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Officers cleared in Ismael Lopez’s death, saga ends with no accountability

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Lopez was shot and killed in Southaven after police came to his home by mistake in the middle of the night. On Thursday, a jury decided in favor of the officers involved, declining to find them civilly liable for Lopez’s death.

Shortly after midnight, in the early morning hours of July 24, 2017, Southaven resident Ismael Lopez was at home asleep next to his wife.

A commotion outside of his small mobile home at 5881 Surrey Lane roused him from bed. Moments later, three bullets ripped through his front door. One of the shots caught Ismael in the back of the head and dropped him where he stood. Ismael died.

What happened in the moments immediately preceding his death has been the subject of prolonged dispute between attorneys for Lopez’s widow, Claudia Linares, and the of Southaven.

The Southaven involved in the death of Lopez say he came to his door with a gun, an act which, in and of itself, is not illegal in Mississippi.

Ismael’s family and attorneys disagreed with the officers’ account of events. There were no body cameras to record what happened.

What is undisputed is that Ismael was not suspected of, or wanted for, any . There were no active warants. The police simply went to the wrong house, in the middle of the night, in search of a different person.

On Thursday, more than six years after the incident, a jury found that the officers involved were not civilly liable for the death of Lopez. The civil verdict comes years after a decision not to criminally charge the officers involved.

A Tragic Sequence of Events

Samuel Pearman lived across the street from Lopez at 5878 Surrey Lane. On the evening of July 23, 2017, a complaint was filed against Pearman for domestic assault. The woman who filed the complaint alleged that Pearman had choked her in front of her child at a Citgo gas station located in Tate County.

Pearman left the scene of the alleged incident and traveled north to his home in DeSoto County. A sheriff’s deputy in Tate County, Stanley Perry, contacted the Southaven Police Department about the incident. Southaven patrol officers Zachary Durden and Samuel Maze, along with Sergeant Thomas Jones, proceeded to Surrey Lane to find Pearman around midnight.

The woman who filed the complaint against Pearman indicated that she told law enforcement that the home they were looking for had a giant “P” hanging on it for “Pearman.” She was not present in the home and not in any immediate danger.

Instead of locating the Pearman home, officers approached Lopez’s property by mistake that night with guns drawn. According to their account, Durden climbed some stairs onto a wooden porch, knocked on the door, and then exited the porch back to ground level.

In his account of the incident in 2018, then-District Attorney John Champion noted a belief that the officers did not announce themselves as police. According to the officers, a porch light went out, the door opened, and a pit bull shot out of the home aggressively toward Officer Maze. Maze fired a shot at the animal.

Officer Durden said that as the dog was coming toward Maze, he noticed a rifle pointing at him from a crack in the door and gave a command to drop the weapon. When Maze fired at the dog, Durden began firing into the mobile home. The written accounts of the incident leave the impression of a quick and harried sequence of events.

Durden fired a total of four shots. The first lodged in a wood railing of the porch. Shots 2-4 went through the front door of the Lopez home. A Mississippi of Investigation report indicated that the door was likely 1 1/4 inches open when the second shot was fired, and 3 inches open when the third shot was fired. The investigation could not say whether the door was open or closed when the fourth fatal shot was fired.

The bullet that struck Lopez entered at the base of his skull and moved from the back to front of his head. Lopez’s body was found more than six feet from the door. These pieces of evidence the idea he was moving away from the door with his back to the shots when hit.

After the shooting, officers said they could hear Lopez struggling to breathe “laboriously,” describing the noise as snore-like. Lopez was placed in handcuffs. He died in the prone position with his arms cuffed behind his back at the scene.

Lopez’s wife, Linares, was escorted outside and also placed in handcuffs in a move that was described as being for her “protection.”

A .22 rifle was found by investigators laying on a loveseat near the door. The placement of the rifle suggested that if he had been holding it, Lopez laid it down before moving away from the door.

Neither Lopez’s fingerprints or DNA were found on the rifle. It was also positioned six feet away from where Lopez’s body was found. There is no allegation or evidence that Lopez fired any shots at the officers.

In the ensuing investigation that night, police identified the actual house of Samuel Pearman, the domestic violence suspect, across the street and spoke to Pearman. He was not arrested that night, but was allowed to return to his home.

It is not hard to imagine that Lopez’s dog panicked officer Maze, who fired at it, and that shot panicked Durden, who began firing at Lopez.

