A Union County judge has dismissed an attempted murder charge against a 24-year-old former Ole Miss student accused of stabbing a Tennessee man in the neck because the victim did not come to court.
Four days into the trial of New Albany resident Lane Mitchell, Judge Kent Smith dismissed the charge and entered a verbal order of acquittal, the Daily Journal reported.
As of Thursday afternoon, Smith had not issued a written order about his decision.
In 2019, then 18-year-old Mitchell was accused of stabbing Collierville resident Russell Rogers, who was unarmed, at the Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant. In court documents and during trial, Mitchell said he stabbed Rogers because he believed Rogers had a gun and feared for the safety of his father, who was the bartender, and a female waitress.
After being indicted in 2019, Mitchell, who has high-profile political connections through U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, was admitted to Ole Miss and attended until 2020 before withdrawing over accusations he assaulted two women on campus, Mississippi Today reported from court records filed in the case. Those Ole Miss records also were uploaded onto the court’s online case system, although they were meant to be sealed.
Mitchell went on to attend Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, Tennessee, which held its graduation last week. Wicker and Kelly wrote letters of support for his application to West Point Military Academy.
The prosecution had subpoenaed records of the alleged assaults to use in trial, and the defense had asked the judge to exclude that information from trial, according to court records.
Judge Smith’s decision stems from a Tuesday motion by Mitchell’s defense team, which argued that Rogers’ failure to come to court violated Mitchell’s constitutional rights and prevented him from presenting a full defense, according to court documents.
“As part of Lane Douglas Mitchell’s defense, he has a fundamental right to question and cross examine Nathan Russell Rogers in the presence of the jury about his behavior at Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant on February 9, 2019 which goes directly to the question of the reasonableness of Lane Douglas Mitchell’s actions and who was the initial aggressor,” according to a Tuesday court filing.
The defense also accused the prosecution and the victim’s conservator – his father, Robert Rogers – of not telling them Rogers was out of the country and likely not to come to the trial, which factored into an effort “to deprive Lane Douglas Mitchell of his constitutional, fundamental right ot a fair trial,” according to the Tuesday filing.
In response, the state said the rules of criminal procedure or state statutes don’t provide an avenue for a defendant to file a motion to dismiss in the middle of a trial, according to court documents. Prosecutors also denied the defense’s accusations.
The judge’s decision comes a day after Rogers’ conservator filed a writ of prohibition with the Mississippi Supreme Court asking that the court stay Mitchell’s trial.
In that request to the state Supreme Court, Robert Rogers cited a Tuesday court order from a Shelby County Probate Court judge quashing the defense’s certificate to take Russell Rogers into custody and bring him to the court to testify.
The judge also found Russell Rogers unfit to testify due to his mental health, according to court documents. Russell Rogers has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder arising from the attack.
On Wednesday, a three-person panel of the state Supreme Court declined to hear the conservator’s motion because he was not a party in the case, according to the order signed by Justice Leslie King.
Under double jeopardy, Mitchell cannot be prosecuted again, Judge Smith said Thursday.
A majority of justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Mandy Gunasekara is not a certified Republican candidate for Northern District Public Service Commissioner and removed her from the August Republican primary ballot.
Justice Leslie King, writing for the majority, found that a lower court’s determination that Gunasekara did not meet the necessary citizenship requirements to run for the office was correct.
Six of the nine justices of the court unanimously voted to decertify Gunasekara, and the three justices from north Mississippi — Bobby Chamberlain, Josiah Coleman and Jimmy Maxwell – did not participate in the decision. No justice dissented.
At issue is a requirement in the state constitution and state law that candidates running for the three-member utilities regulatory board must be a citizen of the state at least five years before the date of Mississippi’s general election in November.
Gunasekara hails from the rural southwestern town of Decatur, but she worked in Washington, D.C., for several years, including a stint as chief of staff of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Donald Trump administration. She currently lives in Oxford.
Public records show that Gunasekara voted in Washington on Nov. 6, 2018. Mississippi’s general election this year is on Nov. 7, meaning she had a 24-hour window from her 2018 vote to become a Mississippi citizen.
“The record shows that on Nov. 7, 2018, Gunasekara owned a house in D.C., where her husband and children resided, and on which she received a homestead deduction,” King wrote. “Gunasekara paid income taxes in D.C. She had a full time job in D.C., had a D.C. driver’s license, and was registered to vote in D.C. Gunasekara renewed her car tag in D.C. at the end of October 2018.”
She and her attorney, former state GOP Director Spencer Ritchie, argued that her intent to move back to Decatur in 2018 should be the strongest factor in determining her citizenship. But the state’s highest court disagreed.
“I’m a fighter and a constitutional conservative,” Gunasekara said in a statement. “I’m assessing all my legal options. The Mississippi Supreme Court acknowledged the potential unconstitutionality of this provision, yet found a convenient, procedural mechanism to avoid a decision on the merits. I believe the voters of Mississippi deserve a ruling on the merits.”
