Hinds County sheriff candidate Marshand Crisler has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly soliciting bribes and giving ammunition to a convicted felon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The alleged actions took place in 2021 when Crisler unsuccessfully ran for Hinds County sheriff, according to the news release. Crisler was appointed as interim sheriff that year following the death of Sheriff Lee Vance and sought a full term, but lost to the current sheriff, Tyree Jones.
Crisler, 54, is charged with soliciting and accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for passing information about criminal investigations to the person who paid for the alleged bribe, according to court documents.
He also allegedly agreed to protect the jailed family member of the person he’s accused of having bribed him and agreed to hire the person who paid for the alleged bribe in the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department, according to court records.
The indictment alleges that Crisler gave ammunition to a person he knew was a convicted felon, which is also against federal law, according to the news release.
Crisler has an initial court appearance scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today at the U.S. District Court in Jackson before U.S. Magistrate Judge LaKeysha Greer Isaac.
If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each of the two counts in the indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The FBI is investigating the case.
Crisler most recently served as the executive director of the Hinds County’s Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center. He resigned that position earlier this year to run again for sheriff, local media reported.
The white woman at the center of the Emmett Till saga, Carolyn Bryant Donham, has died.
Megan LeBoeuf, chief investigator for the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office, confirmed Donham’s death. The 88-year-old was suffering from cancer and was receiving end-of-life hospice care.
Devery Anderson, the author of “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement,” said Donham’s death marks the end of a chapter.
Some people “have been clinging to hope that she could be prosecuted. She was the last remaining person who had any involvement,” he said. “Now that can’t happen.”
For many, “it’s going to be a wound, because justice was never done,” he said. “Some others were clinging to hope she might still talk or tell the truth. … Now it’s over.”
Till’s cousin, Wheeler Parker, said he and his family send their sympathies to the Donham family. “We don’t have any ill will or animosity toward her,” he said.
He said Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, forgave her son’s killers.
In a speech she made shortly before her 2003 death that God told her not to hate her son’s killers. “I am glad he took hatred out of my heart,” she said.
The killers thought they would be heroes, but became nobodies who lived miserable lives, she said. “There’s one sentence that you cannot escape, and that is when you go before the judgment seat of God. He will give the verdict.”
In August 1955, Till had barely turned 14 when he visited his Mississippi relatives from Chicago, only to be beaten and shot to death after he reportedly wolf-whistled at Donham at a store in Money.
His mother decided to leave the casket open to “let the world see what they did to my boy.” More than 50,000 attended the funeral, and the photograph of his brutalized body appeared in Jet and other publications around the world.
An all-white jury acquitted Donham’s then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam, only for them to confess later to Lookmagazine they had indeed beaten and killed Till.
The injustice made international headlines and fueled the civil rights movement. Four days after Rosa Parks heard a talk about Till, she boarded a city bus in Montgomery and refused to give up her seat. She was later quoted as saying she thought about Till the whole time.
Donham had long insisted on her innocence in Till’s murder, repeating that assertion in her unpublished memoir, “I Am More Than a Wolf Whistle,” but civil rights activists and others have called for her prosecution, accusing her of identifying Till to the killers.
After an intensive FBI investigation, a majority-Black Mississippi grand jury declined to indict her in 2007. Last year, another grand jury voted against indicting her.
Her memoir until Thursday was sealed in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until 2036. But through a source, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, now part of Mississippi Today, has obtained a copy of that single-spaced, 109-page memoir, which contradicts her original statement to her husband’s defense lawyer, Sidney Carlton.
In that original statement, Donham said when Bryant brought Till to her, he “was scared but hadn’t been harmed. He didn’t say anything. Roy asked if that was the same one, and I told him it was not the one who had insulted me.”
File photos of John W. Milam, 35, left, his half-brother Roy Bryant, 24 , centre, who go on trial in Sumner, Miss., Sept. 18, 1955, are charged with the murder of 14-year-old African American Emmett L.Till from Chicago, who is alleged to have “whistled” and made advances at Bryant’s wife Carolyn, seen right. (AP Photo)
That is far different from her memoir, which portrays Till as fearless and her as frightened. After she denied Till was the one at the store, she claimed he “flashed me a strange smile and said, ‘Yes, it was me,’ or something to that effect. … He didn’t act … scared in the least.”
Davis Houck, co-author of “Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press,” said Donham’s claim sounds like it was ripped from William Bradford Huie’s lie-filled Look article, which depicted Till as fearless to the end.
“The idea that Till would essentially out himself in front of his kidnappers and would-be killers,” he said, “is beyond absurd.”
Dale Killinger, who as an FBI agent investigated the Till case, said Donham’s claim in her memoir contradicts what she told him in 2005 — that Till said nothing when his kidnappers brought him to her.
