Saturday, January 3, 2015

Local attorney to be a Hattiesburg judge?

Hattiesburg Mayor appointed attorney Crystal Martin as municipal court judge pro-tem in Hattiesburg. The Hattiesburg American reported Wednesday:

Hattiesburg City Council will be asked next week to consider 11 nominees submitted as department heads or Municipal Court positions by Mayor Johnny DuPree.

Seven of the candidates are renominated holdovers. The other four, including nominees for police chief, city attorney, public defender and one of two judge pro-tem slots, will replace current members of the city's administration and court.

DuPree said he would have preferred to bring back all his department heads, but was concerned about their ability to be confirmed by a majority of the council.

"The staff I have now, I'm fully satisfied with," DuPree said Wednesday night. "I believe they've done a great job for a long time, and they served the citizens of Hattiesburg well.

"But through direct conversations with at least one council person and innuendos from others, it seems the four were going to have difficulty getting passed."

DuPree's nominees include former Vicksburg Police Chief Mitchell Dent to replace Frazier Bolton as police chief, Charles "C.J." Lawrence III to replace his father, Charles Lawrence Jr., as city attorney and Catouche J.L. Body to replace Alethea Shaw as public defender.

DuPree also nominated Crystal Wise Martin, the widow of the late, prominent Jackson attorney Precious Martin, to replace Carol Jones as Municipal Court judge pro-tem.... Rest of article.
Mrs. Martin is the daughter of Hinds County Chancellor Patricia Wise.  She resides in Ridgeland.

 § 21-23-9 of the Mississippi Code defines a municipal court judge pro-tem:

In any municipality where a municipal judge is appointed or elected, the governing authorities shall have the power and authority to appoint a municipal judge pro tempore who shall have the same powers and qualifications for office as the municipal judge and shall perform all duties of the municipal judge in the absence of such municipal judge or if such municipal judge is unable to serve for any reason. In the event a municipal judge pro tempore is not appointed or is absent or unable for any reason to serve, any justice court judge of the county or municipal judge of another municipality may serve in his place with the same power and authority upon designation by the municipal judge. Any municipality that appoints a municipal judge pro tempore in the absence of a municipal judge or has a justice court judge serve in the absence of a municipal court judge, as provided in this section, is authorized to compensate that municipal judge pro tempore or justice court judge in the same manner and amount as the municipality provides for the appointed or elected municipal judge who is absent.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Birds of a feather flock together.

Anonymous said...

What would Hattiesburg be without USM right there?

Anonymous said...

Look, I have been screaming for years that Hinds County needs to stop appointing attorneys that live outside the county. So many attorneys that live in Madison and Rankin come to Hinds County to get work but do not work there due to the schools. How are the public schools suppose to get any better when the County's own employees and/or court appointed attorneys live in other counties? No one cares though. Also, could someone get the Judges to establish four or five salaried court appointed positions, instead of paying their pets hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees. When your fees surpass hundreds of thousands of dollars, create a salaried job and throw in some benefits and save the county some money. Some people need to go watch Selma, white and black, and remember the sacrifice that it is to be in this Country.

Anonymous said...

I suspect Johnny is just playing a game with city council....putting names up that probably will not be confirmed and the current department stays in place.

Johnny is quoted as being satisfied with current dept heads, but knows they will not be confirmed.

Current heads stay in place until new appointees are approved.

City council members are currently in litigation with mayor over his failure to put names up...Johnny has nominated but council will not approve.

Game starts over

Anonymous said...

6:34, agree with you premise but think that the Council four years ago got a ruling from MSSC that the incumbents don't hold over waiting for a new appointment. Figure the Council will take the same action this time ietf they don't agree with these appointments.

KF - need to change your headline. She is not a Judge yet. Subject to confirmation and in 'burg that is far from being a sure thing.

Pittpanther said...

5:21, what you say make sense and should be obvious to all. You work for the city of Jackson, then you should live in Jackson. You work for Hinds county, then you should live in Hinds county. Cops, teachers, lawyers, whatever.

Anonymous said...

Crystal Wise-Martin, is a great choice....

Anonymous said...

I hope she goes to Hattiesburg and takes her slime ball dog & pony show with her. Good riddance.

P.S. ATTN Private school's..when she shows up at your admission office with her chirens in tow lock the door, pull the blinds down and plug in the flashing "No Vacancy Sign"

Anonymous said...