The facts spelled out here are largely pulled from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation’s investigative file on the case.

Officers Vindicated?

In the months Lopez’s death, Southaven Darren Musselwhite defended his officers. He said the officers had been “persecuted” and that the police department would not be making any changes in its operating procedures, because officers had acted appropriately.

He repeated a similar line in the wake of the jury’s decision.

“This verdict proves what we’ve believed to be correct since day one as our officers responded appropriately considering the circumstance of being threatened with deadly force,” Musselwhite said. “We’ve stood behind them during the last six years for this very reason and, for their sake, are glad this trial is over.”

The City at one point argued that Linares should not be allowed to proceed with the lawsuit because Lopez was an undocumented immigrant and not entitled to the protections of the U.S. Constitution. The Court roundly rejected this argument and the case ultimately proceeded to trial.

Notably, there is a gap between not being held criminally, or even civilly liable, and doing nothing wrong. A Fourth Amendment claim against law enforcement is difficult to sustain because of protections built into the law for government workers.

What’s more, the jury could have believed the officers were negligent and still found that their response was justified because of what is called “an intervening and superseding cause”–in this case, the allegation that Lopez appeared with a gun and did not respond to a command to put it down.

As noted above, there is physical evidence that even if Lopez had held the rifle found at the scene, he did in fact put it down before being shot. It was laying on a love seat six feet from his body.

Lessons Still to Be Learned

What is clear is that had the officers waited to arrest Pearman during daylight hours instead of trying to pull off a midnight raid, Ismael Lopez would be alive. It plainly was not imperative to arrest Pearman on the night of July 24th, since after identifying him, the officers declined to do so.

The woman who had complained was not present at the home and was not in further danger. Pearman was arrested days later under a signed arrest warrant.

What unfolded on Surrey Lane is further evidence of the danger to both officers and citizens of late night maneuvers, and the wisdom of not forcing those nighttime encounters when there is not an emergency basis to do so.

More simply still, had the officers gone to the right house, Ismael Lopez would be alive.

Even once at the wrong residence, had they announced themselves as police, or not panicked and fired a shot when the dog came out of the house, Ismael Lopez might be alive.

When Officer Durden fired three shots through a door into a dark home, he did not know what was behind the door. A child’s slumber party could have been occurring behind those walls for all he knew.

It’s hard to imagine the discharge of the weapon in these circumstances was consistent with and not the consequence of sheer adrenaline having heard his fellow officer fire a shot at the dog.

Finally, had the officers been wearing body cameras, we might be able to confirm how the events unfolded. Ismael Lopez is, after all, not here to tell his side of the story.

One would like to think that even in legal victory, Southaven and its leadership would be willing to engage in this kind of introspection–that it would put in place safeguards to reduce the chance of an innocent person being put in the position Lopez found himself in on the night of July 24th.

Even if poor consolation, working to ensure that something like this does not happen again would mean Ismael did not die in complete and total vain.

The post Officers cleared in Ismael Lopez’s death, saga ends with no accountability appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Russ Latino
Title: Officers cleared in Ismael Lopez’s death, saga ends with no accountability

Published Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 01:45:43 +0000

Magnolia Tribune

Staring mortality in the face at Christmas

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My friend Jarrod is dying after an eight year battle with cancer. He’s lived a life worth celebrating, one that has drawn people to Christ.

I was going about my business this when I received a text that stopped me in my tracks. A college friend was being moved to hospice care.

Jarrod Egley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in early 2017. In the fall of 2018, tests revealed the cancer had spread to his lungs and Jarrod’s cancer was classified as Stage IV.

For almost eight years from the date of the original diagnosis, he’s fought. Through surgeries, radiation, endless rounds and cycles of chemotherapy, and experimental immunotherapies, he’s fought.

Last year, I flew out to California and spent some time with Jarrod and his wife, Emily. We sat outside one night. He acknowledged to me that it was not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ the cancer would claim his . I told him I was sorry, because what else is there to say?

We talked about our faith, about the trials of Job, about Jacob wrestling with God, about Paul’s affliction. But mostly we reflected on our time together in school, on the good things, and the mundane things, that happened since.

Jarrod and I met at Tulane . One Sunday morning in the Spring of my freshman year, I rose from my dorm room bed, dressed, and began walking down Saint Charles Avenue in New Orleans with no particular agenda. I walked until I came across First Baptist Church and the thought flickered in the vacuous recesses of my brain to enter.