She has used all legal avenues available to her in state court, but she will likely seek further relief through the federal courts.
Gunasekara raised several constitutional issues in her briefs, including the belief that a “durational citizenship” requirement violates the 14th Amendment. She said in a statement to Mississippi Today that “relief would be sought through the United States Supreme Court.”
The race is now whittled down to two candidates: state Rep. Chris Brown of Nettleton and city of Tupelo administrator Tanner Newman.
Newman in a statement said that the court’s ruling changes little for his campaign and that he hoped all voters across north Mississippi support his bid for public office.
“Let there be no doubt – Mandy Gunasekara has a bright future in public service ahead of her,” Newman said. “I welcome all of Mandy’s supporters to find a home on Team Newman.”
Brown in a statement thanked Mandy for her work in the Trump administration and her campaign for the PSC. “While she may not be on the ballot in 2023, I plan to keep her America First fight alive.”
Brandon Presley, the current commissioner, is running for governor. There is no Democratic candidate in the race, so the winner of the August GOP primary will become the new commissioner for north Mississippi.
Gunasekara’s disqualification for the PSC stems from a peculiar string of events. Matthew Barton, a candidate running for DeSoto County district attorney, filed the residency challenge with the state GOP’s executive committee, which voted to keep Gunasekara on the ballot. Barton appealed the party’s ruling to circuit court, and Judge Lamar Pickard decided that she did not meet the residency requirement.
Barton’s attorney, Sean Akins, in a statement called the court’s ruling a “victory for free and fair elections where the true winners are the voters.”
“This suit was never about Ms. Gunasekara’s character but about whether she met the Constitutional requirements to run for that office,” Akins said. “While her heart may have been in Mississippi, her citizenship was in Washington, D.C.”
The Republican primary for the north Mississippi PSC race will take place on August 8.
Editor’s note on 5/11/23: This story was updated to include a quote from the attorney representing Matthew Barton.
Down years are virtually inevitable for college baseball programs. Even for elite programs, it’s almost impossible to avoid an occasional disappointing season, because of so many different factors.
Rick Cleveland
You’ve got the severe scholarship limits: 11.7, spread among 27 players. You’ve got the uncertainty of who will be chosen – and how high – in the Major League draft. You’ve got the fragility of pitching arms: an elbow here, a shoulder there, and you’re in trouble. And, now, you’ve got the transfer portal.
Look at Mississippi State: a national championship in 2021, then 26-30 last year. Or Ole Miss: a national championship last year, 25-23 today.
But then there’s Scott Berry at Southern Miss. In the last six full college baseball seasons – excluding the COVID year – the Golden Eagles have won 41, 50, 44, 40, 40 and 47 games. All those teams received NCAA bids. Two hosted NCAA Super Regionals.
Scott Berry Credit: USM sports information
Berry’s current Eagles enter the weekend with a 32-15 record, the nation’s longest winning streak (10), a No. 25 national ranking and an NCAA power rating (RPI) of No. 23. They are tied for first place in the Sun Belt Conference with No. 8 Coastal Carolina. They appear to be headed to a seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament. If they finish strong, they might host another regional.
Is this USM’s down year? It might be the closest thing to it since 2015, which is amazing. And it is especially amazing when one considers Berry lost six pitchers to the MLB draft from last year’s staff, another (a future first round draft choice) to the transfer portal and still another to Tommy John surgery.
Such a pitching exodus would cripple most college baseball programs. Berry and his pitching coach Christian “Oz” Ostrander have mixed and matched and patched to the point where the current Eagles have produced the third best pitching statistics in the Sun Belt. The team earned run average is nearly two runs higher (4.98 compared to 3.29) than last season, yet the Eagles are still winning.
Berry was asked about his program’s consistency on our recent Crooked Letter Sports Podcast. “It starts with this. You have a system and a philosophy in place and it’s successful, so you don’t tamper with it,” Berry said. “It starts with the fact that we’ve only had four coaches here in the last 64 years.
“There hasn’t been a turnover at the top,” he continued. “Every coaching turnover brings a new learning curve. It’s disruptive. Just look at football at Southern Miss and all the turnover there in recent years. You had a quarterback, Nick Mullens, who played under four different offensive coordinators in four years. That’s pretty tough…
“…We talk about tradition a lot here and tradition is about consistency,” Berry said. “I don’t want us to be a program that hits it big for one year and then you don’t hear about them for four or five years. That’s not consistency.”
Tanner Hall, surrounded by Scott Berry (left) and Chris Ostrander (right) won the Boo Ferriss Trophy last May.
All American Tanner Hall (9-3, 2.71 ERA) has been superb in the Friday night starter role, and Southern Miss has gotten huge contributions from redshirt freshman Kros Sivley and juco transfer Will Armistead out of the bullpen. Ex-Madison Central lefty Justin Storm, heroic in last seasons Regional victory over LSU, has become a bonafide closer. Ex-MRA ace Niko Mazza might have the best array of pitches on the staff. Matthew Adams appears to have bounced back nicely from an arm injury. Billy Oldham, a portal transfer from D-III Eastern Connecticut State, has stabilized the starting rotation.
