The Pearl Police Department fired patrol officer Taylor Lofton for reportedly stealing $32,000 from a dying woman’s house. It’s the second officer dismissed for alleged criminal conduct in less than a year.

On the morning of Nov. 18, Jason Kelly’s mother, Jackie, collapsed unexpectedly, and his father called 911.

Ambulance workers arrived. So did four or five Pearl police officers, including Lofton, Kelly said.

His 80-year-old mother never recovered and may have died of a blood clot, he said. “It was unexpected.”

She had just inherited $32,000 and received the money in cash, which she put in an envelope in her drawer in the bedroom, he said.

After ambulance workers and police left, Kelly said his father determined the cash had been stolen and called Pearl police, who returned to the home.

After arriving, Lofton admitted that he had opened the drawer and seen the money, but he insisted he closed it right back, Kelly said. “He turned off his camera and stole $32,000.”

Kelly praised Pearl police’s swift response and said, “I hope they press charges.”

He said he doesn’t know if the city is going to pay the family back.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is investigating, but spokesperson Bailey Martin said the agency could not comment further. Lofton could not be reached for comment.

Kelly believes there must have been thefts on previous occasions as well. “This ain’t his first time doing this,” he said.

Pearl Police Chief Nick McLendon said he’s not aware of any previous incidents.

Asked about possible criminal prosecution, he said he could not comment further because the case is under investigation.

He said in a statement made public that the officer hasn’t been charged with any crime and should be presumed innocent. But the department, he said, “must be concerned with even the slightest appearance of impropriety — and especially in the area of law enforcement.”

Two days before Christmas 2023, Pearl police officer Michael Christian Green forced a man he arrested to lick urine from a holding cell floor.

The 26-year-old officer took the man into custody after a family disturbance call to Sam’s Club in Pearl. After he booked the man into a holding cell, footage showed the man telling Green he needed to urinate, but when Green failed to respond, the man urinated in a corner, according to the federal bill of information.

When Green found out what the man had done, Green berated him, “Let me tell you something. You see this phone? I will beat your f—ing ass with it. You’re fixin’ to go in there, and you’re gonna lick that p— up. Do you understand me? … Go suck it up right now.”

Green filmed the man as he licked the urine from the floor, and when the man gagged, Green said, “Don’t spit it out.” When the man gagged, Green responded, “Lick that s— up. Drink your f—in’ p—.”

When the man was allowed to leave the booking area, he vomited in a garbage can.

On June 13, Green was sentenced to a year in federal prison and a $1,500 fine. He told the judge he regrets what he did.

At a press conference after Green’s guilty plea, Pearl Mayor Jake Windham told reporters, “God created us in his image. Treating someone like this is despicable.”

“If you’re going to operate as a police officer,” said Windham, who served in law enforcement for 16 years, “you’ve got to do things right.”

He apologized to the man and his family for “the horrible treatment by an officer of the law.”

At the time, Windham declared, “We hold our officers to a higher standard.”

Four days after the incident, Windham confronted Green and told him to resign, which he did.

The city handles matters swiftly, Windham said. “I think there’s a stark contrast between the Pearl Police Department and this incident [and the handling of] the ‘Goon Squad.’”

Six Rankin County officers were involved in the January 2023 torture of two Black men and the shooting of one of them, but it wasn’t until six months later that those involved were fired. The six officers pleaded guilty and are now serving between 10 and 40 years in federal prison.

Green had been on the force six months when this incident occurred. “His certificate was clean when he came to the Pearl Police Department,” Windham said. “We strive to do an extensive background check on people.”

He said he hopes law enforcement agencies would report any problems with officers to the Mississippi Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training.

A new law, passed in the wake of the Goon Squad’s acts, beefs up the board’s ability to investigate allegations against officers.

As for Lofton, McLendon put the officer on administrative leave after investigating the matter. On Thursday, the Pearl Board of Aldermen fired the officer on McLendon’s recommendation.

“We acted on it immediately,” Windham said. “We don’t put up with it.”

It’s a bad situation when “you have to terminate officers,” he said, “but we’re going to make sure that if they screw up, we’re going to send them down the road.”

Asked about getting the $32,000 back to the family, the mayor replied, “Our goal is to make the family whole as soon as possible.”

Lofton was hired by Dean Scott, who resigned as Pearl police chief in January after an investigation into possible misuse of tax dollars. A WLBT investigation revealed that Scott claimed to work for Rankin County as a homestead fraud investigator while on city business at law enforcement conferences on the Coast. He now works as a lieutenant for Capitol Police. 

Lofton worked at a series of jobs in law enforcement. He worked at the Greenwood, Flowood and Brandon police departments before starting at Pearl Police Department, where he had worked since 2023.

Lofton completed 480 hours at the Mississippi Delta Community College Law Enforcement Training Academy. He is married and has a newborn son, according to his Facebook page.

“He threw his whole life away,” Kelly said. “You risk your whole family for $32,000?”

UPDATE 11/26/24: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the accused police officer’s last name and his education.

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