Jackson Jambalaya

The issue of whether any judicial corruption took place in the Robbie Bell prosecution is settled now that Professor Matt Steffey has spoken to us from Mount Sinai. The Robbie Bell prosecution was a reunion of sorts for the Ed Peters gang: Tom Royals (Ed Peters' former partner and defense attorney, George Bell, III's lawyer), Cynthia Speetjeens (defense attorney for Robbie Bell and Bobby DeLaughter and prosecutor under Peters), Tommy Mayfield (George Bell, III's lawyer and prosecutor under Peters), Bobby DeLaughter and Ed Peters. Then there was the matter of Peters' friend Frank Melton putting pressure on JPD to make the case "go away" as sources have told JJ.

Judge DeLaughter heard Ms. Bell's arraignment and was scheduled to preside over her trial when he was removed from the bench. After reading Eaton, Kirk, other cases such as Shelton, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what was going on here after reading through the police reports on the Heather Spencer murder posted last week. There is a reason one gets Ed Peters for a lawyer and gets the case assigned to his boy. However, Rat Stiffey states: "I think there is no reason at all to believe that Judge DeLaughter in any way conspired with Ed Peters.. or anybody else in disposing of the charges against Ms. Bell."

Really Professor Steffey? Let's look at the facts. Steffey didn't practice law in Hinds County, much less try criminal cases, but instead practiced for a short while in Florida very early in his career. He has been a professor for over twenty years. Regular lawyers know his type: such professors in the Never-never-land that is the law school classroom, while they are slugging it out in the trenches with clients, prosecutors, and judges, getting their hands dirty while the pretty-boy REMF's go on t.v. and appear as experts. The real lawyers know who is in whose pocket or which lawyers are connected, while the "expert" talks about theory. Steffey was not even an authority on criminal law. The only reason he became a criminal law professor was that in the late 90's a professor left, so MCSOL assigned him to teach criminal law classes. Prior to this charge, he taught Constitutional Law, Admiralty, and other non-criminal law courses. The media began interviewing him as an "expert" because he was the local criminal law professor and they needed someone who can go on camera on short notice.

If he was a real lawyer and practiced criminal law while Ed Peters was District Attorney, he would know some of the garbage that went on under Peters' tenure in the Hinds County District Attorney's office. How prosecutors saw their cases reassigned to other prosecutors who then dropped the charges if his little pets just happened to be the lawyers representing the defendant. How Peters would indict people "on a dare" to quote the Shelton case. How Peters was indicted several times while the Mississippi Bar looked the other way. Steffey merely shows his ignorance to the local legal community which laughed very hard when it heard this "expert opinion".