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By his own estimate, he has been a conservator for more than 100 vulnerable individuals. Hinds County Chancery Court records show he’s continuing to handle a dozen conservatorships.

Though it’s not known how much the attorney receives in each case, in Hinds County alone, Rosenthal’s income from being a conservator could be substantial.

The average salary for a non-family member conservator is $51,214 per year in Mississippi, according to the research blog salary.com. ZipRecruiter, which says it gets its salary estimates from employer job postings and third party data sources, puts the average salary in Mississippi at $47,787.

State Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who helped craft changes to the conservatorship law, said most appointed conservators are family members, and they aren’t paid a lot of money.

The law allows a family member to be paid fees set by a judge for their service.

Professional conservators are entitled to reasonable fees, but the judge decides what is reasonable and must approve the amount before the conservator can be paid. Money for the conservator comes from the account of the person under a conservatorship. If a person under a conservator has little or no financial assets, the judge can appoint a public guardian/conservator who is paid from public funds.

Some attorneys say the new law makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to file conservatorship petitions without the assistance of attorneys. 

Elder law experts say the cost of obtaining a conservatorship over someone can be expensive with the hiring of attorneys or attorneys to represent the individual, family members and interested parties. There are also court and other fees involved with a conservatorship petition.

READ: The Conservatorship fight over Opal

Rosenthal told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a part of Mississippi Today, that most of the wards for whom he has served as conservator were once clients in criminal cases. 

More than 30 years ago, the attorney provided $12,000 in bail money to try to help white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith get out of jail after he was indicted and arrested for the third time in the assassination of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers.

Although Jewish, a group of people Beckwith disparaged, Rosenthal, 82, has said he provided the money to Beckwith because he believed his speedy trial rights were being violated after two previous trials in 1964 ended in hung juries.

In 1994, 30 years after his previous trials, Beckwith was convicted in Hinds County Circuit Court of Evers’ murder and sentenced to life in prison. Beckwith died in 2001 in custody.

“I’ve had him for more than 30 years and I still have him,” Rosenthal said recently. In February, Rosenthal filed an annual accounting report of Gordineer’s assets, a court docket report shows.

Rosenthal said he knew Gordineer, Gordineer’s father and other family members. He said the younger Gordineer had been a criminal client. Rosenthal said he once had Gordineer, who is a veteran, in a home with his mother but now has him in a nursing home.

No family member of Gordineer could be reached for comment.

Rosenthal is also listed as conservator in another case, dating to 1989 involving Howard Ruffin Jr.

Ruffin’s niece, Erica Porter, said she has been his caregiver for the 100% disabled veteran the last four years. Other than her, Ruffin has little or no family alive, she said. “I’m all he has.”

In her four years of caring for Ruffin, she said she had never heard from Rosenthal until recently when she went to his office to request more money than the $700 a month she receives for Ruffin’s care. 

Porter said Rosenthal denied her request.

“My first time talking to him was actually last week,” Porter said recently of Rosenthal. “We haven’t heard from him or nothing.” 

Rosenthal said everyone wants to spend a ward’s money.

“If you are a conservator or guardian, the money belongs to the person you are trying to protect, and the laws of the state of Mississippi say you are supposed to conserve and build upon the money, if possible,” he said.

About 2,500 conservatorship cases have been filed in Mississippi since then.

The updated law, known as the Mississippi Guard and Protect Act, seeks to protect the rights of those unable to take care of themselves, said Beam, who co-chaired the 26-member committee that came up with the recommendations. It was the first update of the guardian and conservatorship law in 30 years.

The law distinguishes guardianship of the person from conservator of the estate, clarifies the role of a guardian/conservator in a ward’s life, specifies the basis for appointing a guardian/conservator through improved medical evaluation forms, encourages individualized planning and use of the least restrictive alternative. It also creates accountability between the guardian/conservator and the courts to prevent fraud and abuse. 

The law also mandates wellbeing reports.

The updated law applies to cases filed after Jan. 1, 2020, but a judge has the authority to apply the new law to older cases if no rights are violated.

In a 2021 state Supreme Court appeal, Hattiesburg attorney Carol Bustin said that, for decades, courts have treated conservatorships as mere ministerial actions and the imposition of conservatorships as matters of petitioners’ rights. 

Unless someone is a party in a conservatorship case, court records in cases like those of Gordineer and Ruffin are sealed, except for the brief descriptions placed on the court docket. 

Rosenthal said some things in the new law look good on paper, but accountability isn’t being strictly enforced.

