Jackson Jambalaya

Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green expunged an arrest of cyberstalking from the record of David Pillow on January 17, 2012. Mr. Pillow was arrested in 2006 for exploitation of a child in a sting operation conducted by NBC Dateline and the Hinds County Sheriff's office. Hinds County deputies arrested twelve men in the sting. Chat logs JJ also learned none of the four individuals arrested in the sting operation in Hinds County were sentenced to jail.

JJ obtained a copy of the original affidavit that served as the basis for the arrest warrant even though the record has been expunged. The affidavit alleges Mr. Pillow "did knowingly willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously, entice and solicit sex from an undercover operative, msbeckyblue, posing as a 12 year female, for the purpose of meeting and engaging in sexually explicit conduct." Investigator Latasha Holmes signed the affidavit on July 12, 2006. The bench warrant issued that day charged Mr. Pillow with "exploitation of a child".

The charge was reduced to cyberstalking on November 27, 2006. The court ordered Mr. Pillow to pay $10,000 in fines and imposed supervised probation for two years as part of nonadjudication. Mr. Pillow's lawyer was Cynthia Stewart. The order to expunge states the case was "nonadjudicated". Nonadjudication is a process where the defendant is conviction is witheld by the judge. If he meets certain conditions, the arrest is removed from his record. Section 99-15-26 of the Mississippi Code

Doug Hindman was also arrested in the same sting operation. Cynthia Stewart represented him as well and managed to get his charge reduced from exploitation of a child to cyberstalking. The court issued the same sentence to Mr. Hindman: $10,000 in fines and suspended a two-year prison term. He was pardoned by Governor Barbour. It should be pointed out that at one time Ms. Stewart and Faye Peterson were prosecutors under then-District Attorney Ed Peters. Earlier post about Hindman pardon. Includes court file and chat logs.

Johnny Oliver Smith was arrested in the sting but his file was sent back to the Sheriff's office for more information. No further action was taken.

Roberto Oropeza-Rosas was arrested and charged with exploitation of a child. He was convicted and received a suspended sentence of ten years. Since he was an illegal alien, he was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security and deported back to Mexico.

Thus, not one single arrest of Hinds County residents made in the Perverted Justice/HCSO sting resulted in anyone serving any time in jail after conviction. None of them appear on a sex offender registry. Then-District Attorney Faye Peterson attempted to explain away the reduction of charges in the Hindman and Pillow cases in an interview with the Jackson Free Press:

"Asked why her office reduced the charge against Hindman, District Attorney Faye Peterson indicated that the law itself was insufficient to convict Hindman of the original charge. "The statute had a defect in it," Peterson said. The flaw was that statute Hindman was charged under required that the "victim" had to be an actual child, not an adult posing as a child.

"We were in uncharted territory," Peterson said.

The Legislature has since amended the statute to correct the flaw, Peterson said, but Hindman was arrested under the previous, flawed law." Article

Just one problem with this statement. Its not true. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed in 2011 a conviction from the same sting operation, Shaffer v. State of Mississippi. Justin Shaffer was arrested on July 8, 2006 for the same crime thing as Hindman: chatting with someone he thought was a 13-year old who was actually someone working for Perverted Justice. He, like Hindman, went to meet "Chloe" at a home in Byram and was arrested by Hinds County Deputies. He was charged with Exploitation of a Child, the same statute used to charge Doug Hindman, and was convicted in Greene County (HCSO turned the cases over to the perv's home county). The law, the one Faye Peterson said was flawed, stated:

"No person shall, by any means including computer, knowingly entice, induce,
persuade, seduce, solicit, advise, coerce, or order a child to meet with the
defendant or any other person for purpose of engaging in sexually explicit
conduct."

Mr. Shaffer appealed, arguing the "victim" was not actually under the age of eighteen. The Court of Appeals agreed, reversed the conviction, imposed a conviction of attempted exploitation, and remanded to the trial court for re-sentencing. Court of Appeals opinion. The Mississippi Supreme Court disagreed with the decision and affirmed the trial court on October 27, 2011. Opinion.

Mr. Shaeffer argued to the Mississippi Supreme Court he could not be guilty of child-exploitation because no child had been involved in the sting." The Court disagreed and said "solicitation is sufficient to violate the statute" and that "the act of solicitation does not require that the thing solicited even exists."

Justice Kitchens dissented, but then gave the prosecution an additional way to convict Mr. Shaeffer: the general attempt statute. Section 97-1-7 of the Mississippi Code states:

"Every person who shall design and endeavor to commit an offense, and shall do any overt act toward the commission thereof, but shall fail therein, or shall be prevented from committing the same, on conviction thereof, shall, where no provision is made by law for the punishment of such offense, be punished as follows: If the offense attempted to be committed be capital, such offense shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding ten years; if the offense attempted be punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or by fine and imprisonment in the county jail, then the attempt to commit such offense shall be punished for a period or for an amount not greater than is prescribed for the actual commission of the offense so attempted."

Mr. Shaffer is currently serving 25 years in prison. Justin Shaffer's chat logs

JJ is examining the files from those arrested from other counties and will publish the information in a later post. Many of these adjudications were covered by the media several years ago. All of them are now wrapped up and given the recent attention given to the Hindman pardon, its probably not a bad idea to report what happened with all of the other cases. Unfortunately for Hinds County residents, child molesters caught by NBC and law enforcement entered the Faye Peterson catch and release program.