Some would say it was a lark. The Calvinist in me says providence. The walk that morning changed the trajectory of my time at Tulane and my life on the whole. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Baptist Collegiate Ministry became central to my life and put me in regular league with Jarrod. I met him first at the BCM and we ultimately ended up attending church together.

Jarrod was a faithful servant on and off campus. He helped organize a group of us that would weekly make our way down to the Esplanade seawall on the backside of the French Quarter to feed the homeless. On Friday nights, he could be found at chapel with a small cadre of foregoing Bourbon Street for early 2000s worship music.

Jarrod was a loyal friend in those years. Never rude or biting. Not prone to an insult for an easy laugh. Persistently encouraging. An engineering student, his mind worked linearly and was oriented to problem solving. There were never a lot of wasted words — always a lot of deliberative questions when he disagreed or did not understand a point. He exhibited intelligence, empathy, and the kind of moral conviction that sets someone apart.

He also had a wry and dry sense of humor and a penchant for beating people at Madden football. He was fair-to-midland on the ultimate frisbee pitch. Along the way, there were crawfish boils, Mardi Gras outtings, poorly attended Tulane football , and more than a decent amount of wing eating.

After college, I lost touch with Jarrod. He moved back to his home of California. He got married to his college sweetheart, who could not have anticipated her husband’s journey, but has been a steady and constant helpmate throughout. Jarrod became a very successful engineer and a bourbon connoisseur. One of his bucket list trips took him to Kentucky, where he got to meet and became friends with bourbon “Hall of Famer” Freddie Johnson of Buffalo Trace acclaim.

Jarrod at Buffalo Trace Distillery (Spring 2022).

Sitting in his backyard nearly 20 years after graduating from Tulane, I saw many of the same qualities I had grown to admire when we were students together. I saw a husband who doted on and supported Emily’s passions. But I also saw someone whose body had been beaten to hell and back, who was tired, and who, like Jacob, had been wrestling with God. We quickly fell back into friendship, which perhaps is the mark of good friendship.

We all have aspirations in our youth — for the kind of spouse or parent we might be, for what we might accomplish, for what we might experience. Along the way, dreams are satisfied, modified, or they die on the vine. The clock inevitably works against all of us. That night in Oceanside, California, Jarrod, a numbers guy, saw that time was not on his side. He believed, as we all would, that he still had more to give, more impact to be made, and more things to see and experience.

After that , Jarrod and I stayed in touch, most frequently triggered by news of his cancer. It has been mostly the bad variety in recent months. Now spread throughout his body, down to his bones, he has lived in constant pain for months. Not even a steady diet of morphine and an implanted pain pump solve for it. Jarrod’s been hospitalized twelve times just in 2023.

But his matter of fact sense of humor and way of seeing the world remains in tact. So too does his faith that despite these trials, he has always been safe in the hands of Christ.

There are people in the world who believe that life is random, disordered, and without reason. I am not among them. I think my friend is staring mortality in the face at Christmas for a reason.

For thousands of years before Christ came, there was darkness and despair. Sin and shame gripped the hearts of . Until one holy night, God, in His infinite love, mercy and wisdom, sent His son to save. Jesus is the light of the world and the hope of man. He has won victory over death and Jarrod’s will not be the exception. Jesus came for Jarrod, and for you.

For thousands of years since Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, His disciples have been used as divine instruments to point the way to God. Jarrod is among them. If life expectancies were the measure, Jarrod would be at the midway point for most people. He’s made a lifetime of impact for the Kingdom and on other people.

So, to my friend Jarrod, you were placed here with a purpose. You have run your race. You are loved. And when this chapter closes, you will hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” There is no greater evidence of a life well lived.

While Jarrod and Emily have been fortunate to have health insurance, their portion of the medical bills so far in 2023 have eclipsed $30,000, and Emily is facing additional uncovered expenses during Jarrod’s hospice care, a night nurse that costs over $400 a night. If you would like to defray the cost, a contribution can be made at their Go Fund Me page.

The post Staring mortality in the face at Christmas appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Russ Latino
Title: Staring mortality in the face at Christmas

Published Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:05:22 +0000

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Magnolia Tribune

Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023

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Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.

In Mississippi

1. Laurin St. Pe’ named CEO of Singing River Health System

Laurin St. Pe

The Board of Trustees of Singing River Health System announced the immediate appointment of Laurin St. Pe’ as the Chief Executive Officer on Thursday.