The sister of one of Rosenthal’s wards questions the lawyer’s accountability.

“I think the rule, or unofficial rule, should be to talk to family members before they put people into a court-appointed conservatorship to make sure there is no one who can take over the responsibility,” said Linda Taylor of Memphis, whose brother, Edward Redmond, was one of Rosenthal’s wards.

At one point, Rosenthal had Redmond living in a facility in south Mississippi, according to Taylor.

But Rosenthal was forced by court order to move Redmond to Jackson to be closer to family.

Taylor said her brother initially was able to spend time with family.

“In August 2019, however, Rosenthal forbade us to take him away from his assisted living residence to spend time with him. He even claimed he had a warrant out for my brother Robert’s arrest because he had violated that order and picked Edward up once, anyway.”

Redmond, a Marine veteran, was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic in the 1980s and became addicted to drugs. He was determined to be 100% disabled by the VA hospital. Redmond’s parents became guardians over his military and Social Security benefits.

In 1994, Redmond’s parents agreed to let Rosenthal become his guardian without fully understanding what they were consenting to, according to Taylor. She said she and another sister in Texas didn’t know anything about what was going on with their brother until after Rosenthal had already been court appointed guardian/conservator.

At one point, Redmond was allowed to live with Taylor and her husband in Memphis on a trial basis. During that time, Redmond overcame his addiction for a while. He had a great testimony about his victory over drugs. Rosenthal forced Redmond to move back to Jackson for unexplained reasons.

Taylor said her brother was moved over the years to different locations throughout the state of Mississippi, and that all of those places Rosenthal chose were not approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Rosenthal said he won’t apologize for the care Redmond received in Jackson. Taylor wanted too much money for keeping Redmond, he said. “I’m not ashamed of what happened. I had a tremendous problem with her trying to get his money.”

Taylor said the family requested to have guardianship over Edward while allowing Rosenthal to continue being conservator over his money.

“Rosenthal refused,” she said. “The record speaks for itself.”

This project was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, now part of Mississippi Today, in partnership with the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

The post Jackson attorney may be king of conservatorships in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

She is one of the 1.3 million people in the United States living under a legal system that allows someone else, often unrelated, to make personal, financial and medical decisions for them.

Her conservator has her living in an assisted living facility in Hattiesburg, about 35 miles from her home of Columbia. 

When reached via phone, Opal wouldn’t comment on the matter. However, in a court affidavit, she said: “I want out of this conservatorship now and into a home of my own in or near Columbia, Mississippi.”

Opal wants to go home and live with a sitter, and so do some family members, including her daughter, Nancy DeVoe, and Nancy’s husband, John. But Smith’s two other daughters filed the initial conservatorship petition in 2015 after her husband died, saying Smith was experiencing memory decline.

The fight over her conservatorship stretches from Mississippi to England.

In their petition to create a conservatorship over Opal, Nancy’s two sisters — Jill Kendrick Weber, then of Columbia, and Elizabeth Houser of Little Rock — blamed her for initiating the conservatorship. Neither could be reached for comment.

But their 2015 conservatorship petition said that, for approximately the last five years of their father’s life, Weber provided assistance and care for her parents as needed, and was motivated by their best interest.

Subsequent to their father’s death, the sisters said Nancy traveled to Mississippi from her residence in the United Kingdom in an attempt to control Opal and her assets.

They alleged Nancy engaged Opal in conduct and activities out of character for her and not in her best interest. They said Nancy procured a debit card in Opal’s name and compelled her to execute contracts and documents she was not capable of understanding.

Further, they said a physician had indicated Opal was unable to make informed decisions regarding her personal finances, health care, or other serious decisions pertaining to herself or her family.

“Accordingly, the petitioners contend that the Ward, Opal K. Smith, by reason of mental weakness, is incapable of managing her own estate,” the petition said.

Nancy said she never attempted to control her mother or her assets, nor did she engage her mother in any activities or conduct that a reasonable person could contend were out of character for her or not in her best interest. She also said she didn’t compel her mother to execute any contracts or documents.

John and Nancy DeVoe said the constitution mandates no one be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law. A conservatorship decree, they said, always deprives the individual of property and, in many cases, of liberty.

“Opal never had a chance to testify, present evidence, confront her accusers, or call witnesses,” they said in court papers opposing the ongoing conservatorship. 

The Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts reports that 2,481 conservatorship petitions were filed between January 2019 and this past February. The figures include conservatorship petitions for both minors and adults.