Hitting-wise, the lineup has received a late-season boost from true freshman Nick Monistere, the Mississippi 6A Player of the Year last year at Northwest Rankin. Monistere, who also pitches, entered the starting lineup at second base a month ago, is hitting .321 and has slugged three home runs, three doubles and a triple among his 18 hits. “He’s been a blessing,” Berry says.
Designated hitter Slade Wilks leads the Eagles with 18 home runs and 52 RBI, while shortstop-deluxe Dustin Dickerson leads the team with a .332 average and 17 doubles. Lately, veterans Christopher Sargent and Danny Lynch have ramped up their production to what they have provided in previous seasons.
Clearly, Berry’s club is playing its best baseball as the season winds down. “When they’re playing the way they are right now, I try to stay out of the way,” is the way Berry put it.
USM plays a three game road series at Louisiana-Monroe beginning Friday and closes the regular season next weekend when the always-strong Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns visit Hattiesburg. USM’s first Sun Belt Conference tournament will follow at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, beginning May 23.
Should the Eagles finish the regular season strong and then win a couple in the league tournament, they will be in strong position to host another regional. “That’s always the goal here,” Berry says.
Once a vocal champion of campaign finance transparency and reform, lieutenant governor candidate Chris McDaniel has again filed an incomplete and incoherent report of the amounts and sources of funding for his campaign.
This comes after McDaniel’s campaign last month said he was returning legally questionable large donations from a Virginia dark-money nonprofit, and shutting down his PAC through which the donations flowed to his campaign.
Incumbent Republican Delbert Hosemann, who faces McDaniel in the Aug. 8 Republican primary, on Wednesday reported raising nearly $193,000 from January through April, and having $3.4 million cash on hand as the primary race enters the final stretch. His largest single donation was $25,000 from Barry Wax, owner of Wax Seed Co. in Amory and a longtime large contributor to Mississippi Republican campaigns.
McDaniel, a four-term state senator who has twice run unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate, filed only a cover sheet for his campaign finance report, failing to itemize donations or spending over $200 as required by state law. His filing on Wednesday’s deadline was listed as the “Committee to Elect Chris McDaniel,” not under his name as his past reports have been filed, and McDaniel failed to register such a committee with the secretary of state’s office.
McDaniel and campaign staff did not respond to a request for comment about the filing.
Hosemann in a statement Thursday said: “At this point, there appear to be multiple campaign finance violations stemming from multiple committees. Standing for election integrity includes following campaign finance laws, which require basic reporting of contributions, expenditures, and cash on hand. We are asking for enforcement of these laws. If Chris McDaniel can’t get this simple paperwork done, he won’t be able to manage a $7 billion budget.”
McDaniel’s campaign and PAC reports to date make it impossible to know for sure exactly how much money he has raised, has on hand or from whence it came. In his filing in January that was supposed to cover 2022 collections, he reported collections from this year. In the cover sheet totals he filed Wednesday, it would appear he is re-reporting money he already reported in January. Given this, it would appear his campaign raised about $87,000 this year through April. His cover sheet claims he has about $336,000 cash on hand.
McDaniel had also created the Hold the Line PAC. Its public filings and subsequent explanations and amended reports from McDaniel and others have been confounding. Hold the Line initially failed to list the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars it claimed to have collected, and its reports have had amounts and dates that don’t add up. For instance, Hold the Line reported having raised hundreds of thousands of dollars the year before McDaniel legally registered it with the secretary of state’s office, and failed to list the source of that money as required by law.
Mississippi Today first reported about issues with McDaniel’s PAC and campaign finance reports in early February. In mid-April, after Hosemann filed a complaint that the secretary of state’s office forwarded to the attorney general, McDaniel’s campaign said it was returning donations from the PAC, and the PAC in turn was returning donations to a dark-money nonprofit corporation that Hosemann’s camp claimed violated state law.
A spokeswoman for McDaniel’s campaign last month said McDaniel was confident he would prevail in court on any challenge to his finances, but was returning $460,000 to the American Exceptionalism Institute “to avoid a protracted legal fight with the establishment.”
Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s only response to date about Hosemann’s complaint has been, “We are reviewing it.” Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office cited its lack of investigative and prosecutorial authority when it forwarded Hosemann’s complaint to Fitch.
An intentional violation of Mississippi’s campaign disclosure law is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a $3,000 fine, six months imprisonment, or both. But in Mississippi campaign finance laws are seldom enforced, and alleged violations seldom investigated or prosecuted.
In response to questions from Mississippi Today on Wednesday, Watson’s office said McDaniel’s cover letter was all he filed for his report, and that, “We have not received a Statement of Organization from the Committee to Elect Chris McDaniel.” The statement said that candidates must file a statement of organization within 48 hours of receiving or spending $200. Failure to do so can eventually result in administrative penalties from the state Ethics Commission, which will eventually turn the case over to the AG’s office if a candidate continues to fail to file.