During his investigation, he took the statements of two Black men. The first had been confronted by Bryant, who accused him of insulting Donham. She intervened and said it wasn’t him, and Bryant let him go.
The second man was walking home from Money after buying molasses for his mother, only to be picked up by Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam. The man quoted Donham as saying, “That’s not the n—–! That’s not the one.”
The man said he was tossed from the truck and lost his front teeth when he hit the ground.
Those statements dovetail with the testimony of Till’s uncle, Moses Wright, who said Milam told him, “If this is not the right boy, then we are going to bring him back. If it is not the right boy, we are going to bring him back and put him in the bed.”
As Milam and Bryant left, Wright said they asked someone in the vehicle if this was the boy and that a voice replied, “Yes.”
“Was that a man’s voice or a lady’s voice you heard?” the prosecutor asked.
“It seemed like it was a lighter voice than a man’s,” replied Wright, who later told his son, Simeon, it was a woman’s voice.
Killinger said he believes that Donham escaped justice.
“She should have faced a jury on manslaughter charges,” he said. “Under Mississippi law, if you did or said something, knowing that someone might be harmed, and your statements or actions led to them dying, you would be subject to manslaughter charges.”
Informed of Donham’s death, Keith Beauchamp, whose documentary on Till played a role in the FBI’s reopening of the case in 2004, said, “Damn, damn, damn.”
Since 1955, law enforcement and local officials have allowed Donham to evade justice “without answering to her participation in the kidnapping that led to the lynching of Emmett Louis Till,” he said. “The good old American judicial system has failed us yet again. Now Carolyn Bryant Donham will face her maker.”
Houck said Donham’s passing closes a long chapter that began in the early 2000s to prosecute those involved in the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
“Despite efforts from the Department of Justice, the FBI, local prosecutors in Mississippi and private citizens,” he said, “she was never arrested or indicted for her role in one of the 20th century’s most infamous lynchings, this despite the fact that Leflore County Sheriff George Smith had issued a warrant for her arrest days after Till had gone missing from his great aunt and uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi.”
In her memoir, Donham wrote that she did not wish Till any harm, pointing out that someone else, not her, told Bryant what had happened at the store. She wrote that those responsible for his murder should have been held accountable.
“His death was tragic and uncalled for beyond all doubt,” she wrote. “For that, I am truly sorry. If it had been within my power to change his fate, I would have done so.”
Clarification 4/27/23: This story has been updated to reflect that Carolyn Bryant Donham’s memoir is no longer in the University of North Carolina’s collection. Author Tim Tyson removed it.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s TEAM Clinic has long been one of the few medical spaces in Mississippi that aims to serve the LGBTQ community.
Its co-founder, Dr. Scott Rodgers, has described the “Trustworthy, Evidence-Based, Affirming, and Multidisciplinary” clinic’s mission in passionate terms: “The clinic, its presence and its openness, sends a powerful message that we are here for you.”
But last fall, UMMC leadership made a drastic decision. TEAM Clinic would no longer provide gender-affirming medical care — meaning puberty blockers and hormone therapy — to trans minors. The move in mid-October 2022 came months before lawmakers banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, and was implemented as quietly as possible. Parents received phone calls instead of letters and were supposed to be told only that “unforeseen clinical circumstances” necessitated the change.
The news swiftly spread through Mississippi’s small LGBTQ+ community, but the reasons for it haven’t been reported — until now.
Emails obtained through a public records request show UMMC’s decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to trans youth was a reaction to lawmakers who were seemingly angered that the public hospital was helping trans kids transition at all.
In late August, a legislative committee had begun formally probing for information, like how much state funding supported gender transition at the clinic, part of UMMC’s Center for Gender and Sexual Minority Health.
“While our one pager clearly outlines what the Center is and does and much of it is not objectionable, it seems that the overarching issue of concern is our providing hormone therapy and reassignment is most alarming to Members, coupled with their feeling caught off guard that we do this at all,” Kristy Simms wrote in a Sept. 12 email to Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the vice chancellor, and other executive leadership.
Simms, UMMC’s point person with elected officials at the state and federal level, had a proposal.
“It’s looking more and more like we have two options: Pause or shutter some/all of the work of the Center or be told to do so by the legislature in January.”
UMMC said it had no comment for this story. The emails do not show UMMC officials taking into account the impact that suddenly rescinding care would have on trans youth, but it is unclear what leadership discussed in person.
Among the handful of trans teenagers affected was 17-year-old Raymond Walker, who received puberty blockers and a testosterone prescription through the clinic. That care — which Walker had waited months to get starting in 2020 — was the only thing that relieved the intense gender dysphoria that came with female puberty. It was also a comforting environment. His mother, Katie Rives, recalled that the pediatric endocrinologist“treated Ray like everybody should treat Ray but not everybody does.”
