Mississippi Today
Nonprofit founder who helped officials raid Mississippi’s welfare fund becomes latest witness for the feds
Nonprofit founder who helped officials raid Mississippi’s welfare fund becomes latest witness for the feds
Federal authorities in Mississippi have added another defendant to their witness list in their prosecution of the still unfolding welfare scandal: Christi Webb, former director of the nonprofit Family Resource Center of North Mississippi.
Webb pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of theft concerning federal funds, the latest criminal charge within the scheme that began with state arrests in 2020.
As one of the leaders of a state-sanctioned initiative called Families First for Mississippi, Webb was a key figure in some of the diversion of $77 million in federal anti-poverty funds away from poor families under the administration of former Gov. Phil Bryant. Most of the money came from a flexible federal block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
As part of her plea, Webb has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their ongoing probe into widespread corruption inside the welfare program overseen by Bryant and his appointed welfare director John Davis. Davis pleaded guilty to state and federal charges in September.
Bryant has not faced any charges, although text messages uncovered by Mississippi Today illustrate Bryant’s involvement in various parts of the scheme, including the promise to “open a hole” for former NFL legend Brett Favre’s pharmaceutical venture, which eventually received $2 million in stolen welfare funds. Bryant has denied any wrongdoing.
Bryant has denied any wrongdoing, saying he did not carefully read his text messages to understand what Favre was requesting.
Webb has already made allegations that the former governor manipulated welfare spending during his time in office, Mississippi Today first reported. Webb was a supporter of former Attorney General Jim Hood, Gov. Tate Reeves’ Democratic opponent for governor in 2019, and had hired his wife to run one of the nonprofit’s local family resource centers.
That election year, a local lawmaker threatened Webb on behalf of Bryant, Webb told Mississippi Today through her attorney Casey Lott, who currently sits on FRC’s board.
Lott said the north Mississippi Republican lawmaker told Webb, “FRC will never receive another dollar from the state if you don’t fire Debbie Hood.”
“He explicitly said, ‘I’m the governor’s messenger,” Lott said.
Federal authorities have remained silent about who they are targeting in their ongoing investigation. But state officials including State Auditor Shad White, who originally investigated the case, and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who secured the first indictments, say they intend to investigate “everybody top to bottom.”
“John Davis is critical because the ladder continues to move up,” Owens said after Davis’ guilty pleas.
Webb pleaded guilty to a bill of information, which occurs when a defendant waives a grand jury indictment. The single count against Webb, the first criminal charge she has faced, mirrors the bill of information Davis pleaded guilty to in September.
So far, all the charges that the U.S. Attorney’s Office have filed in the welfare scandal revolve around money that flowed from the state welfare department through private nonprofits to retired professional wrestlers Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Brett DiBiase.
Lott said Webb ran her welfare grant in accordance with guidance from her attorneys and the welfare department’s state plan.
“The US attorneys will say, ‘Well, the state plan is not consistent with the TANF guidelines.’ Well, that’s a state problem. That’s not a Christi Webb problem. She didn’t create that plan. The state created that plan intentionally broad so they could use it as their slush fund,” Lott said Friday.
Lott, who had been representing Webb pro bono until recently, said he would not have advised Webb to take the plea and that he only stopped representing her after the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued he had a conflict of interest. Because she could not afford one, Webb was represented in her plea by federal public defender Abby Edwards.
Officials have never alleged that Webb received misspent funds personally. The other nonprofit founder originally arrested in the scandal, Nancy New, was accused of personally benefiting from the scheme because she funneled money to her for-profit school and agreed to accept stock in the pharmaceutical company she funded.
Forensic auditors estimated that Family Resource Center, which Webb had served as director from 2005 until stepping down as director this week, misspent at least $11.5 million worth of welfare funds from 2016 to 2019. Her federal criminal charges only cover a fraction of that — $700,000 in TANF funds and nearly $500,000 in federal emergency food assistance funds that Webb funneled to companies owned by retired professional wrestler Teddy DiBiase Jr.
By agreeing with the information, Webb admits that Davis directed her to award sham contracts to DiBiase Jr., though Davis knew the wrestler was unqualified to provide welfare-related services.
“As a result, Webb, through FRC, intentionally misapplied federal funds to various individuals and entities for social services that were not provided,” the bill of information reads. “… As a result of the actions of Webb, Davis, Person 1 (Nancy New), Person 2 (Teddy DiBiase Jr.), and others, millions of dollars in federal safety net funds were diverted from needy families and low-income individuals in Mississippi from at least 2016 to at least 2019.”
