Jackson Jambalaya

The record will read Governor Haley Barbour pardoned Douglas Hindman for cyberstalking. However, there is more to the record than just this pardon or the conviction. Mr. Hindman was busted in a sting operation back in 2006 for trying to meet a 13-year old girl for the purpose of having sex. JJ reviewed the file and found some more interesting details about the case. The file is posted below. Earlier post, chat logs, WLBT 2007 story

Mr. Hindman was indicted on February 8, 2007 for the charge of "exploitation of a child". The indictment states that during the week of July 7, 2006, he

"wilfully, unlawfully, and feloniously by any means including computer knowingly entice, induce, persuade, seduce, solicit, coerce, or order an undercover operative posing as a child to meet with the said Douglas Hunter Hindman or any other person, for the purpose of engaging in sexually explicit conduct, in violation of Section 97-5-33, Mississippi Code of 1972".

Assistant District Attorney Allyson Nelson signed the indictment. Mr. Hindman paid a $50,000 bond and was represented by Joe Holloman. Judge Swan Yerger adjudicated the case. The charge was reduced to cyberstalking in a plea bargain. The plea bargain Mr. Hindman signed imposed a $5,000 fine, a suspended jail sentence of two years, and a probation term of five years.

What are the difference between the two charges since they are both felonies? The law states anyone found guilty of exploitation of a child is a felon "and upon conviction shall pay a fine of not more than Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) and shall be imprisoned for not less than two (2) years nor more than twenty (20) years. Then there is the matter of the convict having to register as a sex offender. Cyberstalking carries a much weaker penalty: fine less than $5,000 and/or prison sentence less than two years.

There is one little fact I have not published yet: the prosecutor who agreed to this plea bargain. Rebecca Mansell. Yup. The same one that has been reversed five times by the Mississippi Supreme Court for um, "prosecutorial misconduct" as one commenter called it on this website.* The same prosecutor that carried Tim Johnson's lunch bucket in Madison County and prosecuted the whistleblower of the bogus charity (Fine Arts Institute of Mississippi) with which he was connected. Frankly, I said it she was the prosecutor before I even looked at this file and sure enough, I was right. The probation period was terminated when it was only 50% completed.

Then-District Attorney Faye Peterson defended the plea bargain and her prosecutors in a 2007 interview with the Jackson Free Press:

"One of the men caught in the sting, 32-year-old Douglas Hindman of Jackson, attempted to flee the house when he spotted a deputy outside. Deputies arrested him a few blocks away. Originally charged with felony child exploitation, Hindman eventually pled guilty to cyber stalking, a felony that is not a sexual crime, and is currently on five years' probation. As part of the plea agreement, Hindman's two-year sentence was suspended, he had to pay a $5,000 fine, and another $5,000 to a crime-victims unit. With no sex-crime record, Hindman, son of a prominent Jackson family, does not have to register as a sex offender.

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. The former District Attorney was um, slightly in error. 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 resentencing. 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."

Editorial comment: Faye Peterson and Rebecca Mansell could have prosecuted Mr. Hindman under the general attempt statute if the exploitation of a child statue was flawed and would have prevented a prosecution of Mr. Hindman. The fact remains, the law, as determined last year by the Mississippi Supreme Court would have still allowed for the prosecution of Mr. Hindman for trying to exploit a child. Pretty sad that Greene County knew the law better than Hinds County at the time. Perhaps Ms. Peterson and her lackey can explain to their cheerleaders at the JFP why they let someone like Mr. Hindman off of the hook instead of prosecuting him to the furthest extent of the law. This case is simply disgusting from start to finish.