Then one day in early November, Walker learned he could no longer go to TEAM Clinic when Rives picked him up from school. His dad had received a call that the clinic was no longer offering hormone therapy — but wasn’t told why. It was just a few days before Walker’s appointment and he was running out of testosterone.
“Because it was such a welcoming environment, I couldn’t believe that they had just dropped patients like that,” Walker said. “I was just completely blindsided.”
Walker said he felt like UMMC abandoned trans kids.
“I don’t know how they could have a clean conscience about this,” he said. “They stripped away health care from children. It was an important resource that they just took away.”
Though lawmakers had asked about TEAM Clinic in the past, its work hadn’t come under fire.
In fact, it was thriving. The pioneering clinic, founded in 2015, was booked the first Friday of every month. The staff — a roster of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, physicians and plastic surgeons — often saw more than 50 patients in a day, some of whom had traveled across state lines to be there.
Simms responded by creating a one-pager. She asked leadership if she should send lawmakers a press release that “‘humanizes’ the mission of the clinic and shows that it is doing much more than gender reassignment and hormone therapy.”
“When we transmit this to legislators, we will be sure to reiterate that state funds support our education mission ONLY,” she wrote on Sept. 9.
Three days later, Simms had an urgent update. She had received even more calls.
“We have been contacted by chairmen we rely on, friendly legislators and leadership staff,” she wrote on Sept. 12. “Today I got a call from Sam Mims who was very frustrated and indicated that he had been talking with the Speaker about this and he is not happy. I would characterize the conversation as hostile and slightly threatening.”
It’s unclear what Mims, chair of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee, said because he did not return inquiries from Mississippi Today. But things moved quickly after that. Simms suggested leadership discuss the future of TEAM Clinic, and Woodward emailed Brian Rutledge, her chief of staff, to coordinate. Rutledge then suggested Rodgers, the clinic’s co-founder, be included, noting he “will likely have some feelings.”
The emails don’t include details about a meeting, so it’s unclear what leadership discussed or how Rodgers’ perspective was factored into the decision. But later that week, Woodward sent Rodgers an email, urging him to focus on “what we can do for UMMC that is feasible and good.”
“I know this is not fully possible – but to the degree that you can do so – please don’t let the current challenges and issues get you down,” she wrote on Sept. 14. “There is nothing about the situation that is your fault. We likely will have to make some adjustments. And I can not predict what the legislature will do.”
Rodgers replied that night.
He asked Woodward about an idea she would “likely consider ‘high risk.’” He wrote that he had traveled the country giving successful talks on TEAM Clinic. Perhaps he could convince the Institutions of Higher Learning or lawmakers of the clinic’s value.
“I am confident that I won’t be able to win over everyone, but if my track record is any indicator, I will likely make some inroads into changing hearts and minds,” he wrote.
It was either that, Rodgers continued, or “sit back, hope this dies down, and begin dismantling TEAM clinic, which is likely the safer approach to take, but it sure doesn’t feel right to me.”
Woodward didn’t reply in writing, and it’s not clear if she ever OK’d Rodgers’ request. Rodgers didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“I am not intimidated by the politicians and the Board, and I would treat them with great respect throughout, just as I treat each and every family that I’ve ever worked with,” he assured Woodward. “I also wouldn’t make it political at all.”
In the following month, emails show that leadership monitored the growingcoverage about the clinic and expressed surprise that it had been targeted at all.
“For example, the recent bru ha ha created about our TEAM clinic (clinic for LGBTQ) – not expected,” Woodward wrote in an Oct. 13 email to Tom Duff, the IHL board president. “The clinic has been in place in some form since 2015 and in its current form since 2017 – who knew it would be a hot topic in September of 2022?”
A plan to end TEAM Clinic’s services for trans youth, createdby the co-directors of UMMC’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Minority Health, Alex Mills and Seth Kalin, was dated for the next day. It was printed and hand-delivered to leadership. Employees at the TEAM clinic had been told not to use email to communicate about the transition period.
According to a copy obtained by Mississippi Today, the goal was to move all trans youth patients away from the clinic by Nov. 4. Though the plan was specific to TEAM Clinic, it impacted services across UMMC. Minors who had gone to TEAM Clinic for counseling would be moved to another UMMC center. Those being seen for gender-affirming care were to be given a list of “LGBTQ+ friendly health services” — all outside of UMMC. The only “providers outside of Mississippi” were two websites: getplume.com and queermed.com.
If parents wanted information about a UMMC-specific provider, the plan says they were supposed to be told to call TEAM clinic.
“We need to ensure a safe and adequate transfer of care and on emergent bases may need to have patients seen during the November TEAM clinic,” Mills and Kalin wrote. “These potential cases can be reviewed by UMMC leadership should they wish.”