“We are thrilled to announce Laurin St. Pe as the new CEO of Singing River,” said Steve Ates, Board President in a statement. “His wealth of healthcare experience and proven track record make him the ideal leader to steer our health system toward its next phase of growth and success.”

St. Pe’, who has been serving as Interim CEO since July 2023, said he is honored to assume the role of CEO at Singing River. He has worked at Singing River as Administrator of Singing River Health System’s Pascagoula Hospital and Gulfport Hospital, in addition to overseeing program service lines throughout the entire system to his subsequent appointment as Chief Operating Officer of Singing River.

The health system says St. Pe played a crucial role in the financial revitalization of Singing River Health System while steering the organization toward financial stability.

2. Gulfport-Biloxi airport, Stennis evacuated after threats

The Gulfport- International Airport was evacuated on Thursday morning “out of an abundance of caution,” airport said, after receiving an emailed threat to certain transportation entities across the state.

The airport was thoroughly security swept, cleared and reopened in just over two hours. Gulfport-Biloxi is now operating regularly.

The threat was also sent to Stennis International Airport. Their staff and personnel were also evacuated until the facilities could be swept and cleared.

Any passenger whose travel was affected by the evacuation is encouraged to contact their respective air carrier.

3. Cassidy arrested in Iowa for beheading Satanic Temple statue

Former Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate Michael Cassidy was this week in Iowa for beheading a statue at the state’s Capitol erected by The Satanic Temple.

Cassidy reportedly decapitated the statue and turned himself to on Thursday. He was charged with fourth degree criminal mischief. He then started an online legal defense fund where he’s raised upwards of $20,000 as of Thursday night, according to his X account.

4. “Serial fraudster” ordered to cease offering investments into companies

According to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, on October 26, 2023, Secretary Michael Watson and the Securities Division issued an order against Stephone N. Patton. The SOS says Patton is a serial fraudster with multiple criminal convictions in Mississippi and Florida.

Through business filings with the SEC and Mississippi, Patton has held himself to be the CEO of various companies, including Star Oil and Gas Company, Inc., North Energy Corporation, Inc., Patton Oilfield Services, Inc., and Patton Farms, LLC.

The SOS says using these business filings and company websites, Patton claimed to have raised hundreds of billions of dollars through investment opportunities. Through investigative efforts and collaboration with the SEC, the SOS discovered none of Patton’s companies are operational, have any assets, or generate any revenues. Account records show Patton spent investors’ funds almost as soon as he received them on personal expenses. The total amount of known investments made to Patton’s fraudulent companies is over $80,000. Further, none of Patton’s investment offerings have been registered or notice filed with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office.

The SOS order requires Patton to cease and desist from offering investments with his companies, requiring Patton to permanently deactivate his companies’ websites to prevent any further dissemination of his false or misleading information. Patton is also ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $25,000 to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office for these violations, in addition to restitution owed to all his Mississippi investors.

National News & Foreign Policy

1. Congressional retirements mounting as 2024 election cycle nears

Retirement and departure announcements are piling up ahead of the start to the 2024 election cycle. The New York Times has developed a Retirement Tracker that currently shows 22 Democrats and 11 who are in Congress now will not be seeking re-election next year.

“Dozens of members of Congress have announced plans to their seats in the House of Representatives, setting a rapid pace for congressional departures, with more expected as the 2024 election draws closer,” the NY Times reports. “Given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority, the wave of exits has the potential to lead to a significant shake-up next year.”

You can find the tracker here.

2. Texas, Daily Wire, The Federalist sue U.S. State Department over media censorship

The U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center has come under fire as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton along with The Wire and The Federalist have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the department funded technology that could “render disfavored press outlets unprofitable.” They claim that the department has helped social – Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) – to censor free speech while funding technologies used to censor right-leaning outlets such as theirs.

New Civil Liberties Alliance is representing The Daily Wire and The Federalist. Paxton and the outlets claim the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British think tank, received a $100,000 grant from the State Department in 2021, and NewsGuard, which rates the “misinformation” levels of news outlets, received $25,000 from the State Department in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

According to the State Department’s website, the Global Engagement Center’s mission is to direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.

As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit cited a GDI-produced list from December 2022 that ranked The Daily Wire and The Federalist as among the 10 “riskiest sites” for news while the least-risky included The New York Times, Associated Press and NPR. Reuters notes that the lawsuit alleges such “blacklists” are reducing revenues to The Daily Wire and The Federalist along with their visibility on social media and ranking results from browser searches.