READ: Jackson attorney may be king of conservatorships in Mississippi

In Mississippi, some court records appear to show prior to a 2020 update in guardian and conservatorship laws, that some judges didn’t expend much effort investigating conservatorship cases before approving petitions.

The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting viewed court dockets from multiple counties, and records show in some cases, conservatorship petitions were approved the same day they were filed.

Attorney George Dickerman, an elder law expert and author in Riverside, California, said conservatorships should be a last resort, only when no reasonable alternatives are available.

Dickerman said sometimes an older person will need assistance but will not voluntarily agree to accept it. He said a conservatorship can be necessary when a perpetrator manipulates an older person and wrongfully takes money or property.

But Dickerman also said some unscrupulous individuals will use conservatorships as a license to steal.

Across the country, there is a hodgepodge of state laws when it comes to conservatorships, and often there are no requirements to record all financial transactions through a state’s software application. And there is no national database tracking the number of conservatorships in the country. 

The data available on conservatorships and the conditions them varies from state to state. And there is no mandate on a state or federal level for standardized requirements to become a conservator.

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, a former chancery judge, played an integral role in updating the state guardian and conservatorship law that took effect Jan. 1, 2020.

Beam told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting there was a time when conservators — often family members of the person under conservatorship — would seek court approval to spend money on such things as swimming pools, four-wheelers and lavish vacations.

She said the goal of the updated law is to protect people with large estates as well as those with only Social Security benefits. It covers minors, older people and other adults unable to care for themselves.

There is a computer system now that allows courts to better manage cases, she said.

“It’s a lot easier to control money going out than trying to claw it back.”

The FBI elder fraud report for 2022 said total losses reported by those 60 and older were $3.1 billion, an increase of 84% from 2021. Although the average loss per victim was $35,101, more than 5,400 victims each lost more than $100,000.

“Our oath is to administer justice regardless of rich or poor,” Beam said. “We want to make sure we administer justice. We are doing what we have to do to protect an individual’s assets. We used to just focus on assets. We now have a wellness report that the court can require for the elderly.”

In most states, a judge decides whether to establish a conservatorship after a petition is filed stating why a person can’t manage his or her financial affairs or make appropriate decisions concerning personal care.

The Family Caregivers Alliance says a conservatorship is supposed to provide a higher degree of protection than alternatives, such as powers of attorneys, trusts and health care directives, due to court oversight.

Government agencies and human rights organizations report older people are more likely to experience neglect, both mental and physical, and more likely to have their assets broken up and sold off piece by piece. 

In Mississippi, the Department of Human Service reported 4,252 cases to its adult protective services. Of those, it initiated 4,110 investigations in 2022. August had the highest number — 407. 

Her sisters initially were appointed co-conservators for their mother. However, a Lamar County chancery judge later replaced them with a third-party conservator because of a dispute. 

Smith’s conservator has changed three more times, and, since 2015, the fees drawn from her account to pay conservators total more than $160,000, according to the DeVoes. In court records, Smith’s estate was valued at almost $900,000 in 2021.

The DeVoes’ opposition to the conservatorship has led to a contentious court fight that could almost mirror that of Brittany Spears, who was under a conservatorship from 2008 until 2021.

In 2016, John and Nancy were ordered to post $10,000 bonds each before they could file any additional opposition to the conservatorship.

On. Jan. 30, Lamar County Chancery Judge Chad Smith, no relation to Opal Smith, ordered John DeVoe to pay $8,397.43 into Opal’s conservatorship account, fined Nancy $10,000 for contempt, and fired Opal’s lawyer because he said it was a conflict for the lawyer to represent both Nancy and Opal.

Nancy DeVoe had opposed the approval of $43,747,82 from Opal’s account to her conservator and ex-conservator in a January order. Chad Smith said in court papers that he had ordered and reiterated she was prohibited from seeking relief until she had posted the bond, which led to her being fined for contempt “due to her contemptuous conduct,” Judge Smith wrote in the Jan. 30 order.

“Nancy shall reimburse the conservatorship $10,000 in attorney’s fees. The amount represents the fees expended by the conservator litigating meritless opposition by Nancy during the time period requested,” he wrote.

Chad Smith warned that any future unsuccessful legal challenge resulting in the conservator incurring legal fees will result in the fees and expenses being imposed against those presenting an unsuccessful challenge.

The DeVoes, who live in England, have filed a court motion seeking to remove Chad Smith from Opal Smith’s case.

