Monday, September 22, 2008

Jackson Disregards Ethics Commission Opinion, Only Provides One Police Report in George Bell, III Case

The City of Jackson apparently disregarded the recent Ethics Commission opinion directing the City to release copies of the two police reports I requested under Mississippi public records law. On July 25, 2008, I submitted a public records request to the City for a copy of the police incident reports for the murder of Heather Spencer and the kidnapping of Elizabeth Hall. Monica Joiner, Deputy City Attorney, denied my request, thus forcing me to appeal to the Mississippi Ethics Commission. The Commission ruled that under the new amendments to the public records law, Jackson should provide me with a copy of the reports. Jackson Denial Letter

In what can only be called a blatant disregard for the Commission's ruling, Jackson only sent the police incident report for the murder of Heather Spencer after heavily redacting it. The sanitizing was so thorough not even Heather Spencer's name is mentioned anywhere in the report. The city did not provide me with the report for the kidnapping, thus ignoring the Ethics Commission's ruling.

The City of Jackson has dealt with this matter in bad faith from the very beginning. The City refused my original public records requests despite the statute. The city claimed it did not have a police incident report form, even though the report is titled "police incident report". When I appealed Jackson's denial to the Mississippi Ethics Commission, the City stated in writing that the capital murder and kidnapping charges against George Bell, III had not been prosecuted as of August 6, 2008!!!
Cases already prosecuted. Second to last paragraph

When the Ethics Commission ruled in my favor, the attorney for the City said they would comply with the ruling. The City,however, only released one police report when the opinion states Jackson must provide both reports. Jackson has repeatedly acted in bad faith by lying (What else do you call saying the cases had not been prosecuted?) and avoiding its responsibility to the public.

Jackson's attorneys forget the government exists to serve us, not themselves. Jackson has a bunker mentality discouraging openness and accountability. From the Melton administration's junking of the Comstat crime reporting system to its refusals to provde the public with crime statistics (until forced to do so by media lawsuits), Jackson has engaged in a pattern of keeping Jacksonians from seeing how its government and police are run by its leaders. Sadly enough, the actions by the City attorneys are only more of the same as it ignores the Mississippi Ethics Commission, shirking its responsibilities to its own citizens.

Copy of Police Incident Report for the murder of Heather Spencer:
http://jackson-jambalaya.googlegroups.com/web/city%20reports.pdf

Ethics Commission Opinion

Previous Posts on this subject:
Greenwood Commonwealth Editorial
Clarion-Ledger Editorial on Ethics Commission ruling and Kingfish
Kingfish requests opinion from Ethics Commission
Jackson denies Kingfish's request for police incident reports

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work Kingfish. I love how they redacted so much information you can hardly tell that its the incident report for the Spencer murder -- we are sure that its that incident report, right? I mean, they did send you the right thing ...

Tom Head said...

Gah. Unbelievable.

Either they're planning to prosecute Bell after all, or they screwed up in such a spectacular way that they don't want to make it public.

Tom Head said...

(Er, Bell as in Robbie Bell. I realize the other Bell has already been prosecuted and convicted and sentenced, JPD's statement to the contrary notwithstading.)

Anonymous said...

The attitude by Melton, McMillin, SORE and others installed in City Hall that led to redacting the report to uselessness is no different than that of the backers who crucified Harvey Johnson and vaulted Melton into office.

Those backers, by-and-large downtown development interests and Fondrenites, don't want any public scrutiny of their activities. They want a pliant puppet to high ball their projects through the process.

Those are the same interests that used their crime watchdog front organization, SafeCity, for plausible deniability to bring you SB2991 -- that landmark piece of racist legislation to intimidate black men into staying out of downtown Jackson and Fondren by threatening next-to lifetime incarceration for arrests inside the Jackson green zone. Who can forget SB2991 and the conveniently jiggered boundaries that made any number of inexplicable jogs and turns in order to encompass each of the Melton backer's pet developments.