Sports & Entertainment

1. SEC releases 2024 schedules

Wednesday evening, the Southeastern Conference released the 2024 football schedules for its member schools, including of interest in the Magnolia State the schedules for Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

It is the first schedule that includes new conference members University of Oklahoma and University of Texas, bringing the conference to 16 schools. Each SEC team will play eight conference football games plus at least one required opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 or major independent, each team will have two open dates.

The 2024 season will be the first year the SEC will play a schedule without divisional competition since 1991. The top two teams in the league standings based on winning percentage will play in the 33rd SEC Football Championship Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, December 7.

2. White, Jesiolowski, Jones honored by MAIS

John White

The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) in Mississippi, comprised of non-public schools, announced this week that Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s senior quarterback John White was named the 6A Player of the Year while Hartfield’s Reed Jesiolowski and Hartfield Chris Jones were named the MAIS 6A Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.

All three have committed to play college football at the University of Mississippi.

White is Mississippi’s all-time leader in career passing yards with 15,259 yards, a record he broke during the 2023 season.

MAIS, like the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) for public schools, is broken down into classifications, from 1A to 6A. However, MHSAA added a 7A this season.

Markets & Business

1. Consumer retail sales up as energy, gas prices move down

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in November after being unchanged in October. Retail sales rose 0.3% in November after rising 0.2% in October, meaning consumers continue to spend at the start of the holiday season.

The CPI or inflation rate is 3.1%, higher than the Federal Reserve target of 2% but below the 9% peak in 2022 which reached a 40-year high.

As for the energy index, BLS reported that it fell 2.3% in November after decreasing 2.5% in October. The gasoline index decreased 6% in November, following a 5% decrease in the previous month.

The index for fuel oil fell in November, decreasing 2.7%. However, the natural gas index rose 2.8% over the month after rising 1.2% the previous month. The index for electricity also rose 1.4% in November, after increasing 0.3% in October.

The energy index fell 5.4% over the past 12 months. The gasoline index decreased 8.9%, the natural gas index declined 10.4%, and the fuel oil index fell 24.8% over this 12-month span.

2. Week’s market rally continues into Friday

At close of trading on Thursday, the U.S. markets continued the week’s rally, pushing the Dow up 158 points to 37,248 while the Nasdaq and S&P also made gains, 27 points and 12 points, respectively, to close at 14,761 and 4,719.

The record high for the Dow on Thursday moved futures up 102 points.

According to CNBC, the major averages are headed for their seventh straight positive week. As of Thursday, the Dow is higher on the week by 2.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.5% this week.

Stocks rallied after the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged this week while members look towards cuts in the new year and beyond.

The post Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023 appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Magnolia Tribune
Title: Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023

Published Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

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New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off

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Interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin said this week that only about 59% of the City of Jackson’s water customers are paying their bills.

JXN has announced new rates and fees coming in 2024. Those who are not paying will be at risk of shut offs.

The company, which was established by federal appointed interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin, has been overseeing the ‘s water system for the better part of a year.

Officials estimated that the average cost for water in the city was $76 per month for . Henifin clarified that JXN water will not attempt to recoup any charges prior to November 29, 2022, and will work with those who have failed to pay since that time.

He said only about 59 percent of the city’s water customers are paying their bills.

“You can’t forgive bills, so we have to be creative in how we part that,” said Henifin in reference to Mississippi’s laws that prevent giving away water.

According to a release by JXN Water announcing the rate changes, residents in single family households with small meters that use up to 748 would see a bill increase of roughly .30 cents per day. Research indicates that the average U.S. family uses 300 gallons per day.

SNAP customers will have a new rate tier that could lower their bill by up to .69 cents per day, on average.

“Those who need to save the most benefit from saving money by drinking tap water. This new rate structure makes water affordability possible for 12,500 JXN Water customers who receive SNAP ,” said Henifin in the release.

Read more about the anticipated rate changes here.

New fees will also be implemented, a new service fee of $50, service deposit of $100, returned check fee of $25, service restoration fee of $100, and meter tampering charge of $500. 

JXN Water has continued to encourage residents to use the water, with Henifin going on the record in a federal status hearing saying that the water “was safe to drink.”

More conversation regarding the billing is expected to come at next ‘s City Council meeting.

The post New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Sarah Ulmer
Title: New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off

Published Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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