Mississippian gets new liver after insurance dispute forced him to get care out of state
The 28-year-old Neshoba County man who had to travel to Houston for a liver transplant because of a dispute between his insurer and the hospital that runs the state’s only organ transplant program received his new liver on Saturday.
Ironically, Caden LeMieux’s new liver came from someone in Mississippi, his mother Cristi Montgomery said.
“His surgeon actually flew back to Mississippi himself and picked up the organ, then flew back to Houston,” said Montgomery.
After the four-hour surgery late Saturday afternoon at Hermann Memorial Health System, LeMieux has made marked improvement: both his chest and nasogastric tubes have been removed, and on Monday, he was able to eat and take several steps. By Tuesday, he was making laps around the hall in the hospital, Montgomery said.
Montgomery posted a picture of LeMieux’s hands two days before surgery and two days after surgery on her Facebook page. In the first, his hands are a dark yellow – in the second, they have the appearance of a normal skin tone.
LeMieux, who was diagnosed with liver disease 10 years ago, was admitted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in early July following excruciating stomach pain and high levels of bilirubin, which caused his skin and eyes to turn yellow. His 6-foot-2 frame weighed in at less than 130 pounds, and the weight kept coming off.
He was told he was in active liver failure and needed a transplant imminently. But UMMC couldn’t do it because of the hospital’s ongoing contract dispute with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, which has left the state’s largest hospital out of network with its largest private insurer since April 1.
While the two parties are currently in mediation, there is no resolution in sight.
After the family got the call late Thursday, Montgomery and her husband, who own their own business in Philadelphia, closed their bakery on Friday to make the 450-mile drive to Houston. Montgomery said she expects her son will be discharged from the hospital by Monday. Before that, they will give her and his other family members instructions for how to care for him.
“He has to have round-the-clock care, 24/7, and has to go back to the doctor twice a week for four weeks,” she said.
While LeMieux’s father and stepmother live in Houston, the rest of his family – including six of his seven siblings – are all in Mississippi. Montgomery said she plans to be in Houston every other week and will travel back and forth for the foreseeable future. LeMieux will likely have to remain in the Houston area for at least a year.
Montgomery said it will be a balancing act to care for LeMieux while he’s so far from their home.
“It’s tough being nine hours away, especially with me being self employed. But obviously, Caden’s health and well being is our main priority,” she said. “So we’ll just have to make it work.”
Editor’s note: Kate Royals, Mississippi Today’s community health editor since January 2022, worked as a writer/editor for UMMC’s Office of Communications from November 2018 through August 2020, writing press releases and features about the medical center’s schools of dentistry and nursing. A longtime journalist in major Mississippi newsrooms, Royals had served as a Mississippi Today reporter for two years before her stint at UMMC. At UMMC, Royals was in no way involved in management decisions or anything related to the medical center’s relationship or contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi.
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Podcast: Over and under, what you got in college football? Also, we celebrate the life of Corky Palmer.
The Clevelands discuss the upcoming college football season, specifically the over-and-under on victories for each of the Mississippi schools. Oddsmakers have set the over-under on victories for Ole Miss (7.5), Mississippi State (6.5) and Southern Miss (5). Also, Ole Miss ranks No. 21 in the first AP poll. That’s the good news. The bad is that the Rebels are sixth among SEC teams. Also, we celebrate the life of Corky Palmer, the legendary Southern Miss baseball coach.
Stream all episodes here.
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Federal lawsuit alleges Lexington Police Department ‘terrorizes’ Black citizens
Black residents in a small Delta town have been subjected to excessive force, intimidation and false arrests by its police force for over a year, a federal lawsuit alleges.
JULIAN, a civil rights organization, is asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order against the Lexington Police Department to prevent mistreatment against residents.
“It’s both unconscionable and illegal for Lexington residents to be terrorized and live in fear of the police department whose job is to protect them,” Jill Collen Jefferson, president and founder of JULIAN, said in a statement.
Subjects of the lawsuit are the city, police department, Interim Police Chief Charles Henderson and former Chief Sam Dobbins. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Lexington, which has a population of about 1,800 people, is 86% Black. It is located in one of the state’s poorest counties – Holmes County.