Top-ticket Mississippi political campaigns are about to bombard voters with millions of dollars in television, digital and radio ads, with some opening salvos already released.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign is up on social media with “Mississippi Momentum,” a lengthy video narrated by his wife, Elee. She recounts the governor’s accomplishments and all the challenges the state faced from hurricanes, tornadoes, the pandemic, the media and national liberals under Reeves’ watch.
“When tragedy hit, he sought the help of our God,” Elee Reeves says. “… As first lady I watched it all and I saw it up close. Tate was a leader and the liberal media went nuts … We cannot let the national liberals ruin what makes this the last great place for families.”
But another video Reeves’ campaign posted on social media last week garnered much more attention than his official kick-off video: It’s clips of Clint Eastwood as “the Man With No Name” shooting up a town full of bandits, with Reeves’ face digitally inserted for Eastwood’s. Reeves dual-wields six shooters as he smokes a cheroot, and the usually baby-faced Reeves even sports a scruffy cowboy beard.
Reeves’ likely opponent in November, Democratic Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, kicked off his campaign in mid-January with a polished three-minute video on social media blasting Reeves.
“I’m running for governor because I know Mississippi can do better,” Presley says in the video. “We’ve got a state filled with good people but horrible politicians — and that includes our governor. Tate Reeves is a man with zero conviction and maximum corruption. He looks out for himself and his rich friends instead of the people that put him into office. And he’s been caught in the middle of the largest public corruption scandal in state history.”
Down ticket one notch, the lieutenant governor’s ad battle between incumbent Republican Delbert Hosemann and primary challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel is already fully enjoined. McDaniel, for weeks has had social media videos decrying Hosemann as a “fake conservative” and #DelbertTheDemocrat.”
Hosemann is countering with videos touting his accomplishments and conservative bona fides including cutting taxes and implementing voter ID. One says, “The next time you vote, remember Delbert Hosemann made your vote secure” and “… Delbert Hosemann kept your personal information from winding up in Joe Biden’s garage.”
In the crucial GOP battleground of the Coast, Hosemann has a social video ad hammering McDaniel on an issue that McDaniel also faced in his first failed run for U.S. Senate in 2014.
“Chris McDaniel turned his back on the Coast after the most devastating hurricane in U.S. history,” the Hosemann ad narrator says. “Chris McDaniel said he didn’t know if he would have voted for Hurricane Katrina recovery funds.” The ad shows texts of McDaniel’s statements back then. “And with thousands of jobs on the line, McDaniel didn’t vote to support improvements at the port of Pascagoula. Not standing up for Katrina relief. Not supporting our economy. Chris McDaniel is out for Chris McDaniel, not the Coast.”
A McDaniel social media video says Hosemann “is no conservative” because he has appointed Democratic senators to chair Senate committees.
“You can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps,” says the ad, which shows pictures of Delbert at a Capital press conference with Democratic senators. “That’s how we know Delbert Hosemann is no conservative. As lieutenant governor Hosemann teamed up with Democrats and appointed 13 different liberals as chairmen of crucial committees … Fake conservative Delbert Hosemann stands with Democrats, not us.”
Hosemann on social media has responded that photos McDaniel used from that press conference on crime cropped out Republicans such as U.S. Rep. Michael Guest and House Speaker Philip Gunn. Also, McDaniel’s ad and posts about Hosemann appointing Democrats to chairmanships doesn’t mention all of Hosemann’s Republican predecessors did the same, in part because there are more Senate committees than there are Republican senators.
McDaniel also has a social media video up claiming “The woke left and lieutenant governor Delbert Hosemann are mad that Mississippi just passed a bill to protect kids from dangerous and radical gender surgeries.” The ad claims Hosemann supported the measure only because it was an election year and he feared a challenge from the right from McDaniel.
Candidates won’t be the only ones running ads this state election cycle. Third party groups, at least for top ticket state races, will also enter the fray.
True Conservatives of Mississippi, a PAC created by Republican operatives Quinton Dickerson and Josh Gregory, has a television ad up hitting McDaniel, saying he’s been ineffective during his long career as a state senator.
“Chris McDaniel says he likes to fight,” the PAC’s ad narrator says. “… In McDaniel’s long political career, what has all this fighting accomplished?
“Since 2014, McDaniel has written only three bills that passed,” the ad says. “Recognizing a football team. Congratulating a pageant winner and naming a week because of mosquitoes.
“Lots of speeches. Lots of big talk. But no substance. No real accomplishments. That’s the real Chris McDaniel.”
McDaniel also has a radio ad up, and despite his hammering Hosemann in social media ads, the spot is rather tame. It says he “will continue to fight for all of Mississippi,” and says, “Mississippi deserves a real, home-grown conservative.”
Gov. Tate Reeves’ reelection campaign is using 2019 video from the now-shuttered New Summit School that was owned by Nancy New, one of the central figures in Mississippi’s massive welfare scandal.