It didn’t always work out that way in practice — at least not for Walker, the teen whose testosterone prescription was running out. His dad left three calls for his pediatric endocrinologist, but ultimately, his parents found a new provider on their own. They ended up at Spectrum: The Other Clinic in Hattiesburg, an hour and a half drive from the Jackson metro area.
Stacie Pace, Spectrum’s co-owner, received a flurry of calls from other scared parents. A passionate advocate for trans health care, she was furious to hear of UMMC’s decision.
“It’s pitiful to me that the leadership in an organization as large as UMMC — that has its own medical school, that produces its own research — is being forced to bend to political whims,” she told Mississippi Today. “This is insanity. This is a page from Hitler’s book on how to erase people.”
The emails obtained by Mississippi Today do not show whether leadership appeared to consider the impact that ending gender-affirming care would have on trans youth patients, who have high rates of mental illness and suicidality.
That would have been crucial to consider, noted Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University. He said that neither the plan, nor the way it was implemented in Walker’s case, was sufficient, because patients need to be fully apprised of their options for care both in state and out.
“You can’t say, ‘We’re done, call this 1-800 number of this website, good luck.’ That’s not adequate,” he said. “You’ve gotta do much better than saying goodbye, here’s a website.”
Per Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure policies, physicians wanting to end a patient relationship should give written notice and agree to continue providing care for at least 30 days.
Kalin couldn’t be reached. Mills, who spoke to Mississippi Today on his behalf and not UMMC’s, said he was “demoralized” by the failure of health care leaders in Mississippi to stand up for trans kids.
He apologized for what happened.
“I don’t know how to summarize it other than just saying I’m sorry to the community, to these families,” he said. “If there was something that I could do, or if I could just say the right thing to the right person in power to defend the right to health care and life, I wish I knew what it was. And I wish I could have said it before September.”
Walker said he could see how UMMC leadership may have felt like they were picking “the lesser of two evils,” that perhaps if they stopped treating trans kids at the clinic, lawmakers might not pass House Bill 1125.
But he still felt there was “a better way to do it.”
“They could have stayed and fought for their patients and maybe fought the lawmakers or say hey we swore an oath as medical providers, we can’t just stop,” Walker said. “I want to know what they were thinking. They swore an oath as medical providers to do no harm. Every person who helped in making this decision has broken that oath.”
Read all the emails here and the transition plan here.
We asked readers what questions they had about the Mississippi welfare scandal. Author of The Backchannel series Anna Wolfe answered ten questions. Find the answers below.
Q:How many struggling families did not receive TANF money due to the greed of the people implicated?
A: This is a great question, though it is hard to quantify. I can say that, according to the data dive I published last fall, between the four years of the scandal 2016-2020, the state welfare department received 59,785 applications from families seeking cash assistance and only approved 10,136. This was even more pronounced during 2016, during which the state received 11,384 applications and approved just 163, or 1.4%, according to the data the state submitted to the federal government.
The nearly 50,000 unsuccessful applications do not necessarily represent the number of families who missed out on the assistance, because they likely include duplicate applicants who submitted multiple applications during this time.
Also, because the state has imposed such strict eligibility guidelines for receiving TANF, many of those families would not qualify to receive the assistance regardless. So there’s not a direct correlation between the known misspending and people not receiving the benefit.
This is evident by the fact that the low approval rate did not start during the known scandal. The number of applications the state approved per month dropped significantly from 875 to 48 in a two-month period in 2010. In the five years from 2011 to 2016, the state received 73,532 applications for welfare and approved just 1,674, or 2.3%. Mississippi is not the only state where this is the case, even today. Approval rates across the nation in 2022 ranged from 4.6% in Texas to 100% in Illinois.
This data only describes the cash assistance side of TANF — which is only about 5%-10% of the overall program in Mississippi. The state spends the rest of its TANF block grant on other supposed anti-poverty programs or plugging state budget holes. The misspending from 2016-2020 occurred on the service-provider side of TANF. But the federal government only requires the state to compile data about the families receiving cash aid, not the families receiving other kinds of assistance, such as after school programs, parenting classes or workforce development. This means that if there were meaningful programs taking place before the welfare fraud scheme — before the state consolidated its grants and pushed the funding through the two now disgraced nonprofit directors — we can’t quantify the number of families who missed out on these programs during the scandal.
Q: Why does no one see the true welfare scandal? It is nearly impossible for people to actively receive tanf benefits. In Warren County, there are only 5 social workers at the MDHS office. Each worker has over 800 cases. TANF workers are used to answer phones and take messages for workers. There are no current openings on the Mississipp State Personnel Board for the Warren County MDHS office. Many cases are being closed because the workers cannot work each SNAP or TANF case in the required time period. Why are the actual law makers not being held accountable for the misappropriation of Mississippi tax dollars? Why has the Mississippi State Personnel Board been allowed to mistreat it’s staff?