The charge comes with a maximum sentence of up to 10 years.
Webb’s federal criminal exposure was foreshadowed in the September bill of information against Davis. In it, federal authorities included Webb, Nancy New, Teddy DiBiase Jr. and one other resident of Hinds County as unnamed co-conspirators.
Teddy DiBiase Jr.’s brother, Brett DiBiase, a resident of Clinton, a town in Hinds County, pleaded guilty to new federal charges against him earlier this month. Brett DiBiase was also the first person to plead guilty to state charges in 2020. In addition to hundreds of thousands from the nonprofits, Brett DiBiase received a $48,000 contract directly from the welfare department for opioid addiction education training he did not conduct because he was himself checked into a luxury rehab facility. Officials also paid $160,000 in welfare funds to the rehab facility for Brett DiBiase’s treatment, auditors found.
The DiBiase brothers are the sons of famous retired WWE wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase Sr., whose Christian ministry Heart of David also allegedly improperly received $1.7 million in welfare funds.
Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing all three men, as well as Webb, Davis, New and dozens of others, in its large civil case that attempts to claw back the misspent money.
Teddy DiBiase Jr. and Nancy New have never been charged federally with crimes related to the welfare scandal, though federal agents did attempt to seize DiBiase’s house in 2020 during their investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also charged Nancy New and her son Zach New in 2021 with defrauding the Mississippi Department of Education as part of a separate scheme related to their for-profit private schools.
In early March, Teddy DiBiase Jr. and his wife Kristen DiBiase agreed with the federal government for the U.S. Marshal Service to sell their home, a nearly 6,000-square-foot, $1.5 million lakeside property in the Madison community of Reunion. After paying the remaining mortgage and any taxes on the house, the federal government will hold the assets pending the conclusion of the forfeiture case.
The court document that spells out the agreement of the sale says one reason for the sale is to prevent foreclosure. Teddy DiBiase Jr. and his LLCs collected over $3 million in revenue from the welfare fund during the scandal, much of which from Webb’s nonprofit.
The admission that Webb intentionally misapplied federal welfare funds is a departure from statements Webb made through Lott in recent months.
“The DiBiase’s and their organizations contracted to provide services to needy families,” Lott said in a written statement in September. “The problem is they didn’t hold up to their end of the bargain. And once they refused to do everything Christi asked them to do, she refused to award any additional subgrants to those organizations. This enraged John Davis. He yelled and cursed Christi and other FRC employees for not sending them money anyway. He threatened to cut their funding if Christi didn’t do what he told her to do. And when she stood her ground and did the right thing, he followed through with his threat. Christi is the only one who ever told John Davis ‘no,’ and she was punished for it. She was forced to lay hundreds of people off. Those innocent people who were providing much needed services to the North Mississippi community lost their job because Christi stood up to John Davis and did the right thing. So, to say she’s a ‘co-conspirator’ is absurd.”
Around the time of this squabble in March of 2019, Davis told Teddy DiBiase Jr. he had communicated with Gov. Reeves, then lieutenant governor, about the situation with Webb, according to text messages Mississippi Today obtained.
“Tate Reeves just called me said he wanted me to know they don’t give two shits about the BC or Christi to keep doing what I’m doing. Boom,” Davis texted Teddy DiBiase Jr. in March of 2019. Phone records show Davis also saved Reeves number two days after this text. (Mississippi Today could not confirm what BC in his text stands for, but two sources believed it could be a typo).
Reeves’s office told Mississippi Today in September that the governor did not recall calling Davis and “doesn’t really know” Webb.
Webb pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves, the same judge that oversaw the pleas of Nancy and Zach New, Davis and Brett DiBiase.
Webb’s sentencing is set for June 16, but like the others, her sentencing could be delayed until the prosecution is closer to a conclusion. No one criminally charged within the welfare scandal has been sentenced and none is currently incarcerated.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday
Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.
“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”
The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.



“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”
The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.
“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”
NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.




This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says
Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed.
They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother.
“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023.
Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board.
The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition.
A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities.
Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board.
In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties.
The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more.
From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths.
“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said.
Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.
A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents.
Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed.
In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.
Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records.
Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson.
Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.
He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media.
Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary.
Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming
A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.
The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice.
The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other.
The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts.
But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents.
The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.
Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals.
Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation.
The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court
The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans.
The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district.
It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week.
While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races.
The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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