New and her son Zach New, both past political donors to Reeves, have pleaded guilty to fraud charges after bilking $4 million in public education funds related to their work at New Summit School. They have also pleaded guilty to numerous other charges related to the misspending of $77 million in welfare funds that were intended to help the state’s poorest residents.
In 2019, then-Lt. Gov. Reeves, who was campaigning for a first term as governor, shot an ad at the private New Summit School highlighting his proposed pay raise for public school teachers. The 2019 video featured private school teachers and students, Mississippi Today reported at the time. The school has since closed after the News faced their litany of legal problems. They await sentencing and are cooperating with federal prosecutors.
But at least two scenes from that 2019 campaign commercial are now part of Reeves’ new 2023 campaign kickoff video released last week, according to a Mississippi Today review of both ads. In the 2023 ad, Reeves can be seen wearing the same clothes and standing with several of the same people in some of the same New Summit School rooms as the 2019 ad.
The welfare scandal has been a top focus of Reeves’ Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, who has hammered the governor for his connections to those involved in the welfare scandal.
Michael Beyer, Presley’s communications director, said of the new video: “Tate Reeves launched his campaign with a paid advertisement reminding Mississippians of his connection to the largest public corruption scandal in state history, and no matter what he says or does, he won’t be able to escape Mississippians’ questions about his role in funneling millions of dollars meant for working families to pet projects for his celebrity friends and personal trainer and then firing the veteran prosecutor once the investigation got too close to him and his buddies.”
Beyer was referring to Reeves’ abrupt firing of Brad Pigott, an attorney who was hired by Reeves’ welfare agency director to try to recoup millions in misspent welfare funds. Reeves at the time said Pigott, a former U.S. attorney appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, was fired because he was “too political.” Pigott said he was fired because he was investigating people and entities close with Reeves, such as former Gov. Phil Bryant and the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation.
Additionally, well-known Mississippi fitness trainer Paul Lacoste, who said he was a close friend of Reeves’ when he endorsed him in 2019, is being sued by the state to recoup $1.3 million in welfare funds he received. Mississippi Today reported in its “The Backchannel” investigation that Lacoste met in 2019 with Reeves and John Davis, the former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services who has since pleaded guilty to charges related to the scandal.
Two days after that 2019 meeting, Davis asked his deputy to find a way to push a large sum of money to New’s nonprofit without triggering a red flag in an audit, so that the nonprofit could fund Lacoste’s boot camp. Davis called the project in a text message “the Lt. Gov’s fitness issue.”
Reeves has adamantly denied any wrongdoing in the scandal. The Reeves campaign did not respond to questions from Mississippi Today about his continued use of video from New Summit.
In a 2019 statement, then-Reeves spokesman Parker Briden said the campaign films ads at public and private schools because Reeves “isn’t trying to pit them against each other.”
“We were proud to film this one at New Summit, a school that has helped many special needs children gain a quality education; Tate has a strong sense of mission to help those kids. They were very gracious with their time and space after a school day. The teachers featured in our ad were public school teachers.”
But at the time, Mississippi Today verified that at least some of the teachers in the ad were not public school teachers and were employed in private schools. It could not be verified at the time whether any of the women in the commercial were current public school teachers.
During his tenure as lieutenant governor and governor, Reeves has been an outspoken advocate of providing public funds to private schools. A lawsuit is currently pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of grants supported by Reeves for private schools.
During the final days of the 2019 legislative session, the legislative leadership, led by then Lt. Gov. Reeves, quietly inserted language into a bill adding $2 million to a program providing vouchers to private schools for special needs students. Much of that money at the time went to New Summit. The money was added even though House Education Committee Chairman Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, had promised House members the program would not be expanded because of oversight concerns highlighted in a legislative watchdog report. Bennett told House members he did not know the language adding the extra money was in the bill.
The News, after the federal indictment related to New Summit School, pleaded guilty and agreed to work with federal prosecutors who continue to probe welfare misspending. Nancy New pleaded guilty to one count of using proceeds of wire fraud, or money laundering, which comes with a possible prison sentence of up to ten years. Zach New pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to five years.
Among the misspending outlined in the indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Nancy New used at least $76,889 in funds that were supposed to go to Mississippi public schools to purchase her house in northeast Jackson.
A Gulfport dentist continues to serve on the state dental watchdog board, despite making thousands in unauthorized campaign contributions from a Mississippi Dental Association bank account, including $5,400 to Gov. Tate Reeves, and despite covering up $29,225 stolen from that account, some of which went to casinos.
Jeff Zimmerman continues to decide the fates of dentists accused of improper or illegal conduct, despite the pleas of the association and the board for Reeves to remove Zimmerman from the Mississippi State Board of Dental Examiners.
Jeff Zimmerman, a Gulfport dentist, is a member of the Mississippi Board of Dental Examiners.
“Had the MDA chosen to file charges against Dr. Zimmerman and if he were found guilty, it would be a felony conviction that could lead to a fine and imprisonment,” the association’s investigative report says. “The fact that no charges were filed in lieu of return of the stolen funds does not eliminate the fact that Dr. Zimmerman admits to misappropriating $5,900 of the MDA’s money that had been entrusted to him in his position as Treasurer without proper authority.”