A: Another great question that relates to the previous answer. I haven’t done reporting on the ground-level work being done in Warren County’s welfare office, but I’d love to hear more of these direct accounts at awolfe@mississippitoday.org.
In a story I published in February, I analyzed more than 60 pieces of legislation that could be considered part of the agenda of protecting life and helping disadvantaged families thrive, including a dozen bills aiming to reform public assistance programs. Most of them died.
State lawmakers have committed no crime that I’m aware of by imposing stringent rules on public assistance programs or cutting state budgets to an unmanageable level. The way these officials are held accountable is by the public at the ballot box.
Q: What do we know about how TANF funds are being used today? Is there any sign that more families in need are receiving assistance now vs. a few years ago?
A: In actuality, Mississippi is providing cash assistance to fewer poor families today than it was during the scandal. The state continues to push out subgrants to nonprofits and other government entities to run the same kinds of programs we have for years — after school programs, parenting initiatives, etc. — but we are leaving tens of millions unspent. You can read more about that here.
Q: Are the appropriate agencies investigating the bigger fish who allowed this to happen? If not, what can you tell us about it?
A: The FBI is still investigating the welfare fraud case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting. The original investigator, the State Auditor’s Office, and the original prosecutor, the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office, both say they are continuing to work on the probe with their federal partners. All defendants who have been charged in the case (with the exception of a lower level MDHS employee who entered pre-trial diversion) have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the investigation. None of them have been sentenced, which typically means that the authorities are still using them for information and as potential witnesses in their ongoing case. Gov. Phil Bryant oversaw the welfare department and his appointed director, John Davis, during the time the fraud scheme took place. At least three of the criminal defendants, Nancy New, Zach New and Christi Webb, and several civil defendants, including Brett Favre, Paul Lacoste and Austin Smith, have made statements in court or to the press alleging Gov. Bryant was aware of or sanctioned certain spending that is now the subject of the scandal. Bryant has not been charged criminally or civilly. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is currently led by an interim U.S. attorney. President Joe Biden’s nominee for the position, current Department of Justice deputy chief Todd Gee, recently received approval from Mississippi senators and is awaiting confirmation by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Q:Which is worse, the rich asking for and receiving federal dollars stolen from the poor, or stealing dollars from the poor and giving it to the rich?
A: I’m not sure, but it seems to me, in both cases, the effect is the same for impoverished Mississippians who were deprived of the assistance.
Q: What about Marcus Dupree?
A: Before the auditor released his audit in 2020, we broke the story about Nancy New’s nonprofit covering the $9,500-month mortgage on a Flora horse ranch, effectively purchasing the property for former running back Marcus Dupree. The Marcus Dupree Foundation, which claims to provide equestrian services to underprivileged youth, technically purchased and owned the property, but Dupree was using it as his private residence. Dupree was also earning a six-figure salary from each of the Families First for Mississippi nonprofits. Auditor Shad White issued the demand against Dupree in October of 2021 and Dupree was named in MDHS’s lawsuit in May of 2022. In his response to the civil lawsuit, he denied all allegations against him.
Q: Why didn’t Shad White’s office arrest Phil Bryant? His office has agents that arrest people all the time. This fact should be consistently broadcasted to ensure White is never elected to office again.
A: The State Auditor’s Office makes an arrest in the course of an investigation when a prosecutor, often a local district attorney, has secured an indictment against an individual. In the case of the welfare scandal, Auditor Shad White’s office turned over information to the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office that suggested Nancy New, John Davis and others had committed a crime, and when the Hinds County grand jury handed down an indictment, White’s office made the arrests. We are unaware of an indictment against former Gov. Phil Bryant.
Q: Regarding the payment made to and later refunded by Favre; did Favre make any appearances or cut any commercials? Was there evidence that he ever declined an invitation to speak or cut commercials?
A: Favre cut a radio ad for Families First for Mississippi which ran in the fall of 2018, several months after he received two payments under the contract totaling $1.1 million. The disagreement between Favre and State Auditor Shad White, who issued the 2021 demand for Favre to repay the funds, lies with the terms of that contract, which had been kept from the public for over two years until Mississippi Today published it last fall. The Scope of Work of the contract said that Favre would speak at three speaking engagements, cut a radio spot and provide one keynote speech. The auditor determined that Favre did not attend any events or deliver a keynote, and Favre has never said that he did. Favre argues that he was never scheduled for those activities, but the auditor doesn’t allege that Favre was, just that he didn’t perform the work outlined in the agreement. You can read more about that here. As the civil case has progressed, we’ve learned that the issue with the $1.1 million payment may not be whether he conducted the work or not, but the purpose for which he received the money in the first place. Text messages recently released clearly illustrate that the nonprofit funneled the money through Favre as a way to push more funding to the construction of the volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi, but Favre didn’t use the money for the project, according to his spokesperson.
Q: Here we go again….