The lawsuit says former chief Dobbins and interim chief have violated Black residents’ constitutional rights for over a year and continue to. That behavior has included retaliation against residents who speak out against police, false arrests, baseless vehicle searches and unreasonable force by police.
Over 200 Black citizens formally or informally complained about treatment by Lexington police in the past year, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes a month after an audio recording surfaced of Dobbins making racist and homophobic language and bragging about killing multiple people as a member of the police force.
Robert Lee Hooker, a Black officer who resigned from the Lexington police department, recorded the conversation with Dobbins and gave it to JULIAN. The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting first reported the recording.
“Justified, bro’,” Dobbins said in the recording. “I shot that n—– 119 times, OK?”
“I don’t give a f— if you kill a motherf—er in cold blood,” he said in another portion of the recording.
A day later, the Board of Aldermen fired Dobbins in a 3-2 vote and made Henderson the interim chief.
When reached for comment about the lawsuit, Dobbins declined to comment to the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting Tuesday.
Five Black men who experienced retaliation, arrest and other mistreatment by Lexington police are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs Robert and Darius Harris, who are brothers, were approached by officers on New Year’s Eve and threatened to arrest them for violating the city’s fireworks ordinance, according to the lawsuit. The men asked them to leave their home and verbally resisted the threats.
Stills from cell phone footage accompany what happened next: Robert Harris raising his hand to ask police to stand down as his brother stands behind him. Darius Harris on the ground after an officer used a taser on him. Police, including Dobbins, shining a flashlight and trying to give Darius Harris commands while he is still being tased. Officers arresting Darius Harris as he lays on the ground.
Plaintiffs are also asking the court to award the plaintiffs compensatory damages and punitive damages against Dobbins and Hendersen, attorneys fees and court costs.
Community members have also expressed concern about Henderson’s appointment. In its statement, JULIAN said he is a protege of Dobbins and also has a troubling reputation.
In the lawsuit, Henderson is accused of authorizing misconduct of Lexington police officers against Black residents. He has also used excessive force, including during an incident where he and a group of officers broke down the door of a 60-year-old woman’s home without a warrant, arrested her, hosed her down with a fire hose and left her outside during wintertime, according to the lawsuit.
Lexington Mayor Robin McCrory, City Attorney Katherine Barrett Riley and Henderson were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
The organization has also contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI to call for a federal investigation of systemic racism in both the city’s police department and municipal government as a whole.
“The culture of Lexington is corrupt,” the lawsuit states.
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Health department reviewing COVID-19 guidance for schools after CDC updates recommendations
The Mississippi Department of Health is reevaluating its COVID-19 guidance for K-12 schools following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) loosening its own recommendations on Aug. 11.
The new CDC guidance further emphasizes individual risk mitigation over population-level precautions.
“We know that COVID-19 is here to stay,” Greta Massetti, a CDC epidemiologist, said at a press conference following the release of the new guidance. “High levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection, and the many tools that we have available to protect people from severe illness and death, have put us in a different place.”
Over the course of the pandemic, COVID-19 has infected over 896,000 Mississippians and killed nearly 13,000. Mississippi has the highest per capita death rate from COVID-19 of any state in the nation, with 427 deaths for every 100,000 people, compared to a national average of 311, according to the New York Times.
CDC guidance no longer differentiates between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in its recommendations. Mississippi remains one of the least vaccinated states in the nation, only ahead of Wyoming, according to CDC data. Just 53% of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated and only 21% have received a booster dose.
The state health department’s COVID-19 guidance for the current school year was released in July. In its current form, it recommends actions no longer included in CDC guidelines.
The CDC removed a recommendation that kids who are contacts of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 take regular tests, and test negative, to remain in the classroom. The process was known as “test-to-stay.”
Schools in Mississippi are able to receive at-home BinaxNOW COVID-19 tests through its School Based Screening Testing Initiative. One of the allowed uses for these tests is test-to-stay initiatives, and the department recommends that asymptomatic teachers and students receive a negative test on days one, three and five after exposure to remain in the classroom.
“MSDH is aware of the updated guidance from CDC and is currently reviewing to determine the modifications and updates that will be needed in Mississippi’s guidance to schools moving forward,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.
