Monday, March 7, 2016

Deputy State Auditor & Investigator indicted

Copies of indictments are posted below.

Update (10:44 AM, 3/10/16): Attorney Hiram Richard Davis, Jr.  represents both defendants. 

A Hinds County grand jury indicted David Huggins and Karei McDonald for "first degree hindering prosecution by obstruction" on February 26, 2016.   Mr. Huggins is the Deputy State Auditor and Mr. McDonald is an investigator for the Office of the State Auditor.  The indictment states the two acted together to "hinder the prosecution" of Ben Allen.  

The indictment alleges Huggins tried to prevent the "results of the investigation of Ben Allen from being conveyed" to the District Attorney.   The McDonald indictment makes the same allegations as well. Questions were raised about Mr. Allen's spending as Executive Director of Downtown Jackson Partners two years ago by a part-time employee, Linda Brune, who claimed to be a whistle-blower.   Mr. Huggins is represented by attorney Skip Jernigan.   Both defendants are free on bond.

Kingfish  note: Well, that poisoned the relationship between the State Auditor and D.A.  So much for state auditor prosecutions in Hinds County.  This will help the bill in the legislature giving the State Auditor prosecution powers.  



59 comments:

Anonymous said...

Special Agent Karei McDonald Receives “Top Cop” Honor

" PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT: Lisa H. Shoemaker (601) 576-2645 or (601) 613-8518
Laney Grantham (601) 576-2642

DATE: May 18, 2010


Special Agent Karei McDonald Receives “Top Cop” Honor


(Jackson, Miss.) – Karei McDonald, an Investigative Special Agent with the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor, was a recipient of the “Top Cop” award on Thursday, May 13, at the Mississippi Trade Mart. McDonald is a resident of Flowood, Miss., and has served the State Auditor’s Office for five years.

“Karei played a critical role in the State Auditor’s Office in an investigation of a corruption ring where employees of a state agency were conspiring to embezzle from the taxpayers of Mississippi,” said State Auditor Stacey Pickering. “We are fortunate to have Karei’s knowledge and experience in our office as we work to protect Mississippi taxpayers.”

The Top Cop program is in its fifth year of recognizing top law enforcement agents in Mississippi. The annual awards program is sponsored by the Mississippi Center for Police and Sheriffs. Awards are given to agents representing state and metro area law enforcement agencies. McDonald was recognized on Peace Officers’ Memorial Day and during Police Week, a time when the country honors brave public servants who fight crime, violence and terrorism.

McDonald attended Mississippi College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and he was a 2005 graduate of the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officer’s Training Academy. McDonald has also earned certifications as a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Fraud Specialist, Certified Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor and Minimum Standards Certified Law Enforcement Officer in the State of Mississippi.

“I appreciate the support of Auditor Pickering and his administration in receiving this distinguished honor,” McDonald said.

- Pictured with Special Agent Karei McDonald are State Auditor Stacey Pickering and Chief of Investigations for the State Auditor’s Office David Huggins. "



MC Graduate Karei McDonald Awarded Top Cop Honor



Picture of Stacey Pickering, Karei McDonald and some guy who looks a lot like David Huggins at second link.

Anonymous said...

Is this the same Huggins that absconded with the DMR Records in violation of a Harrison County Chancery Court Judges' order?



Anonymous said...

This seems like a whole lot of nothing to me.

Anonymous said...

Is this the same Huggins that absconded with the DMR Records in violation of a Harrison County Chancery Court Judges' order?

"See this: Monday, December 9, 2013
DMR update: Stacey is as Stacey does


The battle between the Sun-Herald and State Auditor Stacey Pickering over DMR records raged in Harrison County Chancellor Jennifer Schloegel's courtroom as the newspaper sought to hold Mr. Pickering in contempt of court. The Sun-Herald reported:

Regardless of whether she finds State Auditor Stacey Pickering in civil contempt of court, Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel directed his office and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to produce public records by Monday, as she ordered in October

At the contempt hearing Wednesday, Pickering's chief of investigations, David Huggins, said under oath Assistant U.S. Attorney John Dowdy subpoenaed records from the DMR to avoid making them public -- not because a grand jury needed them."

Anonymous said...

Doesn't really pass the smell test.......

Anonymous said...

6:19, so trying to rig an investigation (and the system writ large) is a lot of nothing, huh?

What if you were being investigated, and someone with influence - perhaps a chief investigator - decided not to hand over exculpating evidence, ultimately strengthening the case against you? Or, if one may infer in this case, that Huggins was attempting to protect one or more parties from the finder of fact, you don't think he'd do that sort of thing for free, now would'ya?

It's called corruption dumbass; but you're right -- it's probably a whole lot of nothing...

Anonymous said...