“While $1,100,000 was paid based on a contract for public appearances, and Favre did record a radio advertisement, the payment was intended, as requested by Bryant, to help Favre raise funds for construction of the Volleyball Facility,” reads New’s October filing in the civil case.
If you were being non-biased, you would have gone back and read the text messages. They have been produced. They clearly show that Favre and Nancy talked about this and…. even assuming Nancy is not lying… at best the argument she makes is that the “Wow, I just got off the phone with Governor” text is her telling Bryant about the idea, not Bryant requesting it. That quote from the pleading literally makes no sense. Does that make sense to you? I would have at least pointed out the inconsistencies in New’s arguments here which lend doubt to the credibility of this, especially given Bryant and Favre both say that is not true and all of the other texts with Nancy and Governor Bryant about this until the proposal are about having a fundraiser at the mansion. Using our brains and not our political motives… let’s just tryyyyyy to make the story sound like you are after the truth. I’m rooting for you here.
A: The paragraph you cited is a direct quote from a court filing from Nancy New. It alleges that the payment New made to Favre was both 1) intended to help pay for construction of the volleyball stadium and 2) directed by former Gov. Phil Bryant. This was relevant to include in my latest story because Favre’s team is now saying that Favre did not put any of the $1.1 million he received from New towards the volleyball stadium. He instead continued to lobby others, including other public entities, for the funds.
I think we understand there is a lot more we don’t yet know, but we also find it valuable and newsworthy to report on these allegations, especially since Bryant has objected to turning over all of his messages with the relevant figures — particularly with Brett Favre and John Davis — to the public. It’s also important to note that the text messages aren’t going to be the only source of evidence in the ongoing case. In other words, just because someone didn’t put something in writing doesn’t mean it didn’t happen (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence). These kinds of statements from key witnesses give some insight into the facts they’d be willing to testify to during a potential trial. That’s why they are, on their own, critical pieces of evidence in the case. It’s our job to make that information available to the public.
Q: When all of the truth finally comes out, will Ms. Wolfe be willing to publish an apology and correct The Backchannel articles if it turns out that she was actually wrong? I would think to save face MS Today will have to at least acknowledge the truth. I realize it’s inconsistent with the Let’s Go Brandon (Presley) effort but assuming you are actually still trying to pretend you’re a legitimate news source, I would think it would be necessary. Now that all comments have been turned off to the public, I can’t wait to see which ones Ms. Wolfe selects to answer. In the words of Willy Wonka (since MS Today appreciates the world of pure imagination), “The suspense is terrible. I hope it lasts!”
A: We do not refrain from publishing information we know to be true — including attributed allegations — for years on end until every single person involved decides to speak. If that were the standard to publish a story, we would not have published a single story on the welfare scandal in three years. We would be happy to issue a correction for any credible challenges to the accuracy of the reporting — and please send them our way. In the meantime, we will continue publishing new information as it becomes available, as we have done for the past three years.
What Mississippi and the world don’t need is another NFL mock draft. There have been hundreds upon hundreds in recent weeks. Instead, the Cleveland boys examine past New Orleans Saints drafts: the good, the bad and the downright ugly. They also look at what Mississippi guys are likely to go early, looking at you Emanuel Forbes and Jonathan Mingo.
Southern Miss golfer Thongpipat”Pat” Rattanayanon hails from Bangkok, Thailand. He is one of dozens of foreign golfers in the Sun Belt Championship at Annandale Golf Club this week. Credit: Southern Miss athletics
MADISON — So there was Thongpipat Rattanayan – not so easy for me to type – on the par-4 third hole at Jack Nicklaus-designed Annandale Golf Club Tuesday morning. He was exactly 82 yards from the hole and approximately 10,000 miles from his home in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rattanayan, who thankfully goes by Pat, took out his trusty lob wedge, took dead aim and took an easy, compact swing.
“I knew it was close,” he would say in perfectly good English about three and a half hours later. “I didn’t know how close because that big bunker in front of the green was blocking my view.”
Rick Cleveland
Somebody behind the green hollered, “It went in the hole!”
Said Rattanayan, “I said to myself, ‘What? It went in! Really?’”
Really. The resulting eagle deuce was easily the highlight of his day as Rattanayan, a senior at Southern Miss, shot a one-over-par 73 in the second round of the Sun Belt Conference Golf Championship.
And there was Robbie Latter, on the par-5 18th at Annandale nearly 200 yards from the hole and about 1,200 miles from his Canadian home in Missauga, Ontario, after his booming 345-yard drive. Latter, another 22-year-old USM senior, laced a 6-iron second shot that never left the pin. The ball bounced once, missed by perhaps three inches, and then trickled about 10 feet past the hole. Latter sank the eagle putt to finish a round of even-par 72.