Under state law, only Reeves has the power to remove a board member “on proof of inefficiency, incompetency, immorality, unprofessional conduct, or continued absence from the state, for failure to perform duties, or for other sufficient cause,” according to the law.
Asked about Reeves’ lack of action, Press Secretary Shelby Wilcher said the governor didn’t receive formal notification of the board’s order in the case until April 5.
“The Governor is continuing to evaluate the Consent Order in the light of his statutory duties pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 73-9-9,” she said in an email. “The Governor holds each and every one of his appointees to the highest ethical and moral standards.”
Zimmerman did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about his continuing service on the board in light of that order.
The Mississippi Dental Association has long been active in political circles. Over the past quarter century, the association has contributed more than $1 million in donations through its Political Action Committee, nearly two thirds of it to Republican candidates, including at least $21,000 to Reeves, according to followthemoney.org.
Three months after becoming treasurer for the association’s District 5 in July 2019, Zimmerman obtained an unauthorized debit card for the District 5 bank account, according to the investigative report obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which is part of Mississippi Today. Over the next four months, that card was used to make more than 150 unauthorized purchases, totaling $29,225.
Records show many purchases at Walmart, payments to the Island View Casino in Gulfport and repeated $500 cash withdrawals from an ATM.
On Nov. 7, 2019, Zimmerman made an unauthorized political contribution of $500 to Michael Watson, a candidate for secretary of state, from the District 5 checking account, according to the report.
Watson did not respond to a request for comment.
On April 23, 2021, Zimmerman used association funds to make an unauthorized political contribution of $400 to Reeves’ campaign. Three months later, Reeves appointed him to the watchdog board.
Wilcher cited the association’s overwhelming support for Zimmerman for the board’s District 5 position — 21 votes compared to three votes for his next closest competitor.
“Because Dr. Zimmerman received the overwhelming majority of the votes cast, effective July 1, 2021, the Governor appointed Dr. Zimmerman to the Board to represent Dental District 5,” she said.
A month later, Zimmerman used association funds to make an unauthorized political contribution of $5,000 to Reeves’ campaign.
District 5 President Patton Webb Jr. learned of the $5,000 check when the Reeves campaign thanked the association for the contribution. He contacted Zimmerman and asked him to get the check back, according to the report.
Wilcher said the Reeves’ campaign returned the $5,000 contribution on that same day. She said the campaign hasn’t received a request to return the $400 contribution.
The report says Webb also asked Zimmerman to provide bank statements for the past three years. When Zimmerman finally shared those statements a month later, Webb discovered other unauthorized purchases and political contributions.
Confronted by District 5 officials, Zimmerman blamed an employee for the $29,225 in illicit purchases, saying an employee stole the card from his desk, according to the report. He said he fired the employee and arranged repayments for restitution.
Although he discovered those unauthorized purchases in January 2020, he didn’t replace those funds until after District 5 leaders asked for bank statements in October 2021, according to the report.
“He further stated that he did not report the theft to Dr. Webb or anyone else in District V,” the report says. “It was recommended that Dr. Zimmerman step down as MDA District V Secretary/Treasurer, which he did.”
Past board member Frank Conaway of Bay St. Louis said he viewed all of the District 5 bank records, which suggested “some money had been moved around that did not seem appropriate. It was closer to $40,000.”
As for the campaign contributions, District 5 members never voted to approve them, he said. “In the history of the 5th District, we have never done donations that way. It was Dr. Zimmerman acting alone when he did that.”
He said he wrote a letter on behalf of District 5 members that “we had lost confidence” in Zimmerman representing them, but the letter was never mailed under advice from legal counsel.
When questioned, Zimmerman admitted that he had held the reimbursement of these stolen funds in his own bank account until Webb discovered the theft, according to the report.
Asked how the association felt about Zimmerman continuing to serve on the state dental watchdog board, President Rebecca Courtney said by email that the association isn’t affiliated with the board or involved in any board decisions.
Asked if the association would support a change in state law that would allow the state board to remove board members who have violated ADA ethics and the Professional Code of Conduct, she replied, “We would always support positivity to strengthen the Board of Dental Examiners and ensure they are following proper ethical conduct.”
In February 2022, Webb filed a complaint with the watchdog board regarding Zimmerman’s actions. The board investigated and determined that he and the fired employee had “failed to fully cooperate” with the investigation by “withholding information,” according to the report.
The board concluded Zimmerman had violated both state dental ethics and the American Dental Association’s Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct, according to the consent order signed by both the board and Zimmerman.
In that order, he admitted that more than $29,000 had been removed from the District 5 bank account for illicit purchases and $5,900 had been removed for unauthorized campaign contributions.
He repaid the money taken for the purchases. He agreed to pay a $2,000 fine and finish a 90-day ethics program.