Yep, I would say that 6:19 and 6:34 are Stacey or someone from Frontier standing in. Mississippi sure is a small pond isn't she!

Anonymous said...

Its a HINDS County jury, take it with a grain of salt.

Anonymous said...

My money's on the Top Cop for a flip!

Anonymous said...

I don't know Stacy or any of the defendants but I do know Robert Smith. I can guarantee you that if he has lead any investigation, it is based on no evidence. This certainly a sham.

Anonymous said...

6:57 - or the FBI declined the case and Smith is picking it up. This kind of shit is why our state needs an Office of Inspector General.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only person who finds it very odd that the indictment actually has Ben Allen's name in it as opposed to some pseudonym like B.A. or "Suspect 1" or "Investigation Target"? This is going to be interesting.

Anonymous said...

Karei McDonald graduated from Mississippi College which labels itself as a "Christian University"

It's kind of hard to believe that he could be guilty of anything.

Anonymous said...

>>the indictment actually has Ben Allen's name in it<<

That could mean he's a candidate for already flipped?

What are the odds there is either a no show employee or two and/or a juicy contract with an insider connected llc about to be revealed?

Anonymous said...

So, Skipper Jernigan is representing Huggins for obstructing an investigation of Ben Allen? I guess the old Murrah High School circle is complete. Ben, Skipper, some things never change.

Anonymous said...

DJP 990 says Allen was paid $168,967 in 2014 which is the year the whistle-blower came forward.

Whooda Thunk It said...

Karei is a male?

Anonymous said...

Just finished conducting an oversite investagation ofMcDonald's Linkedin.


Experience

Deputy Director, Investigations Division
MS Office of the State Auditor
August 2012 – Present (3 years 8 months)

Responsible for administration of Investigations Division. Oversee 30
investigative Special Agents conducting approximately 125 civil and
criminal investagations statewide.


Adjunct Instructor
Mississippi Law Enforcement Trainining Academy
June 2006 – Present (9 years 10 months)

Sr. Special Agent
Miss. Office of the State Auditor
August 2004 – December 2012 (8 years 5 months)

Responsible for oversite of 10 agents conducting criminal and civil
investigations in the central and northern district of Mississippi.

Chief Fiscal Officer
Mississippi Dept of Employment Security
January 1998 – July 2004 (6 years 7 months)



This guy claims to be in various supervisory and training positions at OSA since 2004 and can't spell oversight ("oversite"), investigations ("investagations") or training ("trianining")?

Anonymous said...

He is one of the main reasons no one at DPS gets clipped by the auditors office. Never seen anything happen with Gail Mills.

Anonymous said...

Amen to the post at 9:38PM!
Huggins protects all hwy patrol or anyone in the DPS department! Stacy Pickering does not do his job ,either! If he did he would not let Huggins protect these folks like Gail Mills , who stole from taxpayers and now has not paid a dime back but still gets to live high on her retirement! Shame on Puckering and Huggins! It's dirty!

Anonymous said...

DPS is an auditor's wet dream, but ole Huggy Bear looks out for his own, and exacts revenge for his friends under the color of his job, how much more corrupt could a person be. What a disgrace, I just hope they can make the case.

Downtown Pahdnuh Not said...

Y'all bout to feel the powerful cyber-wrath of Ben Allen and his handlers. When Ole Ben snaps them fangers, at least twelve come out of the woodwork and post from every whicha-way.

Anonymous said...

My, my...
Well, I didn't think it was alright to destroy evidence regardless of your party or race.
If a grand jury in any county thinks that happened, perhaps we'd best wait until the facts are presented in court before a jury.
Oh, wait, that'd be a waste of time when most all of you want to believe that if your party or race is involved, they are never ever anything but justified in whatever they say or do.
To hell with laws and a legal system, right? Let's try everyone in the court of public opinion and see who can get the most people ( whether they know crap about the fact of the case or not) shouting the loudest. That works ever so much better.

Anonymous said...

Huggins served under Ray Mabus as Chief of MHP!

Huggins served as Commissioner of the Highway Patrol under Mabus!

Huggins served as Sargent of Arms for the Mississippi State Senate under Lt. Governor Amy Tuck!

Huggins now serves as Director of Investigations under Auditor Stacey Pickering!

What a BUNCH!

Anonymous said...

Considering this pattern of behavior (and anyone who knows Huggins knows this is a pattern), ALL of the cases that Huggins approved/reviewed/referred/denied/delayed need to be re-examined. What was excluded? What complaints weren't investigated, and what else was covered up? How much of YOUR money did he spend pursuing vendettas or helping friends?

Huggins has perpetuated what is tantamount to an influence (by intimidation) machine rivaled only by Don Corleone, and he's bragged about it to his inner circle. Anyone who thinks this is his first time is delusional --- the real shame is that he's destroying the careers of promising young investigators by coercing them into illegal acts. Read between the lines folks.