Chad Smith is the second judge to handle Opal Smith’s conservatorship case. The previous judge, M. Ronald Doleac, retired in 2018 after not seeking reelection.

The DeVoes maintain in court papers that Doleac granted a conservatorship petition on Smith despite insufficient process and without notice, evidence, or opportunity to defend. And they said the conservatorship letter was issued the same day, naming Opal’s daughters, Houser and Weber, co-conservators, which they say was a violation of the law.

A typical docket report of a successful Mississippi conservatorship case should show, before the judgment or decree is filed: a sworn petition, summons issued to the target of the conservatorship and a relative, two sworn certificates from licensed physicians or a physician and a licensed psychologist and an entry showing a hearing was held at least seven days after the petition.

After the decree, the docket report should show the letters of conservatorship were issued and entry of a bond securing the performance of the fiduciary duties owed by the conservator to the target and an inventory of the newly created conservatorship estate, to be filed once each year during the term of the conservatorship.

Most conservatorship records in Mississippi are sealed from viewing for anyone not a party to the case. A judge has the discretion whether to make public any documents in a case.

According to a transcript from a July 2022 hearing in Opal’s case, attorney Carol Bustin of Hattiesburg, representing Nancy and Opal, argued that “due process requires fairness. It requires that everybody have their day in court, and Opal Smith never had her day in court. There was never any testimony. She never testified as to whether she wanted this conservatorship or whether she agreed with it, or why she didn’t agree with it.”

Attorney Larry Buffington of Collins, a former chancery judge, represented Opal’s other two daughters. Buffington said at the July hearing, “Maybe I did it wrong for 20 years, but I don’t know that I ever conducted a hearing unless there was a request from somebody on a conservatorship. Most of those actually were done in chambers.”

In a court order, Chad Smith said Doleac initially set the matter for a hearing on Aug. 10, 2015, but continued it until Sept. 15, 2015. Doleac then scheduled a trial for Nov. 3, 2015. 

What occurred isn’t documented. Chad Smith said state law doesn’t require a record to be made of the trial and that a judge has the discretion to decide what evidence to hear.

In August 2016, Doleac replaced the daughters, without their opposition, as conservators, replacing them with attorney Derek Arrington. Seven months later, Doleac appointed Arrington’s law partner, G. Neil Rogers, as substitute conservator. 

Judge Smith, who took over the case in 2019, granted Rogers’ request in 2021 to withdraw as conservator and appointed attorney William Andrews III as his substitute. He also named Andrews to serve as Opal’s guardian, meaning he was given responsibility for Smith’s care and wellbeing as well as control of her finances.

Doleac wouldn’t address the Opal Smith case specifically but said there is a process for the DeVoes to appeal the case, which they did in 2021. A three-judge panel of the state high court denied the request in January 2022 without comment.

John DeVoe said that with them being in England, it has been difficult to find a lawyer to handle their appeal. He said some lawyers they contacted expressed reservations about taking the case since it would be going against a judge.

The DeVoes filed the paperwork themselves seeking Smith’s removal from the case to the state Supreme Court. The motion was filed with the court April 18. It has yet to be decided.

“You can’t be on the bench and not be criticized,” Doleac said in a phone interview. “We have an excellent judiciary in the state. I have never seen anyone take a shortcut.”

This project was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, now part of Mississippi Today, in partnership with the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

The post The Conservatorship fight over Opal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MAY 19, 1925

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. When he was 14, a teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher chided him, urging him to be realistic. “Why don’t you plan on carpentry?” 

In prison, he became a follower of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. In his speeches, Malcolm X warned Black Americans against self-loathing: “Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind?” 

Prior to a 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, he split with Elijah Muhammad. As a result of that trip, Malcolm X began to accept followers of all races. In 1965, he was assassinated. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the civil rights leader in Spike Lee’s 1992 award-winning film.

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HATTIESBURG — Toughness, grit and playing with pain are terms we usually associate with the manly sport of football. Here Thursday, at the Mississippi High School Softball State Championships, is living, limping proof that those terms also can apply to young ladies who play fast-pitch softball.

Meet Hallie Burns, an 18-year-old senior at Booneville High, who pitched and helped hit the Blue Devils to a 7-4 victory over West Marion for a third straight Class 3A State Championship. And, yes, she’s the same Hallie Burns who helped Booneville win a second straight state basketball championship less than three months ago. She’s the same Hallie Burns who has signed a softball scholarship to play for Ole Miss.