Latter, even par after 36 holes, is tied for sixth place (of 70 golfers) individually going into Wednesday’s third and final stroke play round of the Sun Belt event. Southern Miss, the tournament host, is tied for fourth in the 14-team tournament. After Wednesday’s third round, the top four teams will enter match play to determine the conference champion on Thursday.
Southern Miss needs a strong finish in the conference championship to advance to the 64-team NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
Said Golden Eagle coach Eddie Brescher, “We’re on the bubble now, but if we have a good showing tomorrow, I believe we’ll be in.”
Ole Miss and Mississippi State are both nationally ranked and already have punched their tickets into the NCAA Tournament. State’s roster includes players from Portugal, Switzerland, England, Poland and South Africa. Two Swedes and another player from Thailand play for Rebels. College golf in Mississippi, as well most everywhere else, is an international affair.
“My guess is that if you take the entirety of Division I golf, probably 50% of the players are foreign players,” Brescher said. “In the Sun Belt, I’m not sure it’s not more like two-thirds are imports.”
On the Sun Belt leaderboard, the top 10 and ties include two Swedes and also golfers from England, Canada, South Africa and Slovenia.
“If you’re going to be competitive, you gotta get the best players you can get wherever you can get them,” Brescher said. “Three of our five players here are international. Four of the eight on our roster are international, and I can promise you we have more on the way.”
So, you might ask, how does a player named Thongpipat Rattanyan from Bangkok find his way to Hattiesburg, Mississippi?
“In Thailand, there is no college golf,” Rattanyan said. “You either turn pro after high school or you come to the U.S. to play college golf.”
When Rattanyan was 16, he decided he wanted to come to the U.S. He flew to San Diego to play in a big international junior tournament, which Brescher attended. Said Rattanyan, “I played terrible in that tournament, but I did talk to Coach Brescher.”
Canadian Robbie Latter eagled the 18th hole at Annandale Tuesday for Southern Miss. Credit: Southern Miss athletics
Brescher liked what he heard from Rattanyan and did his homework to learn that the Bangkok teen was capable of playing much better golf than he had in San Diego. And “Pat” surely has. For four years, he has been one of USM’s steadiest players and also best students. He will graduate next month with a degree in marketing. His parents will attend his graduation, visiting Hattiesburg for the first time. Because of COVID, “Pat” has another year of eligibility, which he intends to use, and start work toward earning an MBA.
“Let me tell you something about Pat,” Brescher said. “He’s as good as gold. If you have a daughter, I promise you, you would be really happy if she were to marry Pat. He’s as solid as they come.”
Latter, one of the longest hitters in college golf, plans to play a fifth season at USM as well. “I love Hattiesburg, love everything about it,” Latter said.
He loves it so much, he enticed his younger, 6-foot-7-inch brother, Tommy Latter, a freshman, to follow him to Southern Miss. “Tommy hits is farther than I do,” he said.
And that’s not all. The Latters’ parents, Rob and Ann Latter, plan to retire to Hattiesburg in the near future. Said Robbie Latter, “My parents had always planned to retire to Florida, but that’s changed after they have been to Hattiesburg. They love the place.”
Meanwhile, Robbie Latter may well have a future in golf beyond college. Again, he hits it a mile. He finished runner-up last summer in the Canadian Amateur championship. If he can fine-tune his iron game and his putting – to go with his monster drives – he could make a living in golf.
That’s to be determined. A nice first step toward all that could come Wednesday, and perhaps Thursday, at Annandale, where golfers from all over the globe are making their mark.
A second lawsuit has been filed challenging the legality of controversial House Bill 1020, which creates a separate law enforcement and judicial district in parts of Jackson controlled by white state officials instead of leaders elected by citizens of the majority-Black city.
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges HB 1020 violates the Mississippi Constitution. On Friday, just hours after Gov. Tate Reeves signed the legislation into law, a separate federal lawsuit was filed saying the bill violated the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit filed Monday claims the state constitution mandates that circuit judges, such as those provided for in the bill, should be elected rather than appointed.
The new law gives Chief Justice Michael Randolph the authority to appoint four judges to hear criminal felony cases in an existing Capitol Complex Improvement District that will be expanded to cover more of the whiter and wealthier areas of Jackson.
“We have elected our circuit court judges in Mississippi for more than 100 years. The Mississippi Constitution expressly requires us to do so,” reads the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three Jackson citizens by the Mississippi Center for Justice, the ALCU of Mississippi, the MacArthur Justice Center and Legal Defense Fund in Hinds County Chancery Court.
The lawsuit says that the fact that the judges will be appointed for a temporary period of time (until the end of 2026) does not mitigate the fact that HB 1020 is unconstitutional. It goes on to argue the law is unconstitutional because judges previously appointed by Randolph are currently hearing cases in Jackson.