The Auditor's Office lacks the most basic of audit principles - independence, and the state needs to re-think how this works; or perhaps the FBI can "rethink" it for them.

Anonymous said...

I assure you that the State Auditor and his staff are up to no good. They bend/break the rules without remorse. I know it for a fact because I have seen it. Stacey Pickering is a foul-mouthed crook. I'm very conservative and I would vote for Obama over Pickering.

Anonymous said...

I get it now. A mentally unstable and incompetent black DA indicts two white investigators because they can't find any criminal wrongdoing by white guy Ben Allen and they refuse to manufacture evidence. Spoiler alert here: follow the money. This ain't about Huggins. The black DA didn't get the support of the white money folks - like Ben Allen - in the last election. Another hint: in case you forgot, it was Frank Melton that brought us Robert Shuler Smith, cut from the same cloth.

This would all be kind of funny, except that it's not.

Anonymous said...

8:29 nailed it.

Night Stick said...

Mabus had the first 'female' as chief of the Highway Patrol. She looked a helluva lot like Dan Matthews.

Anonymous said...

8:29 hit the mark.

Robert Smith is severely mentally unstable. Wait until this gets to trial, if it ever does, then you will see how poorly conducted it truly is. Everyone needs to follow this case. My money is that it either gets dismissed, by the DA, because he can't put it together because there is no case or he attempts to try it and it falls apart during trial.

Anonymous said...

DJP sock puppets out in force!

Anonymous said...

First, Ben Allen didn't go to high school in Jackson. Secondly, the self-styled "Jackson's Oldest Teenager" barely rates the title of "Whistleblower". I would consider her more a "woman scorned"; won't make a good witness.

RSS may or may not be onto something in the Auditor's Office. I have never understood the reason the then Mayor of Terry was shackled and removed from his office in Rankin County the way he was. He would have come calmly to the desired law enforcement's office. It was a combination of Auditor's people and Rankin County Sheriff's people. The whole operation had a terrible smell to it.

To behave as the Auditor's Office has in some cases and to not have found anything in Rudy's behavior is just plain odd. Seems to me, if any of the above posts have validity and if mine also has any truth to it, we need the FBI badly.

What exactly would an Inspector General do for the State? Would this position encompass Judges as well as other public officials?

Anonymous said...

the indictment refers to a subpoena. I will presume for this post that refers to a Grand Jury Subpoena which the DA has the power to issue. The only reason I can think of that a DA would issue such a subpoena to a law enforcement agency is if they were refusing access to the results of an investigation. Now if my speculation is anywhere near accurate, and the documents were altered or edited in any way before being produced, this could be an interesting case.

Anonymous said...

10:40: a State Office of Inspector would amalgamate the duties of PEER and the OSA into one entity. The state could then begin the process of crosswalking strategic planning and financial accountability with less of a footprint on/within government.

Anonymous said...

No Mr. 9:40, 8:06 nailed it on the head. You should follow the money, right to DMR. You will find the worst examples of corruption this state has to offer. Mr. Pickering does not work for the people of this state. He answers to a higher power. It is time to bring that floating fat man, The Baron into this, along with all those self appointed aristocracy who are using the tax payer's purse as their own atm.

None of this has anything to do with color or party affiliation, corruption loves absolute power and she does not discriminate.

Anonymous said...

I'm reading the charge against Huggins. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know the secret sauce you guys use. In my Intro to Law class many years ago, I thought you had to have intent in addition to an act before you could have a crime. Reading between the lines at the 3rd paragraph of the charge, it looks like Huggins couldn't find criminal wrongdoing, so he marked the file as Civil.

In other words, the DA is pissed that Huggins didn't conclude that the downtown partners shit was a crime. That's what it looks like to this amateur Sherlock Holmes.

Anonymous said...

8:29am & 9:54am are exactly right:Smith has become mentaally unstable and his behavior increasingly bizarre and erratic. Irregardless of what we think of the auditor's office, the charges against these two are baseless. If they were ignoring his subpoena, or not fully complying, he could have gone to court and forced them. However, he was unable to get any Hinds County Judge to issue such an order. Look for more Shuler-Smith shenanigans...

Anonymous said...

Irregardless is not a real word and is used by people who ignorantly mean to say regardless...

Anonymous said...

Why didn't Robert Schuler-Smith just file for a Show Cause on the subpoenaed documents? Btw, what is up with his eyebrows?

Anonymous said...

does the poster that alludes to Robert Shuler Smith having mental issues have any evidence or other information to buttress that claim? or is this some of the legal assistants that were fired or run off by Smith in the last couple of years or so? I would suggest that if this anonymous source has proof that he is indeed unbalanced to the point it effects his ability to discharge his office, that Judge Green [senior circuit judge], Jim Hood, and Chief Justice Waller be given this information instanter!

and as for you KF, vet the facts before you accuse the DA of leaking things to the press.