The CDC no longer recommends a practice known as cohorting in schools. In cohorting, students are divided into smaller groups and contact between them is limited to avoid potential transmission.
The new guidelines note that schools should consider continuing surveillance testing in certain situations, such as when students are returning from school breaks or for certain groups at higher risk of transmitting the virus, such those who play contact sports.
Indoor masking is still recommended for areas with high levels of community transmission.
The new CDC guidance no longer recommends quarantining after exposure, but instead wearing a high-quality mask for 10 days and testing on day 5 after exposure. The new guidance also removed the recommendation for social distancing by standing six feet apart from others.
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Officials have no timeline for reopening Greenwood hospital
Officials with Greenwood Leflore Hospital announced it is working on clean-up efforts as the result of clogged manholes that forced sewage into the crawl space below the hospital. They cannot say when the hospital will be able to resume its operations.
The hospital on Monday closed its clinics, canceled outpatient testing and transferred 17 patients to eight other hospitals, according to hospital spokesperson Christine Hemphill. Sixteen patients were discharged.
READ MORE: Greenwood hospital transfers, discharges patients and closes clinics following sewage problem
The emergency room remains open.
“We are in the process of submitting a report and scope of work that remediates the situation to the Life Safety Code Inspector at MSDH (Mississippi Department of Health),” Hemphill said in an email. “If the problem is not as significant as initially thought and isolated to some extent, we could remediate without an on-site survey by the Life Safety Code Inspector. If an on-site survey is required, we feel certain it will happen in a timely fashion as he is fully aware of the urgency to reopen services at the hospital.”
Hemphill said a “partial reopening of services” is also being considered.
Employees of Greenwood Leflore who spoke to Mississippi Today on the condition their names not be used said there was a “foul odor” in certain areas of the hospital for several days. One employee said staff was either sent home without pay or told to use vacation time.
The hospital, which is jointly owned by Leflore County and the city of Greenwood, laid off 30 people in May to offset losses during the pandemic. It announced in June that it is in talks with UMMC on a joint operation agreement.
“GLH began the process of seeking affiliation partners as the hospital emerged from the Delta and Omicron waves of the pandemic,” the hospital said in a press release. “Affiliation, particularly with a larger system like UMMC, the state’s only academic medical center and largest hospital, can result in cost efficiencies that are necessary to attain sustainable operations over the long term.”
In July, CEO Jason Studley resigned.
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‘This Will Not Pass’ paints vivid picture of a country continually mired in crisis
Editor’s note: This story includes graphic language.
In “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future,” New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns paint a vivid picture of a country confronting crisis after crisis.
Covering everything from President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud and efforts to overturn the election results, to President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to decide what kind of president he is going to be, this book shows the degree to which our institutions and political leaders are failing us, and the increasingly thin lines separating the country from even greater catastrophe.
The book is filled with those behind-the-scenes anecdotes and vivid retellings that are the bread and butter of the best campaign books, like John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s “Game Change,” about the 2008 presidential election, or Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ “Shattered” on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. All of it is deeply reported, drawing on hundreds of interviews and documents from the highest levels of government.
Split into three parts, the book covers the pre-election period starting in March 2020 that saw the coronavirus pandemic upend the country and the presidential campaigns, the election itself up to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and the first year of Biden’s presidency.
The Republican and Democrat camps are kept separate for most of the book, except for in scenes where the two are in the same place, such as during the insurrection, which makes the ever widening gulfs between the two groups even more jarring to take in. One one side, you have Trump, tightening his grip on the Republican Party even after trying to overturn a free and fair election that he lost. On the other, you have Biden, unwilling to decide whether he wants to be a business-as-usual unifier or a FDR-like transformational figure, and upsetting almost everyone in his fragile coalition in the process.
The Trump-focused sections of the book do a great job painting vivid pictures of Republican leaders. The authors dive into the complete deterioration of the relationship between U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Trump, who have not spoken since McConnell recognized Biden’s victory as legitimate. The authors report a hostile phone call between the two after that event where Trump raised his voice at McConnell.
The book also details McConnell’s shift from being ready for Trump to be purged from the Republican party in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 to realizing that the former president’s grip on his party would endure long after he left the Oval Office.