“Under H.B. 1020’s court-packing scheme, the power of the four duly elected judges on that Court will be diluted,” the lawsuit reads. “Only half of the judges will be elected by Hinds County voters as required by the constitution, and citizens of Hinds County will be just as likely to go before a circuit judge who is not elected — and who may have no connection to the county or its residents — as one who is.”
HB 1020 also creates a separate court to hear misdemeanor cases and preliminary hearings in criminal cases. The state lawsuit claims that court is unconstitutional because judges for such courts are typically appointed by elected municipal officials or elected instead of being appointed by the chief justice.
The issue was combustible during the recently completed 2023 legislative session because Jackson has an African American population of more than 80%, making it the Blackest large city in the nation. The bill received national and international scrutiny.
The lawsuit filed last week in federal court challenges the constitutionality of HB 1020, in part because it does not allow the Black majority citizens the opportunity to vote on the judges.
There is no other jurisdiction in the state like the one established in HB 1020, the lawsuit said.
Supporters of the legislation said the bill was an attempt to help the city of Jackson with a spiraling crime problem.
In signing the legislation Friday afternoon, Reeves said, “The fact is that Jackson has so much potential. It is our capital city and the heart of our state…But Jackson has to be better. Downtown Jackson should be so safe that it is a magnet for talented young people to come and live and work and create.
“This legislation won’t solve the entire problem, but if we can stop one shooting, if we can respond to one more 911 call – then we’re one step closer to a better Jackson. I refuse to accept the status quo. As long as I’m governor, the state will keep fighting for safer streets for every Mississippian no matter their politics, race, creed, or religion – regardless of how we’re portrayed by liberal activists or in the national media.”
In her first major order in the ongoing welfare fraud case, Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson denied former NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s attempt to dismiss civil charges against him.
Peterson also blocked Favre’s request for a hearing on his motion, saying it was unnecessary and calling his legal arguments “unpersuasive and inapplicable.”
Mississippi Department of Human Services is currently targeting 47 defendants whom it says fraudulently transferred nearly $80 million in funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF.
Favre had argued that he never committed his own funds to build a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi, a project eventually completed with $5 million in federal welfare funds, and that the state fully approved of the transfer.
“If, as MDHS falsely alleges, Favre was part of a conspiracy, it was the most public and open conspiracy in Mississippi history, it was directed and carried out by MDHS itself to transfer funds from one public state entity to another, Southern Miss, and it was vetted and approved by numerous lawyers and State officials,” his attorneys wrote in his motion to dismiss.
Peterson said in her motion Monday that Favre’s argument that MDHS “failed to allege that Favre formed an agreement with anyone to do anything unlawful” was “without merit,” effectively keeping Favre in the suit. Favre has not faced criminal charges in the U.S. Attorneys Office’s parallel criminal case, which just saw the addition of former WWE wrestler Teddy DiBiase Jr. last week.
“Obviously Brett Favre is disappointed in the court’s ruling. His legal team is exploring their options,” a spokesperson for Favre said in a statement Monday.
The judge also said that while Favre laid out a lengthy narrative with 300 pages of exhibits in his motion, under court procedure, she was not able to consider his version of facts.
The order Monday marks the first time Peterson, who wields great control over the trajectory of the civil suit, has directly acknowledged in a court filing the state’s allegations of civil conspiracy and fraudulent transfers against Favre.
“Both claims stem from allegations surrounding his involvement with and dealings to secure funding for the constriction of a brick-and-mortar volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi as well as allegations surrounding his efforts to secure funds for a for-profit drug company, Prevacus,” she wrote. “Specifically, Plaintiff alleged that Favre personally guaranteed funds for the construction of a volleyball facility at USM, that he was unsuccessful at fundraising efforts, that he conducted months of negotiations and backdoor meetings with other named defendants and the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation to acquire funding, that the funding came from TANF funds and that said were used of non-TANF purposes, i.e. construction of a volleyball facility. Plaintiff further alleged that Favre, as the largest individual outside investor of Prevacus, engaged in similar meetings to assist in similar procurement of TANF funds that were, then, used to purchase stock in Prevacus, inconsistent with lawsuit TANF purposes.”
Peterson has filed 32 orders in the civil suit, which MDHS initially filed in May of last year. Until her order Monday denying Favre’s motion, Peterson had issued only procedural motions, such as granting time extensions for defendants file replies or allowing a defendant to use an out-of-state attorney.
The judge also has yet to hold a public hearing in the case.
Several other defendants have filed motions to dismiss, including Prevacus and its founder Jake Vanlandingham, nonprofit founder Nancy New, her sons Zach New and Jess New and their related companies, nonprofit director Christi Webb, former WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Sr., former football player and fitness trainer Paul Lacoste, virtual reality company Lobaki, lobbyist and former state senator Will Longwitz, state contractor and former Attorney General’s Office employee Nick Coughlin and the former welfare director’s nephew Austin Smith. Peterson has not issued orders on their motions.