Anonymous said...

What's erratic or unusual about an elected official not doing his/her job, or for that matter anything promised during a campaign, OR having gloriously groomed eyebrows (methinks someone is jealous)?

If RSS has gone batshit, someone needs to order an evaluation other than Judge Green, with her delusions of grandeur, she's not fit to evaluate anothers' reason.

Anonymous said...

@2:31 I guess you be the poster that still works for Robert Shuler Smith. You allowed to troll on political websites and shit while you're on the government clock?

2:26 is correct. A show cause hearing is obviously the normal course of action. Oh, but then it might have to go before a real judge and the mighty DA would be deprived of his chance to smear reputations and wreak totally unnecessary havoc in people's personal lives, no matter whether they are honestly performing their duties in office.

This all stinks. How do you recall a DA?

Anonymous said...

Attn 2:31 Who was your English teacher when you dropped out of the 5th grade?

Anonymous said...

@3:21 - kinda like Huggy Bear (whoever came up with that nickname is awesome) and his crew do? How many times have they gone too far with an "investagation" knowing it was bullshit, only to sully the reputation of an individual, and only to waste the resources of the court and have cases nolle prosequi or dismissed with prejudice? I suppose the number of apology letters just about equals the number of retractions printed by the CL.

Anonymous said...

The whole DJP has smelled since Allen took over. Just follow his tracks, from the basement of a building on congress street when he started to the entrance of the glooming electric building. All on the tax payers backs with nothing in return. Can't wait to see all they find. Believe they finally got him.

Anonymous said...

If there is proof that Smith is incompetent or mentally ill, these posters need to move on it. I don't work for him. I honestly don't care one way or another. But if he's a loaded train, do something about it rather than rant in a two bit manner on a forum where you don't have to take any responsibility.

Anonymous said...

4:54. LMAO.

Anonymous said...

6:29, it is sort of hard to convince people that another person is crazy, especially a politician. Those who support him will never be convinced no matter what he does.

Anonymous said...

4:54 I don't believe there's anything criminal going on. A little extravagant here and there in my opinion, but all of the recruiter entities seem to think they need nice space to show and sell. And remember, the "whistleblower" is a disgruntled ex employee.

Anonymous said...

" glooming electric building"?? 4:54? I'm sure the owners would want to know that! To me the Electric Building is beautifully redone and the glass tiles are exactly the right color! So what if a person progresses from a "basement" to the first floor of a building? You seem to just really have it in for Allen and for DJP. Incidentally, I am not part of that taxing district, but I know they have been instrumental in helping Jackson steer some rough waters.

Anonymous said...

Pickering should know what his investigators are up to. Unless, of course, he's hanging out at Disney in his RV and isn't paying attention. The buck stops with Stacey. How much more are we going to take from this clown and his office?

Robertharoldhutchins@gmail.com said...

Who would dare to imply that a long time jackson city council member broke a law.
Robert Shuler smith has my vote from now 9n. Why is Ben allen not facing federal charges. If you think for one moment that robert Shuler smith has nothing better to do but to frame state investigators of corruption involving jackson city council members then think again.

Anonymous said...

Spot on 7:23.

Anonymous said...

Robert Hutchins,

You have obviously never met the DA.

Anonymous said...

Mugshots?? Or did these crooked "cops" get preferential treatment and not have to report to Raymond for processing? Far more have been treated far worse for far less by that office.

Hey Huggy, sucks when someone pulls the same shit on you, huh? As my Granddad used to say sympathy is between shit and syphilis in the dictionary,

Anonymous said...

Robert Hutchins,

I propose that we go ahead and just hang Ben Allen, and then give him a fair trial. What do you say? Or, perhaps, we could just skip the whole damn trial thing, since it's probably just a waste of money. We could just hang him from the nearest tree. We really need to avoid a trial because, heaven forbid, in a trial, we just might discover that Robert Shuler Smith is the one who should be facing federal charges.

Anonymous said...

9:22, how about we hang both of them?

Lindsey said...

I know everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is quite clear those opinions have been voiced. But if you do not know the individuals personally and do not know the actions taken in the investigation then please refrain from grasping for your 15 minutes of fame.

If you do know these individuals then voice your experience through a personal level. If not, then maybe you should do more of your own investigation on the matter and quit exuding ignorance.

Lindsey said...

Ben Allen found not guilty. David Huggins found not guilty. Karei McDonald found not guilty. Pickering.....GONE. I hope karma punches all you mouthy SOBs (and RSS) right in the throat. This was such an unnecessary waste of tax payers money and legal representations time.



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