The federal trial of former Hinds County interim sheriff and candidate Marshand Crisler began Wednesday with attorneys offering differing interpretations of whether evidence will show he sought and accepted bribes and gave ammunition to a convicted felon. 

Crisler, 54, has pleaded not guilty to two charges stemming from actions that happened between September and November 2021 when he ran for a full term as sheriff. 

“The defendant used his badge as a bargaining chip,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kirkham said in his opening statement. 

He argued that in exchange for $9,500, Crisler made promises to a man named Tonarri Moore, who Kirkham identified as the government‘s informant. 

Crisler allegedly made promises to inform Moore of any criminal investigations about him, to move a member of his family to a better place in the county jail, to give Moore a job with the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department and to give him the ability to possess a firearm despite a  felony conviction. 

Evidence from the FBI’s investigation are recorded phone conversations and in-person meetings between Crisler and Moore. Prior to trial, the recordings and transcripts were restricted from public access and the indictment and other court filings referred to a “Confidential Human Source 1.”

The government intends to call Moore as a witness. He is currently being held at the Madison County jail on a pending manslaughter charge. The recordings were made before Moore was detained. 

Crisler’s defense attorney, John Colette, said his client did not do any of the things asked of him in exchange for money. 

He asked the jury to consider timing and how the government is “cherry picking and not telling the whole story.” 

That timing includes the indictment, which came months before the 2023 Democratic primary when Crisler ran again for sheriff. He remained in the race and lost to incumbent Tyree Jones, who he previously faced in 2021. 

In court, Colette also raised questions about Moore’s credibility, saying he started cooperating with the FBI after a search of his home by the Drug Enforcement Agency. 

Colette told the jury how Moore and Crisler knew each other: Moore worked on Crisler’s 2019 campaign, and Moore has given donations to other political candidates. 

While Crisler may have considered the money exchanged to be campaign donations, he didn’t report them as such, the government argued. 

“Even if he did use that campaign money, it’s still a bribe because the defendant accepted that money as a quid pro quo in exchange for official acts,” Kirkham said. 

Crisler is also charged with giving 14 9mm bullets to Moore., Prosecutors say who Crisler knew Moore was previously convicted and not allowed to possess ammunition or weapons because of his felony conviction. 

But Colette said his client didn’t know until later that Moore hadwas a felony convictionconvicionted felon. Additionally, he said it is not against the law in Mississippi for a formerly convicted person to possess ammunition. 

Each charge has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. 

The first witness called was Daniel Ratliff, a Mississippi Gaming Commission investigator who was part of the investigation of Crisler when he was a member of an FBI task force. His role was to recruit Moore as an informant and oversee meetings between Crisler and Moore, and recordings of those meetings. 

During Ratliff’s testimony, the jury heard over a dozen recordings that are portions of recordings of the meetings between Crisler and Moore. 

“The reason is I’m the sheriff,” Crisler said in one of the recordings played during the government’s opening statement and during Ratliff’s testimony.

“They’re going to let me do things they don’t let anybody else do,” he said. 

During cross examination, Colette asked a range of questions, including how reliable the recordings are and whether the FBI knew about Moore’s prior convictions before trying to recruit him.

“You wanted to get him to come snitch for you … you didn’t want him to be an agent,” Colette said to Ratliff. 

Trial is expected to last three days and is before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who leads Mississippi’s largest and capital city, confirmed Wednesday he has been indicted by a federal grand jury in a sweeping corruption probe.

The charges come after undercover FBI agents posing as real estate investors invited the mayor to a fundraiser in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on April 3, according to public records. They said they wanted to develop property in downtown Jackson and help fund the mayor’s 2025 reelection campaign.

“My legal team has informed me that federal prosecutors have, in fact, indicted me on bribery and related charges,” Lumumba said in a video statement shared with reporters on Tuesday. “To be clear, I have never accepted a bribe of any type. As mayor, I have always acted in the best interests of the city of Jackson.” 

The feds had enlisted the help of an unsuspecting Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who dabbles in real estate and business consulting. The agents created a company called Facility Solutions Team and got Owens to deliver campaign contributions to the mayor on their behalf, according to federal charges recently filed against Owens’ cousin and associate.

