Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens pleaded guilty on Monday afternoon to federal conspiracy charges stemming from a scandal involving city and county officials in Jackson. Along with changing his previous not-guilty plea, he also announced his resignation as Hinds County District Attorney, calling it “one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.”
“While it hurts beyond measure to step away from a position I love, I believe this decision is what is best for me, my family, and the District Attorney’s Office,” Owens said in a Monday social media post. “I leave knowing the office is filled with talented, dedicated public servants who will continue the important work of protecting our community.”
Owens, former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and former Jackson City Councilman Aaron B. Banks had previously pleaded not guilty on Nov. 7, 2024. The charges against the three men were brought after two agents working for the FBI posed as real estate developers who wanted to build a hotel near the convention center in downtown Jackson and provided payments to officials, including $50,000 for the former mayor’s reelection campaign, court documents allege.
Federal prosecutors say that between October 2023 and May 2024, Mayor Lumumba, District Attorney Owens and Jackson City Council members Aaron Banks and Angelique Lee were involved in a plot to “carry out a bribery scheme to enrich themselves.”
While the indictment includes transcripts of recorded conversations between several of the officials, the text most frequently quotes Owens.
Prosecutors allege that Owens was “ready, willing, and predisposed to engage in bribery at least as early as October 16, 2023,” court documents say.
The indictment alleged that the district attorney (who in February 2020 announced the first arrests in Mississippi’s unrelated $77 million welfare scandal) orchestrated the Jackson scheme to bribe elected officials. The document alleges that he had several conversations with the undercover FBI agents before proposing the scheme to Lumumba and the council members. Prosecutors allege Owens accepted at least $115,000 in cash in exchange for promising to help the would-be developers.
The FBI raided Owens’ office and his business, Downtown Cigar Company, in Jackson, Miss., in May 2024. Owens was originally also charged with eight counts of bribery.
Even a conspiracy conviction alone could carry a sentence of up to five years in federal prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Judge Daniel Jordan III had set a July 13 trial date for Owens, Lumumba and Banks. Lumumba and Banks have both pleaded not guilty.
Former Jackson City Councilwoman Angelique Lee and Hinds County businessman Sherik Marve Smith both pleaded guilty in 2024 to charges related to the case.
Mississippi Free Press stories are always free because we believe everyone should have access to quality journalism. Donations from readers like you make that possible. Please click here to give to help sustain and grow vital, people-over-power journalism for Mississippians.
Readers can sign up for our free newsletters here.