In the case of Robbie Bell what you have Kingfish is a coverup. The levers have been pulled, the phone calls placed and the secret handshakes made to hide Robbie Bell's reckless participation in Heather Spencer's death. The good ol' boy network at its finest to keep one of their members out of jail.

The same network that has made the JFP an associate member.

Good luck KF. But this city is corrupt to the core.

Kingfish said...

Just curious. Where was Safecity on the fight in the legislature this year over police reports?

Anonymous said...

Is there anything else you can do to get the full report, or is this it?

Anonymous said...

The silence from the JFP on Kingfish's FOI battle with Jackson and Ethics Commission victory emotes a whole vineyard full of sour grapes on the part of Ladd. The effort is a bigger accomplishment than anything the JFP has done in 7 years on opening public records. But Ladd sits pouting in the corner refusing to report. Talk has always been cheap at the JFP, now it is a f'ing bargain.

Kingfish said...

Things to note on the report:

1. Only George Bell's name is mentioned. The names of Elizabeth Hall, Heather Spencer, James Bell, and Robbie Bell are all blacked out.

2. The address of the Trawick home is blacked out in the narrative.

3. Bell's birthdate isredacted.

4. Only the BP station incident is mentioned and that Bell held a gun to his head. Never mentions Robbie Bell is in the car with him.

5. Confirms the rumor being true that cops were flagged down by Ms. Hall and Mr. Bell (James) by Highland Village.

Kingfish said...

I understand why some of you are directing the comments towards the JFP and agree with most of them but right now, the anger needs to be directed at JPD and the attorneys for the City of Jackson, Sarah O'Reilly-Evans and Monica Joiner, who are responsible for this. Feel free to call your councilman as well as Melton's office.

This report's redaction and the refusal to comply with the opinion directing that the city release the report on the kidnapping was a slap in the face to everyone.

Anonymous said...

I understand why some of you are directing the comments towards the JFP and agree with most of them but right now, the anger needs to be directed at JPD and the attorneys for the City of Jackson, Sarah O'Reilly-Evans and Monica Joiner, who are responsible for this.

What? Do you think we can't multi-task? Do you believe that support from the JFP wouldn't somehow be additive for the public good?

Feel free to call your councilman as well as Melton's office.

You might as well ask us to go waste our time.

Anonymous said...

It is clear the redacted report is covering up a lot of arcane details. Especially when reminded of the suspicious legal maneuvering which took place a couple of months before Heather was brutally murdered. She endured a beating which resulted in over 52 staples in her head.
Look at the timeline regarding the charges of the Heather’s attack in June.
June 7th charges were upgraded to a felony domestic violence charge
June 12th charges were reduced to a misdemeanor by a JPD detective
August 10th an attempt was made to dismiss the charges all together
During this timeframe George Bell III was in a treatment facility (although was never arrested for the June domestic violence charges). Was he still a fugitive when he retuned back to Jackson from rehab?
The “accessory charges” were expeditiously dropped after George plead guilty to Capital Murder and Kidnapping her roommate. In addition to this document being overly redacted, it clearly reveals someone else was contacted, in lieu of the authorities. Northside and Old Canton Road?

Kingfish said...

The northside drive and Old canton road note, there is a reasonable explanation for it. Forgive me for not revealing it now but no conspiracy on that minor fact.

George was a fugitive when he returned to Jackson.

The DA could still prosecute Ms. Bell for aiding and abetting a fugitive. How did he wind up at that treatment center? Who paid for it? She had a party for him at her house the night after he returned. She knew about it. But expecting justice from the DA on this case is hopeless.

Anonymous said...

One call that's all - Heather would still be alive.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Melton and Danks arriving at the standoff. Pretty suspicious. So Tom Royal's called Danks and he called Melton? How many strings did the Bell's pull? Wonder what time the attorney's were retained...Who was called to Trawick Drive(instead of authorities)??? Who saved the roommate?

Anonymous said...

So when, if at all, can you get us more information Kingfish? If you can't reveal what you know, can you reveal why not?



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