On March 31, the board voted unanimously to censure Zimmerman, who can no longer serve as an officer or on a committee, but he can continue to vote on whether to revoke a dentist’s license.
The board’s executive director, Denny Hydrick, said Wednesday that neither he nor the board had any comment beyond the consent order.
On Jan. 13, District 5 officials voted to expel Zimmerman for his actions and recommended his removal from the watchdog board.
“Board Members must be beyond reproach and should be held to a higher standard of behavior than the rank & file dentist in Mississippi,” the report concluded. “They investigate complaints against dentists, hygienists, and radiology permit holders made by the Public and other Agencies. They then sit in judgment of these license holdings in hearings that can take someone’s license to practice their profession and their ability to make a living in the profession that they worked and trained for. Board Members must be above the law. Dr. Zimmerman has proven that he has violated the trust given his position.”
The University of Mississippi Medical Center has let go nearly all of the instructors at its Oxford-based accelerated bachelors of science in nursing program, prompting outcry from current and former students who worry this will hurt their chances of passing the national nursing exam.
The move, announced last week, came in the middle of the program’s one-year cycle. Students received an email on May 1 that described the decision as “difficult” a few hours after five of the program’s seven faculty members were informed that UMMC would not renew their contracts this summer.
“Please understand these personnel changes are not punitive, rather this restructuring is based on programmatic and student needs,” wrote Julie Sanford, the dean of UMMC’s School of Nursing, and Leigh Holley, an assistant dean who was one of just two instructors to not be let go. Neither administrator responded to Mississippi Today’s requests for comment.
Days later, students received even more personnel news: Sanford, who UMMC named dean in 2019, would be leaving for a new position at the University of Alabama’s nursing school.
One of the five faculty members, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear that UMMC would revoke their remaining month-and-a-half of pay, said she was devastated by the decision and caught completely off guard. She said the only reason they were given is that “it was a business decision.”
“I just want you to know that I have committed my life and career to this institution and to this program and to these students,” the faculty member told Mississippi Today. “I feel completely betrayed, especially when you look up the mission … of the School of Nursing. … They are not living their values and their mission and our whole faculty team did.”
Even though the instructors’ contracts aren’t up until June 30, the faculty member said that Sanford, Holley and a representative from UMMC’s Human Resources made faculty members turn in their badges and computers. Someone from UMMC was folding moving boxes during the meeting.
“This is why it’s so, so confusing,” she said. “You give us no reason, and you told the students it’s not punitive, but they treated us like criminals.”
A spokesperson said UMMC had “no comment” on the decision. Holley, who joined the program last fall, wrote in the email that she would continue teaching courses, along with instructors from the program in Jackson who will drive up. It is unclear if this arrangement will continue for future cohorts or if instructors will be permanently replaced.
“We’re very fearful for the success of our students, which is our number one concern, really,” the faculty member said. “We have a nursing shortage. We’re living in a state of desperation for nurses.”
The Oxford program, started in 2014, is one of several undergraduate nursing programs offered by UMMC and primarily caters to recent graduates who did not major in nursing. It is intensive and rigorous, packing an entire bachelors degree into just three semesters.
More than 60 students a year have graduated from the Oxford program in recent years, with many filling positions at Mississippi hospitals amid the state’s pervasive nursing shortage. According to recent data from the Mississippi Hospital Association, registered nurse vacancies and turnover rates have soared in the last year to the highest numbers in at least a decade.
One of the current students is Ashley Ledbetter,a 38-year-oldformer teacher who is using the program to change careers. As one of the older students in the program, she said the instructors made her feel comfortable and taught her how to navigate the at-times traumatizing profession, such as the first time she saw a patient die during clinicals.
The irony, Ledbetter noted, is that her cohort is about to enter the third and final leg on May 30, the most crucial stretch. She’s worried it will be harder to prepare for the exam with all-new instructors.
“I feel that, really, if you were focusing on student needs, you wouldn’t have taken away one of the most fundamental parts of this program before the program is over,” Ledbetter said. “Our faculty got fired in the middle of the program and that, to me, is very insane.”
On May 1, shortly before Holley and Sanford sent the email, Ledbetter said she was asked to attend a virtual meeting with other student leaders.
During the meeting, which lasted roughly 20 minutes, Ledbetter said students were told the decision was due to the program’s falling pass rates on the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX.
But Holley and Sanford did not say if the pass rates were threatening the program’s accreditation or were simply lower than UMMC wanted, Ledbetter said. The most recent nursing report from the Institutions of Higher Learning shows that UMMC’s undergraduate NCLEX pass rate fell from 100% to 95.9% during a three-year period ending in 2021, but the report includes all of UMMC’s undergraduate baccalaureate nursing programs.
“We kept being told they couldn’t give us any more information because of HR policy,” Ledbetter said. “It was very vague.”
The faculty member said that Sanford and other UMMC administrators had previously singled out the Oxford program for its low NCLEX pass rate despite pass rates falling across the country during the pandemic.
