Jackson Jambalaya

both crimes are violent crimes against persons. armed robbery can carry life in prison without parole. these bonds are a joke.

glad I got out of that place and system...

The Mississippi Constitution allows for a no Bond finding for these serious crimes. But I guess one must read the document before knowing that. Just saying!!

GET OUT OF JACKSON NOW!

Is this a judge a lawyer?

Watch Ridgeland and Madison County, this thug is coming your way!

Holy Hell! WTF is up with this site?

This used to be a place to come to discuss all the shenanigans and jackassery in Jackson. Now it's NOTHING but courtroom proceedings and legislative bills and how this judge isn't as good as that one.

"Today in the Wango McWilliams trial, Judge Elihu Smails went nutty and refused to allow a matchbook to be submitted as evidence! If only Judge Reinhold was presiding!"

BFD. This place used to be interesting, but it's nothing but trials and the legislature, with a weekly yawner from Rick Cleveland to give the place "atmosphere".

Remember when there used to be posts about Donna Ladd's regular foolishness, or the latest idiocy by Stokes, or more nonsense about downtown Jackson becoming a residential and entertainment magnet, or the Stephenses bringing Oxford House to Leftover, or how Harborwalk is a huge boondoggle? At least they were fun to read and talk about. I just may fall asleep in my chair if I have to read yet another update on the Ben Allen trial or the legal travails of RSS!

Damn, man! This is getting REALLY old!!!

Chief Vance is a good one. I can't believe he has stuck around this long.

Wow, 3:23, I guess KF has matured and is reporting the news. Obviously, you have not. Go get your thrills in wishing ill will on others somewhere else. Watch your own karma.

If judges can't keep the public safe & the criminal element away from law abiding citizens we need to get the Federal Government involved. What college was Judge Shamsidden hatched from?

3:23 - I've only been reading KF a couple years, but I agree there's been a noticeable decline in quality. My imagination, based on nothing, is that he's burned out or overworked with inadequate to no staff.

You know what I would read? A Hob Bryan blog. I think KF is too conservative to be an interesting gadfly these days. Tater and em are slashing budgets, eviscerating the personnel board, meddling with school funding, privatizing everything under the sun, etc. and KF really has nothing interesting to say about any of it.

3:23 has a good point, Commander Fish. I understand that you or anyone can be mesmerized by the bizarre doings of the criminal underworld, but it's a predictable place. Has the City Council become too buried in minutiae? As a Jacksonian, the main issue for me is the mayor's race. I'm waiting for someone to tell me whom to vote for, and I rely on you.

Courage, my man. Maybe you've lost some of the passion for your work, to which most of us should be able to relate. Anyway, as 3:23 suggests, let the jackassery fly. (And Rev. Pollard was a fine preacher, but you might consider letting him rest in peace. At present, we've got a strange mix of anti-Jackson trolling and voices from the grave.)

With affection, Da Burke

Can't believe Vance has stuck around? Are you kidding? He's never worked anywhere else or at least not in the past thirty years. He's sitting fat and happy waiting for the next mayor to replace him so he can draw a PERS retirement.

@Buford, absolutely correct. Vance is a zero and always has been. I'm convinced that he and Graham the Legend are twins, separated at birth.

@4:22 and 3:23: if the 'quality' of this blog has declined recently, it's only because the quality of Jacktown has PLUMMETED!

Signed, an ex-jackson resident.

To the Whiner @ 3:23 PM:

Hit the tip jar and then tell the owner of this business what you'd like to see more of and less of.

It's definitely becoming stale around here. I know there are about 5 people who REALLY give a shit about Ben Allen's trial, but I sure as hell don't. And what is with the phoning it in by posting press releases bit? It's like 5 a day. Today there is a post from the SOS of a list of late filers for financial disclosure.

It's a f***ing LIST OF NAMES! That's a JJ post these days.

I miss the yawner who always commented a single word on Rick Cleveland's weekly snoozer.

I miss State and Ole Miss fans talking about Coach Mullens.

I miss Whole Foods jokes.

I miss daily digs at the harridan running the JFP.

Damn, this place used to be fun.

Everyone charged with a crime should have to serve 10 years of their sentence before they can apply for bond.

I suppose these troubled youth just need an aquatics center to get out their frustration.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

If you expect a judge with a name like that to be remotely tough on criminals, you're on heavy drugs. White people should leave Jackson now.

The sock puppets are out.

5:38 - I will probably not read anything stupider or wickeder (is that a word?) this year.

Charged /= convicted.

Who the heck wants to make cops the judge & the jury?

I agree the bond is too low - KF does good highlighting these things.

I also agree the GOP is running this state into the ground & he doesn't care much, it seems.

Those deeply bothered by that are free to start their own blogs. Good luck.

In MS Municipal Court judges are appointed. So, who appointed
this well known radical? Our current Mayor? If so, that and other legal
Issues that he and his little friend (the one in his pants) started is all I
need to know when it comes to at least one candidate that
I will not vote for.

Shamsideen ran for judge in the past. Had a runoff against a white
opponent and well you know, played the race card hard.

A suggestion to those that aren't interested in reading about crappy judges and our judicial system. Either quit reading JJ altogether, or do what most smart people do and skip those postings that don't interest you. I had no problem skipping the ass-kissing article Dilbert sent out about himself. No problem at all. Its not hard - try it. You might like it.

