and disagreeable as it is possible for roads to be, and those so fortunate to have conveyances, public or private, were just about able to get along and that is all. The foot passengers waded through mud and water over their shoe tops, and were a bedraggled sight when they reached the grandstand or the wire netting that surrounds the ball grounds.”
Just as the reader is considering the term “foot passengers,” the reporter gets to the game: “The players lined up for the first half at about 2:30, all eager apparently for the fray, and both sides confident of victory. The betting, if any was indulged in, was at odds, the A&M boys being very decided favorites with those who had little cash to risk on the battle that was played under such difficulties.”
Now then, here’s one of my favorite parts: “But the spectators seemed more interested in the conditions of the grounds and the brand of weather provided by an unkind clerk than were the sturdy youngsters who were to provide the brawn and muscle and take all the risks of broken bones and black eyes and death by strangulation in the pools of unknown and uncertain depths that were scattered over the gridiron.”
We just don’t get sports writing like that any more, or like this that followed:
“The first half lasted 35 minutes (no TV timeouts) and was fast and furious from start to finish. It was apparent that the A&M eleven was the better trained of the two, that it was heavier and speedier and stood the best chance of winning, but they were no fuller of grit than their University opponents, who fought across and beyond, back and forth over every yard of the field…”
Such flowery prose continues until we learn the halftime score was 0-0, and then, “The contestants had been soused in water up to their ears time and again and were wet and fighting muddy. They threw discretion to the winds in the second half and took their cold baths as if it made them feel better.”
We can presume those cold baths did feel better for A&M, as the “Farmer Boys” scored all 16 points “earned only after the hardest and roughest kind of scrambles and close attention to the business of the game.”
And then there was this: “The feature of the afternoon was the 70-yard run and goal made by Dent (no first name), though Grant made two or three runs that would have done credit to any ball player in the land and proved him worthy to wear the honors he earned last week at Memphis when he was declared the most phenomenal 130 pounds of football material ever seen in that city.”
Apparently, the post-game trek back up the hill to the business district was every bit as harrowing as the game itself. Wagons bogged down in the mud. “Conveyances were abandoned,” as the writer put it. “A great float filled with college boys headed to town, but the team gave out, the harness broke, and the occupants were forced to disembark in the muddiest, wettest section of the road.”
Nobody died, but somebody did get fired. Ole Miss finished the season 0-6 and was outscored 195 to 6.
Here’s the last paragraph and where the reporter buried his lede: “There was no rowdyism at any stage of the game or afterwards, but some of the players and backers of the University team were sore over the defeat, and very much inclined to lay the blame on their coach, a Harvard man. On the other hand, the coach was ‘beefing’ about the team, declaring it ‘the hardest set’ he had ever tackled.” Asked if the team was going to leave town that night, the coach said, “Yes, the team is going North at 11 o’clock; I’m going another direction and hope I will never see them again.”
That coach, Frank Mason, probably never did see his players again. It later came to light that he had tried to keep his players warm that wet, chilly day with an urn of hot coffee on the team’s bench. To make sure they were good and warm, Mason spiked the coffee with whiskey. From his post-game comments, I am guessing he partook.
Not surprisingly, Mason was subsequently dismissed, by no means the last coach ever fired after an Egg Bowl defeat. And, as likely as not, Mason never did see his team again.
After losing reelection by a narrow margin, Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey has sent notice to Commissioner De’Keither Stamps that he will be inspecting “ballot boxes, election materials, poll records and any and all other related items” from the Nov. 7 election.
By law, Bailey has the right to conduct such an examination, and a deadline of Monday, Nov. 27, to file a challenge of results. Bailey said at this point, he’s simply exercising his rights to examine things.
Stamps on Monday called the examination and possible challenge sour grapes on Bailey’s part. The race, particularly in the homestretch and during the long wait for finality, saw much mudslinging and bitter feelings between candidates.
The central PSC race was neck-and-neck, and Stamps wasn’t declared the winner for a week after Election Day as absentee and affidavit ballots were counted. The final result was a margin of 2,134 votes for Stamps, who won the race with 50.4% of the vote to Bailey’s 49.6% — the same percentage margin by which Bailey defeated Stamps in 2019 for the seat.
Stamps said Bailey’s challenge will hinder a smooth transition for the office — one of three commissioners who regulate public utilities and the rates they can charge customers — and ruin the Thanksgiving holiday for those involved in the review.
“Basically this spoils everybody’s Thanksgiving,” Stamps said. “If he goes through with this, there are 22 courthouses where we’ll have to have people standing by and watching, and 22 circuit clerks will have to have people working. We’ll have to have lawyers, and people to watch … I want to spend time with my family over the Thanksgiving holidays, and the people at the courthouse want to spend time with their families.
De’Keither Stamps Credit: City of Jackson
“I’m disappointed in Mr. Bailey,” Stamps said. “We conceded four years ago … He conceded to Cecil Brown eight years ago. What’s different? It’s just one of those things. We will work through it, though.”
Bailey said he has not yet made a decision on the scope of his inspection for the 22-county PSC district. He said Hinds County, which saw major problems on Election Day with precincts running out of ballots or not having proper ballots, will be “a focus” of his inspection.
“We want to ensure the process was carried forth properly, and that voters were provided their right to vote,” Bailey said. ” … We are doing our due diligence, taking steps afforded to us in state law.”
Stamps on Monday sent a letter to Bailey in response to his notice, saying Bailey must properly notify him of times and locations he arranges with clerks to examine election materials.
“It is my understanding that you lost the election by 2,134 votes, a significant margin that I do not believe you will be able to overcome with recounts,” Stamps wrote. “… I truly wish you would reconsider this expensive and burdensome multi-county undertaking.”
‘Tis the season to be grateful. However, many are struggling to have enough to be thankful now. Stewpot Executive Director, The Reverend Jill Barnes Buckley joins Mississippi Today’s Marshall Ramsey to talk about what Stewpot is doing to help those in need this holiday season.