Burns now has been the winning pitcher in six straight state championship series games over three years, allowing only two earned runs over 40-plus innings. None of the previous five victories were nearly as difficult — or painful — as the one Thursday when she went six innings despite painful left hip and back injuries that had her literally limping to first base after her two singles she added to the Blue Devils’ cause.

How bad was she hurting?

“It felt like a knife stabbing me in the back,” she said after the Booneville victory celebration.

Burns’ hip and back woes are a long, fairly complicated story that we’ll try to make as short and simple as possible. Pitching softball, the fast-pitch variety, requires much violent twisting and resulting torque of the left hip (for a right-hander, as is Burns). She first experienced fairly serious pain toward the end of her 10th grade season two years ago.

“It doesn’t bother me much when I’m fresh but over the course of a season it wears down,” she said. It probably didn’t help this year when the day after Booneville won the state basketball championship, she was pitching softball.

The usual wear and tear was exacerbated last Saturday night when she slid into second with a double in Booneville’s 4-3, North State Championship victory over Kossuth.

“I jammed my hip,” Burns said. “It was all out of whack.”

She spent Sunday alternating ice baths with back rest. She missed Monday’s practice for a doctor visit. But Tuesday night she pitched the Blue Devils to a 6-1 victory, giving up three nits, no unearned runs and striking out 10 in Game One of the best of three championship series.

On Wednesday, she rested. On Thursday Booneville coach Jessica Taylor asked her, “Can you go?”

“Yes ma’am,” Burns answered, and go she did. The first two innings — actually the first eight outs – were a breeze, and then on the last batter of the third inning (with a no-hitter going), something happened.

“Something in my hip or sacrum slipped,” she said.

The next three innings were pretty much a matter of pain tolerance and no small amount of courage. She didn’t have her best stuff, but she persevered, striking out 11 and giving up just four hits and two earned runs over six innings. She threw 76 pitches, 60 for strikes.

Booneville plated six runs in the sixth inning to take a 7-3 lead. With a 7-4 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, Burns told Taylor, her coach, she should put Olivia Garrett in to pitch the last inning, saying she had little gas left in her tank and that Garrett would give them the best chance to win.

“She sacrificed her last inning pitching,” Taylor said. “How selfless is that?”

But Burns didn’t come out of the game. She shifted to third base. And wouldn’t you know it, with two outs the last West Marion batter hit a two-hopper to Burns at third. She fielded it cleanly and threw a perfect strike to first base, clinching her fifth state championship godmedal (two basketball, three softball).

Over five softball seasons, she has achieved a pitching record of 71-10, striking out a whopping 1,062 batters. 

When a sports writer half-jokingly suggested that she should spend the next month doing nothing but resting she laughed and replied, “Right now, that sounds pretty good.”

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The ACLU has sued the Harrison County School District over its refusal to allow a transgender student to wear a dress to her graduation ceremony. 

The student, referred to as L.B. in the ACLU press release, has been openly transgender for her entire high school career and her gender is known by classmates and teachers at Harrison Central High School, according to court documents. The complaint also says that throughout her high school career, she has “frequently and consistently worn dresses, skirts, and traditionally feminine clothing items and accessories to school and school-sponsored events and activities, without issue or repercussion.” 

Last week, Harrison Central High School Principal Kelly Fuller called L.B. to the office to inquire what she was planning to wear to graduation, according to the complaint. Upon being told that L.B. planned to wear a dress, Fuller replied that she could not do this and would need to wear what the boys were wearing, adding that this conversation was prompted by Harrison County Superintendent Mitchell King calling the school and asking what transgender students would wear to graduation.

“My graduation is supposed to be a moment of pride and celebration and school officials want to turn it into a moment of humiliation and shame,” said L.B. in an ACLU press release. “The clothing I’ve chosen is fully appropriate for the ceremony and the superintendent’s objections to it are entirely unfair to myself, my family, and all transgender students like me. I have the right to celebrate my graduation as who I am, not who anyone else wants me to be.” 

In a conversation between King and L.B.’s mother Samantha Brown, it was communicated that if L.B. wore a dress to the ceremony, she would not be allowed to participate. 

The lawsuit alleges gender discrimination as a violation of constitutional rights and federal law, specifically Title IX, the First Amendment’s freedom of expression clause, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. The temporary restraining order asks the court to prohibit the district from taking action for alleged noncompliance with its graduation dress code policies. 

The Harrison County School District did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

According to the press release, the district has not taken any action to check the planned outfits of any other students. 

The Harrison Central High School graduation is scheduled for Saturday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m. 

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Another health care facility in Mississippi is in danger of shutting its doors. 