“The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” McConnell said, referring to the second impeachment vote in the House over Trump’s incitement of the Jan. 6 riot. Soon though, the anger McConnell felt towards Trump took a backseat to the need to avoid inter-party conflict if Republicans were going to retake the Senate in 2022.
The book also details the wide gulf between the public and private attitudes towards Trump by prolific Republicans. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is portrayed as someone who hates his job but is also singularly focused on becoming speaker of the House. Despite audio recordings in which McCarrthy told Liz Cheney that he thought Trump should resign, he was soon again doing all he could to gain favor with a man who calls him a “pussy” with an “inferiority complex” behind his back.
On the Democratic side, the book details Biden’s failure to unify “a vast set of constituencies that shared a deep antipathy to Trump and little else.” The authors note the distinct possibility that Biden will be a one term president due to his age and his deep desire to have a transformational term that leaves a legacy that can compete with the accomplishments of the Obama Administration.
“I am confident that Barack is not happy with the coverage of this administration as more transformative than his,” Biden told one adviser.
The major question Martin and Burns examine in this account of “an existential battle for the survival of the democratic system” is whether or not our institutions can continue to function amidst these compounding crises. The answer they give early in the book is “a resounding: sort of.” As this is the work of reporters and not fortune tellers, I think that’s the best answer we’ve got right now.
Jonathan Martin is a featured panelist at the Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 20.
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Charges dropped against three defendants in MDE kickback scheme
The U.S. District Court has dismissed all charges against three co-defendants in a kickback conspiracy involving money from the Mississippi Department of Education. Charges against the former MDE employee and lead defendant are still pending.
A 2020 federal lawsuit alleges David Hunt and Lambert Martin were conspirators in a scheme to improperly grant state contracts. According to the lawsuit, Cerissa Neal, a former MDE employee and the main defendant whose charges are still pending, conspired to split contract requests from one contract into smaller contracts in order to avoid the required competitive bidding process. She then allegedly awarded the contract to her co-defendants’ businesses at an inflated price.
Hunt and Martin had their charges dismissed on July 26, according to court documents. Errol Harmon, who was accused of receiving and paying kickbacks from the inflated contracts, has also had all charges against him dismissed.
Charges against Joseph Kyles, Neal’s final co-defendant, are still pending.
READ MORE: Former MDE director indicted in contract kickback conspiracy
Hunt, the owner of Doc Imaging and Hunt Services in Jackson, Tenn., told Mississippi Today in 2020 he hired Kyles as a consultant to help his document management company find business over a three-year period. He said at the time he had all of his receipts and did not know why he’d been charged.
“At the Government’s request, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi dismissed all charges against David Hunt,” said his attorney Michael Dawkins in a statement. “This dismissal against Mr. Hunt solidifies his reputation as an exceptional father, husband and community leader, and is consistent with what Mr. Hunt has asserted all along: that he is not guilty of the wrongdoing with which he was charged. Mr. Hunt is thankful to be restored to his rightful place in the community.”
Jacinta Hall, the attorney for Martin, said that Martin had also hired Kyles as a consultant to expand his business in Mississippi. Martin had maintained that he was not at fault since the original indictment in 2020.
“After reviewing the evidence with Mr. Martin and the Department of Justice, they agreed that he was not at fault in the way that they originally thought,” Hall said.
Hall described Martin as “ecstatic” that the charges were dismissed.
Both Neal and Kyles originally pled not guilty, and their jury trial has been repeatedly postponed. Court documents show it is currently scheduled for Sept. 6.
Attorneys for Neal and Kyles could not be reached by the time of publication.
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Defendant: Gov. Tate Reeves should be target of welfare lawsuit — not in charge of it
A defendant in Mississippi’s civil lawsuit to recoup millions in misspent welfare money is asking the court to examine whether Gov. Tate Reeves is controlling the case to protect himself and his supporters.
After Mississippi Today uncovered text messages Friday that connect the current governor to the funding of a defendant in the case, attorney Jim Waide argued Monday that Reeves should be a target of the lawsuit — not in charge of it.
The texts show former welfare director John Davis, who is facing criminal charges in the welfare scandal, said he was fulfilling then-Lt. Gov. Reeves’ wishes when he funneled over $1 million to Reeves’ fitness trainer, a defendant in the suit.
READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves inspired welfare payment targeted in civil suit, texts show
The Reeves administration also recently fired the attorney bringing the welfare suit, former U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott, after the attorney attempted to subpoena the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation for its communication with, among others, former Gov. Phil Bryant. Bryant oversaw the welfare department when the scandal occurred.
Reeves’ staff had already forced Pigott to remove the athletic foundation, whose board is made up of many Reeves supporters and campaign donors, from the suit before he filed it.
“It is an abuse of power for Governor Reeves to frustrate a state agency’s collecting monies owed it in order to protect his financial supporters,” wrote Waide, the Tupelo-based attorney representing Davis’ nephew Austin Smith, who received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the agency during his uncle’s administration. “It is an abuse of power for Governor Reeves to direct litigation in which he is a necessary party defendant.”
The suit targets 38 individuals or companies, including former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and three retired WWE wrestlers, in an attempt to claw back about $24 million in misspent funds from a federal block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, which is supposed to serve the state’s poorest residents. The suit is based on a forensic audit that found $77 million worth of fraud or misspending. There are separate criminal cases against six defendants, four of whom have pleaded guilty and agreed to aid prosecutors in the ongoing state and federal criminal investigations.
Mississippi Today’s investigation “The Backchannel” provides evidence of former Gov. Bryant’s involvement in the scandal and one of the defendants in both the civil and criminal cases, nonprofit founder Nancy New, alleged that Bryant directed her to pay Favre. State and federal authorities reached their plea deal with New days after Mississippi Today’s series finished publishing in April.
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Pigott, who had been on the civil case for a year and filed the suit in May, told Mississippi Today he believed his firing was political. Reeves confirmed as much, saying he believed Pigott, a semi-retired former President Bill Clinton appointee, was the one with a political agenda.
Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency bringing the lawsuit, is prepared to hire Jackson-based law firm Jones Walker to replace Pigott on the case. The State Personnel Board is expected to review the contract, which the Attorney General must also approve, at its Aug. 18 meeting. MDHS has not released the contract or its dollar amount.
“MDHS worked quickly to identify a firm that would continue the important civil litigation,” reads a statement from the agency.
In a motion opposing Pigott’s withdrawal, Waide argues that Reeves has an interest in protecting members of the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, which is curiously absent from the suit despite receiving $5 million in welfare funds to build a volleyball stadium on campus on behalf of Favre – an alleged violation of federal regulations, at the least. Mississippi Today reported that several members of the foundation’s board are Reeves campaign donors.
Citing a recent Mississippi Today article, Waide also asserts that Reeves “also has a financial interest in this case because he played a substantial role in obtaining welfare funds (TANF funds) for Defendant Paul Victor Lacoste.”
Waide’s filing Monday asks for a hearing to determine:
- Whether Reeves unlawfully caused Pigott’s firing because Pigott was gathering evidence against Reeves supporters
- Whether Reeves caused the allegedly illegal payments to Lacoste, and should therefore be added as a defendant to the suit
- Whether Reeves is trying to steer the department to hire a new firm that will protect his supporters and focus on lower-level figures
- Whether the court should intervene to prevent Reeves from controlling the case
- Whether the state should be forced to hire a new firm on a contingency basis only to prevent any more use of taxpayer money on the case
Waide, who filed a similar motion in July arguing that Bryant should be a defendant in the suit based on Mississippi Today’s reporting, also said in his most recent filing that most of the current defendants do not have the assets necessary for the state to successfully recoup damages.
But the civil suit also serves the purpose of finding answers for the public, especially since there have been no criminal trials more than two years after the initial arrests.
Pigott had set several dates in the following weeks for depositions in the civil case, but the state has since canceled those. Meanwhile, Davis has filed a motion to stay, which is pending and will determine if the case will be postponed until after the criminal cases conclude.
Waide also filed on Monday a separate objection to Davis’ motion to stay, arguing that any delay is not in the public interest.
“A stay will delay and frustrate discovery so as to cause all necessary defendants not to be joined, including both former Governor Bryant and Governor Reeves,” Waide wrote.
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