If you don't like it, call up Hob and offer to buy ads on his site. He might just start writing one. Don't waste too much money on it though, we all already tknow what he will say on each and every comment. --- "Damn Republicans don't know what they are doing, give it back to me and my Billy McCoy buddies and we can straighten it all out. In the meantime, everybody just needs to send in more taxes so we can fully fund MAEP"

UPDATE On WAPT news the judge increased the bond from 10,000 to 200,000. The judge said he was given wrong information from police officers.

WAPT News

Erin Pickens
Morning Anchor
JACKSON, Miss. —
A Jackson municipal court judge raised a $10,000 bond Wednesday to $200,000 Friday for a man accused a robbing a restaurant and carjacking someone hours earlier.
Stephan Brown, 19, was arrested Tuesday in connection with an armed robbery at the IHOP on Greenway Drive. The crime was caught on surveillance video, which showed a man pulling a gun on employees and them handing over cash. Employees said the robber left, but came back and demanded more money.
Brown is also charged with a carjacking at Quality Inn, which is down the street from IHOP.
Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance was not happy about the decision of the low bond.
"I'm really upset about this. My officers work their asses off to catch these guys and get and hopefully keep them off the streets. They are running around committing heinous crimes, robberies, thefts, and carjackings against the citizens of Jackson and when we catch them and bring them before a judge and they get a low bond like this it is very disheartening. It bothers me a great deal. I don't like it and I am not going to hide my feelings. I am upset by it and appeal to the judges to consider their records and the safety of the community."
Vance said the punishment is a joke.
"It is my understanding that he was issued a $10,000 total bond, $5,000 for each count, which basically means he can he can post $1000 and he can be back out in the streets again. That is unacceptable."
Officials with the Jackson Municipal Court said the officer gave erroneous information, Judge Shamsideen, brought defendant Brown back into his court and modified and raised the bond to $100,000 on each count, $200,000 bond and added the addendum that if he does somehow make bond that he must be placed under house arrest.

When this criminal commits a murder out on bond, the judge should be sued by the family of the victim.

He doesn't have a former workout buddy turned murderer or NE Jackson socialite/vehicular depraved heart killer to skewer these days. The Alfuenza brothers are comfortably in jail and downtown Jackson trash blog is over. To quote Pink Floyd "And nothing is very much fun, anymore...."

Frank Melton appointed him, as a reward to the Jim Evans , Jackson Advicate, Stephanie Parker faction of politics that supported him for Mayor. Yarber should have replaced him.

Is it being claimed that these 'appointed judges' can then be fired by the next incumbent? I don't think so. I don't believe they serve at the will and pleasure of the mayor.

I believe the bond was reset to a higher amount yesterday. It was reset because the initial bond was based on erroneous information by the cop.

So this butt monkey probably paid his bail with IHOP's money.

JJ remains the best overall news source locally, who cares what the bellyachers think...

The appointment of lawyers to the municipal court bench has been one of the sorriest of sorry aspects of city government in the past ten years. Frank Melton shamelessly appointed this character as a favor or payoff to Stephanie P. Weaver/Tisdale and followed up with more stupid appointments for various bad reasons. The municipal court has no rhyme or reason and no consistency, except that certain lawyers can get a deal no matter what. That bench is loaded with sorry asses who will have to find jobs either in city/county government or go broke for lack of clients.

Ok, I will address some of these comments.

1. The SOS posts. Believe it or not, you guys read that post every year. The numbers don't lie. It's simply a press release but you guys want to read it. The second post, I put it up more for the kids than anything. Always nice to see kids getting involved in these type of projects.

2. Press releases. Every reporter now gets bombarded with press releases. It's a good thing in a way. The police now send them out much more than they used to. One Sheriff said that the time he spent answering questions from the media went down by over half when he started sending out press releases with the information he thought they needed. Instead of rewriting the press release and insulting your intelligence, I just post them verbatim and add some info if necessary.

I also post them verbatim so you can see that so-called news at other media outlets is just rewriting or regurgitation of press releases.

3. I don't cover the legislature as much unless there is a specific story because it is literally covered by everyone else. There is MT, CL, and other coverage. However, when I get a tip or see something that needs covering, then I will go down there. I usually make to the cap two to three times per session.

4. Ben Allen trial. You may think no one pays attention but the numbers don't lie. More than a few people are reading about it on this website. The trial ties into the D.A. story as well for obvious reasons.

5. For a website that is stale, the traffic numbers are pretty high. JJ doesn't use FB, Twitter, or other social media to drive traffic. That means JJ doesn't take advantage of those platforms but it also means it is not held hostage whenever they change their algorithims.

6. Sit tight. JJ is working on three major stories that will come out in the next six weeks. Ton of documents to read. One was three volumes or whatever you called those brown thick folders lawyers use alone.

7. Crime. JJ made a decision to show how the criminal justice system works in Jackson and Hinds County. Five years ago, blaming JPD was on everyone's lips. Unlike some other organizations, JJ has dug into the guts of cases and posted them. Readers have gotten to see, case by case, how things work and usually don't like it. JJ has managed to change the conversation from blaming JPD alone to blaming those truly responsible, the prosecutors and judges. A fact supported by the Mississippi Supreme Court and one federal judge. Catch and release is not a mere slogan but a real fact. JJ is going to continue to shine the spotlight on the Hinds County criminal justice system. There should be a good one posted early next week.

And yes, your complaints are appreciated. I've even taken the advice sometimes of readers who hate me the most and used those to make improvements, much to their chagrin. ;-)

Quit whining!

Thank you for the detailed response, Dear Leader. You make a good case, and I will pivot (yes!) to a position of greater respect.

And I will apologize for disrespecting Rev. Pollard. That was uncalled for. I'm sorry.