KPC Promise Hospital in Vicksburg, a 35-bed long-term care facility, has leased space at Merit Health River Region’s main campus since 2018. But that lease is being terminated, as first reported by WJTV.

The hospital was behind on rent by $1 million as of January, said Dr. Torrance Green, KPC Promise’s medical director and a nephrologist. However, there was a pay schedule in place to bring the rent current, he said. 

Since that January resolution, KPC Promise sent two checks to Merit in April and May, totaling $526,694 and paying off half of their debt, hospital officials said.

On the same day the last check was sent, the hospital got a notice from Merit demanding they vacate the premises by June 8, Green said. 

“We were kind of taking care of things, and then we get this,” he said. “It’s very disappointing because we had finally stabilized ourselves and finances.”

While Merit marketing director Alicia Carpenter confirmed that Merit plans to terminate the lease, she did not address the claim that half of the debt had been paid by publication time. 

“KPC Promise Hospital, which has been leasing space on the hospital’s 6th floor, has been unable to fulfill its contractual obligations for more than a year,” she said in a statement. ”Prior to terminating the lease, we worked with KPC Promise for several months toward a mutually agreeable resolution.”

Carpenter’s statement to Mississippi Today said that Merit’s team will help identify facilities for affected patients who need long-term care, but their statement to WAPT said patients could be admitted at “two long-term care facilities in Jackson.” She did not answer questions about which two facilities those were. 

The hospital’s status being in flux is already having an impact. At the time of the notice, Green said the hospital was serving a significant number of patients and had to start turning others away, forcing them to travel as far as Jackson for care. 

“The biggest question for us is whether or not Merit is really invested in our community in a way that they want to maintain service,” Green said. “We saw what happened to Jackson and to the whole state of Mississippi when they called the burn unit … and here they are now, again, making decisions to curtail services. Where’s the accountability?”

Merit Health Central, citing challenges related to staffing and the pandemic, closed the state’s only burn center in October. The hospital reduced many of its services and moved others out of South Jackson to its facilities in the suburbs. The move left the state — and Mississippians who need burn care — scrambling to find another facility. 

“The effects on the families and the community gets kind of lost,” Green said. “I think that what is sinister here is a repeated pattern.”

Merit Health, which operates nine facilities in Mississippi, is owned by Nashville-based Community Health Partners. 

KPC Promise CEO Kerry Goff released a statement Thursday about the eviction notice. Goff took the helm of the hospital four months ago. 

“We were completely shocked, dismayed, and blindsided by this development because Merit Health had previously agreed to a payment schedule for past rent,” he said. “Given the agreement that was in place and recent payments that had been made in good faith, this action appears to be nothing more than a profit-motivated money grab at the expense of important healthcare services our community depends on.”

Goff continued to say the hospital is looking into legal options and would do what it could to stay open.

Green said they’re hopeful they can come to a new agreement with Merit or that Merit will decide to honor the already-existing one. Otherwise, he’s not sure what’ll happen to the hospital and said it would be difficult to find another suitable space in Vicksburg or nearby that Merit doesn’t already own.  

KPC Promise is the latest hospital showing signs of financial distress. Alliance Hospital in Holly Springs ended inpatient care weeks ago in an effort to keep its doors open, and Memorial Hospital in Gulfport announced layoffs this month. Ochsner Health System, which operates dozens of hospitals and clinics in Mississippi, last week slashed nearly 2% of its workforce. 

Other hospital systems, particularly those in the Delta, are reducing services to stay open. 

One report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform puts a third of Mississippi’s rural hospitals at risk of closure, and half of those at risk of closing within a couple of years. 

Following the news that the hospital could be forced to close, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley released a statement Wednesday placing the fault of the hospital crisis on incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

Reeves has adamantly opposed expanding Medicaid, which research shows would bring in millions to Mississippi’s struggling hospitals. 

“When Tate Reeves finally wakes up and realizes another hospital in this state has closed, he will only have himself to blame,” he said in a statement. “This healthcare crisis lies squarely at the feet of Tate Reeves, who has blocked Medicaid expansion, which has left hospitals across Mississippi scrambling to keep their lights on and 220,000 Mississippians without life-saving healthcare.”

Spokespeople for Reeves did not reply to requests for comment. 

Kate Royals contributed to this report. 

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Just over 75% of Mississippi third-graders passed the “third grade reading gate” test on their first try, a rate that is higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

The results of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program third grade ELA exam were presented at the Thursday meeting of the State Board of Education. 