“We’ve definitely felt under scrutiny for the past couple years, and we have been told outright, ‘if you don’t bring up your pass rates, we could end this program,’” she said. “We have bent over backwards for students and changed things, but we were just never really given a chance to watch how what we changed played out.”
A few hours after Holley and Sanford’s first email, Holley sent a follow up, acknowledging students’ reactions to the abrupt announcement. The cohort’s GroupMe blew up with texts; the instructors whose contracts were not renewed were receiving dozens of supportive messages on Facebook.
“Hi all, I know this news is unexpected, unsettling, even saddening and prompts many questions,” Holley wrote.
One of the instructors who was let go, Neeli Kirkendall, had been honored for her teaching. In 2016, she won the DAISY award for nursing faculty. One student who nominated Kirkendall for the award described her as “the ideal example of the perfect nurse.”
Kirkendall did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Alison Doyle, who graduated from the program in 2020, said she thought the lower NCLEX passing rate was likely due to the pandemic even as she felt the quality of the instruction actually improved after her classes were moved online. She was able to record and rewatch lectures rather than scramble to take notes in real time.
Doyle described the bonds that students had formed with the five instructors who were let go.
“I saw these women for 12 months more than I saw anyone else in my life when I was in nursing school,” she said.
University of Mississippi had been investing in the program in recent years, converting a former hospital in Oxford into instructional space in 2019, according to a UMMC newsletter.
Other state universities are replicating the program.In January, the University of Southern Mississippi launched the first class of a similar program at its satellite campus on the coast.
The three Jackson women serving as plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the controversial House Bill 1020 testified Wednesday the law would impact their right to elect judges from their community like other residents of the state are able to do.
“It adds insult to injury,” said plaintiff Ann Saunders about the establishment of a Capitol Complex Improvement District court within Jackson.
“It’s usurping the right that the great state of Mississippi has written into its constitution that I have,” she said. “For some reason my city, my county is being singled out for something other than legitimate access to the court and a legitimate reflection of the court that represents our vote.”
Saunders testified with plaintiffs Dorothy Triplett and Sabreen Sharrief before Hinds Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas, who ordered a temporary restraining order last week.
The goal of the Wednesday hearing was to hear from the plaintiffs and for the attorneys to make their case about the constitutionality of HB 1020.
Residents and Democratic lawmakers have spoken out against HB 1020, including concerns that it would empower white state officials to appoint judges instead of having them elected by citizens of the majority-Black city and create a separate police force within Jackson.
Jackson lawmakers say they were not consulted in the crafting of the legislation.
Thomas is expected to rule by the end of the week whether to approve a preliminary injunction to stop the bill from being implemented. That decision could lead to either of the sides asking for the Mississippi Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit in an appeal.
MacArthur Justice Center Director Cliff Johnson, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said the ultimate goal is a permanent injunction that would prevent the appointment of temporary judges and the creation of a Capitol Complex Improvement District court.
Gov. Tate Reeves signed HB 1020 into law April 21, and within days it faced two lawsuits – one by the NAACP in federal court and the other in state court. Both lawsuits argue HB 1020 is unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of Mississippi, the Mississippi Center for Justice, the MacArthur Justice Center and the Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
“We begin where we end with the constitution,” Johnson told the judge about the state constitution requirement that all circuit court judges be elected. “The Legislature went too far and it missed the mark.”
Rex Shannon, an attorney from the attorney general’s office, said the state is against an injunction and that HB 1020 doesn’t violate the state constitution because the Legislature can create inferior courts and because the constitution allows temporary judges to be appointed.
The state has also asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, arguing that it doesn’t have proper jurisdiction with the chancery court, it doesn’t show violation of the constitution and it doesn’t show that the plaintiffs have suffered or will suffer harm that is different from harm experienced by the general public.
Johnson said there is a notion by the state that Jackson is troubled and that justifies state intervention in the local criminal justice system and the deprivation of the rights of Hinds County residents.
Shannon said HB 1020 is the Legislature’s way to address crime in Jackson.
The defendants in the state lawsuit are Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Michael Randolph, who would be tasked with appointing four temporary judges to the Capitol Complex Improvement District Court; Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace; and Greg Snowden, director of the state’s Administrative Office of Courts.
On Wednesday, Judge Thomas approved a motion by the plaintiffs to add additional defendants: Gov. Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and the State of Mississippi.
Randolph has asked to be dismissed as a defendant on the grounds of judicial immunity and to maintain conduct that prohibits him from making public comments on pending matters, said attorney Mark Nelson.
Wallace also asked to be dismissed as a defendant because he has no role in the lawsuit and would distribute cases based on Supreme Court orders, said attorney Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen.
Johnson said the plaintiffs sued defendants who would be responsible for implementing the law, such as the clerk who would assign cases, the Administrative Office of Courts who would provide staffing and set pay and the chief justice for appointing judges.
Thomas is expected to rule this week whether to keep Randolph and Wallace as defendants and whether the attorney general’s office can dismiss the lawsuit.
“Thank you for your patience, and I will try to do my best,” Thomas said at the end of the Wednesday hearing.