The FBI sting involved a proposed hotel development project in downtown Jackson across from the convention center — a vacant property that has produced a nearly 20-year saga of failed bids and political consternation. In partnership with Owens, the undercover FBI agents created a proposal earlier this year to submit in response to the city’s Statement of Qualifications (SOQ), a document that spells out a city’s needs and solicits interested developers but does not guarantee a contract with the city.

For the government to establish a bribe — known as a “quid pro quo” — a public official must agree to take an official act in exchange for the benefit. Lumumba’s official act, according to federal court documents, was directing a city employee to move up a deadline on the SOQ to an earlier date.

Lumumba had already been in conversation with the city’s Planning and Development Director Jhai Keeton about when to end the bid because they originally chose to extend it by about a month and a half in late February, Keeton said. Originally, FST was the only developer to express interest in the project, Keeton said, and he had wanted to give developers more time to respond.

While Lumumba was in South Florida meeting with the undercover agents, he called Keeton and told him to move the deadline back two weeks to April 16. Keeton didn’t think too much of it, he said, because the mayor had already expressed that “we don’t want to lose anyone we’ve got hoping to get new people.”

“There were still two weeks available to create more competition.” Keeton said.

Two other companies handed in their responses on the day of the deadline. The planning department did not select a winner.

The undercover sting operation has already yielded federal charges against another local elected official. Former Jackson City Councilwoman Angelique Lee pleaded guilty to bribery charges related to the sting in August and promptly resigned from the council.

The feds also raided the businesses of Owens in May. Owens’ cousin Sherik “Marve” Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in October, admitting that he acted as the middleman between an unindicted co-conspirator and two public officials — also unindicted co-conspirators.

Lumumba, who has for years shrugged off public accusations of corruption and has already announced his 2025 reelection bid, preempted official announcement of the federal indictment with his own statement issued to reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“We believe this to be a political prosecution against me, primarily designed to destroy my credibility and reputation within the community,” Lumumba said in the video statement on Tuesday. “There is no coincidence in its timing being just before the upcoming mayoral race. My legal team will vigorously defend me against these charges. While I am disappointed, I am not deterred, so I ask for your patience and your prayers during this process.”

Lumumba is expected to be arraigned in federal court on Thursday. The U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of Mississippi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FBI has been poking around Jackson City Hall for years.

Former council member D’Keither Stamps said federal agents interviewed him in 2014, not long after he took office, seeking information about a 2012 the water billing and meter installation contract city entered with Germany-based engineering firm Siemens. The bungled contract contributed to the city losing millions in water revenue. In 2021 and 2022, infrastructure failures left residents without water for days and weeks.

In 2015, a city employee said the FBI interviewed her about alleged bid-steering in the public works department under the city’s former administration.

The FBI also questioned city officials about a long-running dispute between the mayor and council over the city’s selection of a garbage collection vendor, which resulted in a 17-day trash pile up in the spring of 2023.

In 2015, a city employee said the FBI interviewed her about alleged bid-steering in the public works department under the city’s former administration.

Sources close to a federal investigation say the FBI has been examining a long-running dispute between the mayor and council over the city’s selection of a garbage collection vendor, which resulted in a 17-day trash pile up in the spring of 2023.

In December 2023, a former Lumumba administration appointee Keyshia Sanders was sentenced after pleading guilty to federal wire fraud charges related to her work as the city of Jackson’s constituent service manager.

‘The city is built for corruption. The system is built to be manipulated,” said Stamps, who left city council in 2021 and now serves as public service commissioner for Mississippi’s central district.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

This Saturday’s Georgia-Ole Miss game will be the most important college game played on Mississippi soil since, well, at least since 2014 when Mississippi State and Ole Miss were ranked as highly as No. 1 and No. 3.

Alabama was ranked No. 3 and Ole Miss No. 11 on Oct. 4, 2014, when the Rebels won 23-17 at Oxford. Seven days later, Auburn was ranked No. 2 and State No. 3 when the two teams played on at Starkville. State won 38-23 to move to No. 1. Clearly, those games were huge.