The Mississippi Legislature created the Literacy-Based Promotion Act in 2013, which requires all third-graders to pass a reading test before moving up to the fourth grade. Students must score a three or higher out of five on the test to be promoted, which indicates they are competent in skills such as identifying main ideas, paraphrasing texts, understanding figurative language, and using root words, prefixes and suffixes to change word meanings. 

The initial passing rate has hovered around 75% since the Legislature raised the passing threshold from a two to a three on the exam. 

Department officials expressed satisfaction with the results, particularly as they surpassed previous years. 

“You can see my smile,” said Kristen Wynn, state literacy director. “Our students and our teachers exceeded pre-pandemic results. In 2019, we got those results that put us number one in growth for NAEP and now we’ve surpassed that in 2023 … For us I feel like the sky is the limit.” 

The 7,500 students who did not pass had the opportunity to retest May 8-12 and will have the opportunity again June 19-30. Many districts host summer reading programs to prep students for their retests. For these, the education department recommends developing individualized plans for targeting students areas of need, partnering with local community organizations, and working with the department’s 52 literacy coaches. 

The State Board of Education also voted to approve spending $2.7 million in grants to local school districts to fund their summer reading camps as part of the effort to improve performance on the gate test. The 13 districts receiving the grants were selected for several reasons, including status as a literacy support district, having a flexible school calendar, school improvement status and reading proficiency scores. The districts selected had varying passing rates on this year’s test, ranging from 38-80%. 

Last year, an additional 3,500 students passed on the retests, raising the passing rate to 85%, and 3,900 were promoted with “good cause exemptions,” such as passing an alternate assessment during the retest periods, having disabilities, or having been previously held back. 

“I applaud the teachers, administrators, literacy coaches and families who worked to support students in achieving this goal,” Interim State Superintendent Mike Kent said in a statement. “The work will continue until all students are proficient and showing growth.” 

View initial passing rates for individual schools and districts here. 

The post Third graders score above pre-pandemic levels in state reading test appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gulfport Memorial Hospital CEO Kent Nicaud wrote Gov. Tate Reeves a $25,000 campaign check about three weeks before the governor appointed him to a significant government job.

Nicaud, who has long been among Reeves’ top campaign donors, landed the governor’s Gaming Commission appointment on March 8, 2023. A little more than three weeks before the appointment, on Feb. 13, 2023, Nicaud wrote Reeves’ campaign the $25,000 check, according to a campaign finance report released last week.

Gaming commissioners receive a modest salary from taxpayers — $40 per day — and are reimbursed by the state for travel and meals. The commission is tasked with regulating the casino gaming industry, which brings the state hundreds of millions in tax revenue each year. That revenue has become necessary to fund basic public services across Mississippi, and because gaming commissioners wield great influence over changes to the industry, they are broadly considered critical figures to one of the state’s most powerful and wealthiest lobbies.

The hospital executive is the latest Nicaud to receive a government appointment from Reeves. Kent’s wife Jenny Field Nicaud, an attorney, scored a Reeves appointment in 2021 as an administrative law judge for the Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission. In that role, Jenny earns an annual salary of $120,768.98, according to Mississippi State Personnel Board records.

The couple’s son Jourdan Nicaud, a well-known Gulf Coast restaurateur, is also a major campaign donor to Reeves. According to last week’s finance report, Jourdan wrote Reeves a separate $25,000 check, which was dated about two weeks after his father was confirmed to the Gaming Commission by the Senate.

All told, the Nicaud family has given close to $200,000 in campaign donations to Reeves over the past few years, according to the governor’s finance reports.

And they’ve facilitated even more donations to the Reeves camp. The couple hosted a fundraiser for Reeves at their Pass Christian mansion in late 2020, the same week that the state’s top physicians issued dire warnings about a lack of hospital bed space to accommodate COVID-19 patients, and during a period Reeves signed mandates limiting the number of people allowed to gather in one place at a time. Kent Nicaud, whose Gulfport hospital had just five beds available on the day of the fundraiser, told Mississippi Today the guests were “very conscious of all the social distancing.”

“This was a very small group of people, and the reason it was at my home was because of the ability to keep everyone separate,” Nicaud said, pointing out that his house is 11,000 square feet. “There were probably never more than 21, 22 people there at one time. This was an event that I felt was meeting safety criteria, and the governor was already in town for a tourism commission and chamber of commerce. This was an opportunity for people to talk to (Reeves) about specific things. We did it safely.”

Nicaud did not return a request for comment on this story.

