Mississippi sheriff indicted on 31 charges

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Mississippi sheriff indicted on 31 charges
By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press | August 31, 2013 | Updated: August 31, 2013 10:59am

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — In an Aug. 30 story about Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd being indicted in south Mississippi, The Associated Press erroneously identified Keith Davis as the police chief of Ocean Springs, Miss. He is the police chief of Moss Point, Miss. A corrected version of the story is below:


A south Mississippi sheriff has been indicted on 31 counts, including charges accusing him of pushing an arrest in a murder case, even though a detective thought the suspect was innocent, and of snooping on employees at a restaurant that refused to accept a check from him.

The indictment against longtime Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd was dated Thursday and made public Friday. It charges him with using his office to retaliate against people he considered political and personal foes, including an area police chief and an alderman. The charges include fraud, extortion, embezzlement, witness tampering and perjury.

One of the charges said Byrd pressured a detective to sign a criminal affidavit and seek an arrest warrant against a man in a murder investigation in 2007 when the detective did not believe the man committed the crime. The indictment said Byrd was running for re-election at the time and wanted to be able to say there were no unsolved murders in the coastal Mississippi county of about 140,000 people.

An extortion charge in the indictment said Byrd pressured a female deputy to engage in sexual acts and threatened to give her a bad recommendation if she left his department.

~snip~

Byrd is a Republican in his fourth term.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Mississippi-sheriff-indicted-on-31-charges-4777873.php

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[center]



Sheriff Mike Byrd[/center]

[giftedgirl77]

1. What a disgusting piece of shit.

This is truly disturbing but not surprising. I'm happy they went after his ass.

[chuckstevens]

2. The Next Fox News Hero!

Wait for it.... "His" side of the story!

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. Typical GOP criminal

You can tell all you need about this guy by the amount FLAIR the idiot is wearing in the second picture.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. At least he didn't make himself a 4 star General like some police chiefs.

[Laelth]

4. Now that's a lot of corruption! He should make any Republican politician proud. n/t

-Laelth

[Ash_F]

5. Is that not legally rape?

"An extortion charge in the indictment said Byrd pressured a female deputy to engage in sexual acts and threatened to give her a bad recommendation if she left his department. "

That sounds like rape, not extortion. And you would think they would lead with that rather than bury it 5 paragraphs in.

[lib87]

8. I Agree with You

Not sure how they got extortion from that crime

[strategery blunder]

9. I would say it's both rape and extortion

They're not mutually exclusive. The definition of extortion is broader and rape easily fits in that category of coercion.

[Politicalboi]

12. Yeah, but was it a legitimate rape

[Sgent]

6. I want to give props

to the state of Mississippi for actually indicting this idiot.

This wasn't a federal indictment, but a state DA bringing a charge against a state official -- a rarely seen case of a DA's office going after their own police department.

Kudo's to two people:

1) The DA who brought the charges to the grand jury
2) The state law which only allows for 6 elected DA's for the state -- so no one DA is completely beholden to political whims of a given county politician.

This contrasts with other areas (say New Orleans) where the state has never to my knowledge filed a charge related to malfeasance in office -- it either rises to the federal courts or nothing is done.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

7. Pig,

pardon me, I meant PIG!

[mountain grammy]

11. He'll be glorified on fox news.

[cynzke]

13. What A Nice Guy!