This one Saturday (2:30 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium) is vitally important — perhaps even more important — for different reasons. A college football playoff berth is likely at stake. In the first 12-team college football rankings ever this week, 7-1 Georgia was ranked No. 3 and Ole Miss was ranked No. 16. But here’s the deal: Should Ole Miss, a 2.5-point underdog, defeat Georgia, the Rebels surely would zoom into the top 12 next week.

On the other hand, an Ole Miss defeat Saturday would be the Rebels’ third. In this new 12-team playoff scenario, three strikes and you’re out. With a loss, Georgia would remain in the playoff picture, but the Bulldogs would lose any chance for a first-round bye.

One indication of this game’s importance: All seats have long since been sold, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in. Indeed, you can get two club level seats in the south end zone on Seat Geek for $2,304 each. There are cheaper seats elsewhere but none less than $219 apiece. It’s a scalper’s delight.

It is also an incredibly intriguing matchup: Offensive whiz Lane Kiffin vs. defensive mastermind Kirby Smart. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart vs. Georgia quarterback Carson Beck. Ole Miss, 12-1 in its last 13 home games, faces Georgia, which has won 53 of its last 56 regular season games overall and 23 of its last 24 on the road. Incredibly, those aren’t misprints.

The two head coaches, formerly assistants together under Nick Saban at Alabama, have said nothing to reduce the magnitude of the game. Not that they could.

Said Kiffin: “Anybody who’s gonna win (the national championship) is going to have to go through Georgia. They’re the premier program in college football.”

Meanwhile, Smart talks about the Rebels as if they are the Kansas City Chiefs.

“They’re one of the top passing teams, in my mind, in the country … They’ve done it with tight ends. They’ve done it with backs. They’ve done it with wideouts. It doesn’t matter who it is with Lane. He’s going to plug somebody in there. They’re going to figure out where your weaknesses are, find matchups, and look for coverages and find ways to beat those coverages. They’ve got a guy (Dart) that can do it. This guy’s playing uncanny football when you talk about the accuracy, the completion percentage, the yards he’s throwing it for. He’s not throwing dink and dunk passes now. This guy’s throwing the ball vertical, down the field, shots. Then, when you do that, let’s say you cover all that, and you do that, he can take off and run. You watch a quarterback run reel on this guy, and you don’t have enough people in the box. So, the reason they’re successful is because of the scheme and the players that are in the scheme.”

Dart currently plays the game at an elite level rarely seen in college football. He threw for 515 yards and six touchdowns last week at Arkansas. His numbers — 21 passing touchdowns vs. just three interceptions — are far better than Beck’s (17 TDs, 11 interceptions). 

But 360 days ago, Beck threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns in Georgia’s 52-17 trouncing of Ole Miss at Athens. Meanwhile, Dart threw 112 yards and not a single score before being knocked out of the game late in the third quarter. Georgia scored touchdowns on its first four possessions. It was utter dominance.

Can Ole Miss return the favor and slay the SEC’s dragon this time around?

Absolutely, the Rebels can. At their best, the Rebs can play with Georgia, even beat Georgia. In my opinion, the game will come down to which team can a) run the ball successfully and b) protect its quarterback.

Ole Miss doesn’t have to run for 200 yards or anything like that. But the Rebels do have to run it well enough that Georgia can’t, as announcers say, pin their ears back and take dead aim at Dart.

Ole Miss has protected Dart well in every game but two. Kentucky sacked Dart four times. LSU sacked him six times. Not coincidentally, those are the only two games Ole Miss lost. Here’s why: Ole Miss ran the ball only 29 times for 92 yards against Kentucky. The Rebels ran for 180 yards against LSU but inexplicably went away from the run in the second half when the Tigers sacked Dart four times.

Anybody who has watched Georgia under Smart knows you can’t be one-dimensional against the Bulldogs. You have to slow down that pass rush and you do that best by running the football. Example: Texas, ranked No. 1 at the time, ran the ball for only 29 yards and a yard per carry against Georgia. As a result, the Bulldogs sacked Texas quarterbacks six times in a 30-15 victory at Austin.

Yes, Ole Miss can win. The Rebels could do what the Longhorns couldn’t. But Ole Miss must run the ball with some success, and, against Georgia, that’s never easy. The wild card could be Dart’s own running, but that comes with the risk of injury. Against Georgia, we’ve already seen how that works out.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.