If she were having any success as a plaintiffs' attorney, a job requiring a three hour round trip for minimal pay would be a complete imposition. Assuming she's required to show up, of course.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't pro-tem mean she is only a substitute judge or when conflicts arise with sitting judge. Not much work there. Who would want that job?

Anonymous said...

Experience dumb people

Anonymous said...

Crystal Wise Martin - Could that be DuPree's reward for the role Precious played in Ware v. DuPree? Wouldn't a pro-tem judge be in line to receive benefits, including insurance and pension?

Mitchell Dent, the proposed nominee for police chief, is Reverend Kenneth Fairley's brother-in-law. Ask the other DuPree...Marcus...about Ken Fairley. Or just watch the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, "The Best That Never Was" and see for yourself.



Anonymous said...

1. political shenanigans.

2. Less likely: the pro tem only works when the real judge is ill or has a conflict. less likely for the pro tem to have any conflicts if from out of town.

not really a newsworthy happenstance.

Anonymous said...

How in the world did we end up in the clutches of this underbelly "entitlement crowd" that have no morals, steal the tax base blind, can't even complete a grammatically correct sentence and are nerver held accountable for the mayhem they create?

Anonymous said...

@6:26, I have no idea how Phil Bryant got elected Governor either.

Anonymous said...

So sad there are no lawyers in Hattiesburg. Is it a small town that can't attract any lawyers? That's quite a drive for a last minute sub...

Anonymous said...

Are we talking about the Martins or the Barbours? Oh sorry, flip side of the same coin.

Anonymous said...

Not sure about PM mastery of the English language . Where did he go to college. Crystal is quite bright dual degree Chemisrty/enginerring major in undergrad Spelman and Georgia tech. She can speak properly I am sure. Ole miss law school cause a problem with her grasp of the English language. She had to speak properly at Spelman I assure uou.

Anonymous said...

@9:11PM At least Governor Barbour can spell and complete a grammatically correct sentence.

Anonymous said...

I had one encounter with this lady when she served as the Hinds County attorney. She was nice to our face; but, she had no intention of helping us and as a matter of fact, her office lost our file. However, her replacement was able to handle our issue without any real problem.
Interesting?

I also had one encounter with her deceased husband. He must have gone to the Jessie Jackson School of Shakedown, because he tried it on me. "Race-baiter" must have been his middle name. There is so much more that could be said about the "Shuffler," but I will try to let it go since he is gone.

Kingfish said...

Her favorite answer as county attorney was "let me call the AG's office for an opinion."

I remember I filed a public records request. She was several weeks late answering it. I had a copy of the request stamped and signed by her office for that very reason. I reminded her she had gotten it on a certain date. She even tried to argue over that and said "I would not characterize it that way" as if we could argue if a certain day was an actual day.

She was picked by Graham, Smith, and Anderson so she could do exactly what they wanted. Adams & Eden, Pieter Tiewuseen, and Mike Espy can tell their boards to go jump in the lake if they don't like the answers they give them. Read between the lines.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish, Crystal Wise-Martin, have a law degree, what do you have other then this blog...

Kingfish said...

Wow, you told me.

Anonymous said...

"Kingfish, Crystal Wise-Martin, have a law degree, what do you have other then this blog..." January 4, 2015 at 11:30 PM

Did you mean the following?:
Kingfish, Crystal Wise-Martin has a law degree. What do you have, other than this blog?

Honestly, if you cannot distinguish between 'then' and 'than', THEN you have no business playing on the computer.

In any event, Kingfish also has a law degree.

Anonymous said...

@9:33 PM...By your own argument praising the sheer brilliance of the "Queen of frivolous lawsuits" the schools where these people acquire the alphabet behind their already hyphenated names run into a brick wall when exposed grad schools that actually speak and USE correct grammar therefor they may be the "smartest" person in the room but when they try to write a brief or verbalize a point they sound as dumb as a sack of hammers.

Anonymous said...

The poster at 11:30 does more to affirm the 'crystal' differences between folks as anyone could.

The 5 grammatical errors in one sentence, which should have been two sentences, plus the ignorant inference of KF is unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

It is hard to get into Ole Miss law school? If your parent is an alumna or a judge you may get legacy preference.


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