Melton Came Within Two Votes of Conviction

Mayor Frank Melton has talked to the Jackson Free Press about many issues for this series, including his health. Credit: Kenya Hudson

Within days of coming within two votes of going to federal prison, Mayor Frank Melton revealed to the Jackson Free Press last Thursday for the first time publicly that he plans to run for re-election. “Yes,” he replied when asked in his City Hall office if he is running for a second term. “I really want to stay close to the people,” he added. Melton said that it took him three years to figure out what the job of mayor is about and that he’s learned from his mistakes.

“Now, I have to do it the right way; I have to clean the culture up to make sure it’s done right,” he added.

Two days before, a federal judge declared a mistrial in the civil-rights case against Melton and former bodyguard Michael Recio for allegedly depriving a duplex owner and tenant of their civil rights in a Aug. 26, 2006, “raid” on the duplex. No drugs were found in the raid, which took place in two visits the same evening.

During the trial, former bodyguard Michael Wright testified that Melton was intoxicated the night of the duplex attack.

This week, WLBT reported that a juror revealed that the jury came within two votes of convicting Melton on depriving the tenant and owner of the duplex of their civil rights in his federal trial. The juror, identified only as “Martha from Hattiesburg,” said the jury was more closely divided on the other two counts. The trial ended in a mistrial.

The juror gave tallies for each of the three counts that Melton and ex-bodyguard Michael Recio faced. Those three counts are: 1) conspiracy to deprive rights, 2) the actual deprivation of rights, 3) use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

Jurors split, she said, with five voting to convict and seven voting to acquit on all charges, except for the second charge against Melton. On that count, jurors were closer to a unanimous decision, with 10 voting to convict and only two voting for acquittal.

Had Melton been convicted of one of the felonies, he would have had to step down immediately from office, and would have been barred from running for re-election to his mayoral seat.

During the jury’s deliberations, Judge Dan Jordan spent a morning interviewing jurors after reports surfaced that two of them had inappropriate outside contact. He also investigated reports from a juror that another juror was refusing to deliberate. After he declared a mistrial, he disclosed that he had denied a motion from the defense to declare a mistrial based on that inappropriate contact and another motion from the prosecution to remove the juror who refused to deliberate.

Defense attorneys and federal prosecutors had planned a conference call for Monday, March 2, to discuss scheduling a retrial. The call was delayed until Thursday, March 5, however.

Melton attorney John Reeves told the Jackson Free Press Monday that he did not know the reason for the delay.

Friday, March 6, is the last day to file qualifying papers for the city elections. As of press time, Melton had not filed to run for re-election.

Previous Comments

How could the two jurors not think that Welch and Sutton were not deprived of their rights? They were not given due process to defend the house of accusations that it was a crack house. Seems like a crash course in the Constitution is in order. BTW, the official countdown to Melton’s defeat in the primaries is 63 days.

#144276 | Author: golden eagle | Date: Mar 3 2009

Not sure, Golden. That was the strongest charge against him. Without any nullification, that one should have been a slam dunk. The other two were a bit tougher, of course, especially the gun charge. Or, maybe it was Reeves’ bashing of Jennifer Sutton. Hope Melton never tries to tear your house down; remarkable what they will say about you.

#144278 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Mar 3 2009

i say retry frank just on that charge, dont get it all complicated witw the other two since mississippians acting like they cant interpet the law.

#144284 | Author: NewJackson | Date: Mar 3 2009

It does suggest that retrying him with a sequestered jury might not be the government’s worst waste of time.

#144292 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Mar 3 2009

Our Libertarian buddies at Reason mag are skewering the politicos, like Frank Melton and Kenneth Stokes, who try to declare war on baggy pants. As they should be.

#144294 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Mar 3 2009

call me a cynic, but i’m just not convinced that they’ll be able to sit a jury that will convict Frank. as crazy as he is, he’s got a lot of connections all over the place, and all it takes is one juror to create a mistrial…

#144316 | Author: eyerah | Date: Mar 4 2009

I think they are waiting to see if he will sign up to run for mayor before they go back to court. What was the vote on Recio? do anyone know?

#144328 | Author: Tony Davis | Date: Mar 4 2009

The votes were a WLBT exclusive, I believe. Check out their website. Recio was majority not guilty on all three.

#144331 | Author: Razor | Date: Mar 4 2009

We credit WLBT above for reporting this first*; both links there go to their story. Good work. *WLBT, the Ledger and others should take note: It’s not hard to credit media who get there first, and it doesn’t hurt business, either.

#144332 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Mar 4 2009

Speaking of that WLBT story, what was odd was that the real news of the piece—the lead, we call it in the business—was buried in paragraph 6. That is, that the jury came within two votes of convicting Melton on the strongest charge. And, coincidentally perhaps, there were two jurors who supposedly had outside contact. That alone makes that part the most newsworthy, as if the fact that a mayor came within two votes of going to prison for 10 years wasn’t news enough. But sadly, many “leads” about Melton have been buried over the years in Jackson. I guess that’s the advantage of being a charming television executive.

#144334 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Mar 4 2009