READ MORE: Kent Nicaud hosts in-person fundraiser for Gov. Tate Reeves during major COVID-19 spike

The Nicauds are among several Reeves insiders who have received government jobs in his first term in office. In 2021, the governor appointed Franc Lee, a consumer loan magnate and Reeves’ largest individual campaign donor, to the Gaming Commission.

Reeves appointed three campaign donors to the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees — among the state’s most powerful government seats — and two campaign donors to the Mississippi Community College Board in 2021.

Businessman Johnny McRight gave Reeves $50,000 in the four years before his 2021 MCCB appointment. Businessman Luke Montgomery gave Reeves $14,500 in the years before his 2021 MCCB appointment.

Gregg Rader, a Columbus businessman, gave Reeves $85,000 in the months leading up to his 2021 IHL appointment. And Rader has continued the flow of money to Reeves’ campaign coffers even after his appointment, writing another $30,000 check to the governor in 2022.

William Symmes, a Gulfport lawyer appointed by Reeves to the MCCB in 2021 after a small 2020 donation to the governor, acknowledged in an interview at the time that his personal connections to Reeves led to his appointment, but said it is logical the governor would pick people who know and support him.

“Obama said it best: ‘Elections have consequences,’” Symmes told Mississippi Today in 2021. “I think that one of those consequences is you’re able to put people around you that you feel comfortable and work well with.”

READ MORE: They wrote campaign checks to Tate Reeves. Then he appointed them to powerful ed boards.

Another one of Reeves’ appointments from 2023 is Gerard Gibert, the host of a conservative Supertalk Mississippi radio show and regular campaign donor of Reeves. Gibert, first appointed to the Mississippi Lottery Corporation board by former Gov. Phil Bryant, was reappointed by Reeves this year after writing several checks to Reeves’ campaigns since 2017.

Mississippi Today reached out to Reeves’ campaign before this story was published and asked if Reeves worries about the optics of giving major campaign donors or their family members taxpayer-funded government appointments.

Elliott Husbands, Reeves’ campaign manager, responded by email late Wednesday: “This is our statement, please be sure to print it all: ‘Mississippi Today is a liberal Democrat SuperPAC run by proven liars, and in fact was just legally forced to apologize for lying about Republicans as recently as today. Anything written by this blog should be viewed in that context.’”

Editor’s note: The Reeves campaign statement in this story references an apology our CEO issued on May 17 that had no bearing on Reeves.

The post He wrote Tate Reeves a $25,000 check. Three weeks later, Reeves appointed him to the Gaming Commission. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has hired a former Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi executive as its new chief financial officer. 

Jennifer Sinclair will oversee the finances and budget for the entire medical center, according to a release last month from UMMC. Her first day was April 24. 

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the medical school, described the position as “challenging” and introduced Sinclair to the Institutions of Higher Learning trustees at April’s health affairs meeting.

“I’m looking forward to it, really,” Sinclair said at the meeting. “My heart and passion and experience are on the provider side, so UMMC is obviously the largest in the state, so I’m excited to be a part of it.”

UMMC is the state’s largest public hospital. The medical center was appropriated more than $180 million this year from the Legislature and posted about $1.7 billion in revenues and expenses in fiscal year 2022. 

Sinclair, who has more than 23 years of experience as a health care executive, comes to UMMC from Blue Cross where she was vice president. Previously, she was the vice president and regional CFO at Bon Secours Mercy Health, the largest health system in Ohio. She also worked at St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson for 17 years in several different capacities, including executive vice president of operations and senior vice president of finance.

She graduated from Mississippi State University and is from Morton. 

Sinclair replaces Nelson Weichold, who’s been in the position just a few months shy of four years. Weichold has accepted a position with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, his home state. 

The reason for his departure has not been disclosed. UMMC could not be reached by press time.

“I want to thank Nelson for his steadfast and exemplary work as our CFO,” Woodward said in the release. “Under his leadership and through his strategic support, UMMC navigated through some unprecedented challenges and the trajectory of the Medical Center is better because of him.”

Weichold was at the helm of the hospital’s finances during the COVID-19 pandemic and a nearly year-long dispute between UMMC and Blue Cross, the state’s largest private insurer, that put UMMC out of network with the company for months. 

“We’re not glad that Nelson is leaving,” Woodward said at the meeting. “But we are very glad that we were able to secure somebody like Jennifer and have her join our team.”

The post Former Blue Cross executive takes helm of UMMC finances appeared first on Mississippi Today.