Friday, July 28, 2023

Fifth Circuit Rules For Madison, Against Mayfields

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Madison Police Department did not target Mark Mayfield when it arrested the attorney for his role in the Rose Cochran nursing home scandal in 2014.  

 Mayfield worked with others to plan Clayton Kelly's invasion of Rose Cochran's room at St. Catherine's Village so he could take pictures of her in her disabled condition. 

Mrs. Cochran was the wife of Senator Thad Cochran.  She suffered from a severe case of dementia.  Kelly and his accomplices used the picture in a video designed to attack Senator Cochran during the 2014 Senate race.  They were strong supporters of his opponent, Chris McDaniel. 

Kelly was arrested and indicted for his sordid excursion.  Kelly pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary in 2015.  Earlier post.

A Madison County grand jury indicted Mayfield.  He committed suicide in his garage several days later. 

 

Mr. Mayfield's wife Robin, and their two sons, Owen and William, sued the city of Madison, investigators Vickie Currie and Chuck Harrison, Butler Snow (Cochran Campaign's lawyers), Amanda Barbour, Esq., and Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler in 2017 in U.S. District Court.  The plaintiffs also sued every government official in their individual capacities.  Earlier post.

The lawsuit claimed the defendants were guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment, depriving the late Mr. Mayfield of his civil rights upon arrest, and other torts.  

Mayfield was a prominent supporter of the Mississippi Tea Party. His family claimed the police arrested Mayfield in retaliation for his public support of Senatorial candidate Chris McDaniel. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves. 

The case dragged on as the two sides waged trench warfare, the protracted kind, for years. Judge Reeves dismissed Butler Snow and its associated personnel.  The Court dismissed the lawsuit against the city of Madison, Investigator Harrison, and Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler in May 2021 as he granted their motion for summary judgment.  Earlier post. He found the Madison police did not arrest Mayfield in retaliation for his support of Chris McDaniel.  The Court held:

The City, in turn, has articulated a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for Mayfield’s arrest. Based on the evidence gathered during its investigation, the City had probable cause that Mayfield conspired with others to trespass onto St. Catherine’s Village property.

An examination of the evidence adduced in this case satisfactorily answers these questions. Instead of rounding up the most vocal McDaniel supporters, city investigators followed the evidence from Kelly to Mary to Mayfield. The police were given free rein to conduct their investigation as they saw fit, without direction from the Mayor, a Cochran supporter. There is no evidence that before the Rose Cochran incident, the City of Madison was itching for an excuse to go after McDaniel supporters. And there is no evidence of differential treatment of McDaniel and Cochran supporters....

 

Judge Reeves took pains to note several people pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the nursing home caper.  

The Court dismissed the case with prejudice.  However, the Mayfields appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Fifth Circuit heard it all again as this was the plaintiffs second appeal to the Court in this case and ruled against them as it did the first time.  

The Court said the Mayfields must first show an "absence of probably cause for the arrest."   Unfortunately for their lawsuit, they were unable to show no probable cause existed.  "Allegations" established the conspirators had an intent to enter Ms. Cochran's room and take her picture. Thus the police officers enjoyed qualified immunity.  

The Fifth Circuit found for Mayor Hawkins-Butler as well:

Here, Plaintiffs' best evidence merely establishes that the City of Madison was aggressively pursuing those who committed a potential invasion of the privacy of an incapacitated adult. The evidence doesn't show that the City carried out the investigation, arrest, search, or prosecution because of Mayfield's political views, which the Plaintiffs needed to show to succeed. The same is true of the Mayor: Although some evidence in the record suggests she knew the conspirators were McDaniel supporters, other evidence clarifies that she was not responsible for the prosecutorial decisions of the District Attorney's Office.  The district court properly granted summary judgment for the City of Madison and its Mayor.
Attorney Dorsey Carson represented the plaintiffs.


38 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had no idea Butler Snow handled this kind of stuff. If this is their business plan, it might be a good idea to pull up Madison county jail inmates. There are plenty to choose from.

Anonymous said...

Just because a judge rules that something wasn’t illegal doesn’t mean it was right. McDaniel and Mary ironically share their n the guilt on this one.

Anonymous said...

Same here, I thought Butler Snow was primarily a tax firm.

Anonymous said...

This was bullshit from day one. I can't believe they tied up the courts and pursued this crapola for nine years.

Anonymous said...

I feel sad for the family.

Anonymous said...

Dorsey lost his shirt on this

Anonymous said...

Didnt the send heavily armed leos to his office to arrest him, humiliating him and to cause shock effect which caused much of his clientele to quit him?

Anonymous said...

Kelly was also a loser on this. The young man was manipulated by this sttorney to do this. He paid a much bigger price than just the few years he spent in jail.

Kingfish said...

Five years, half suspended. Only served 9 months in prison.

Anonymous said...

and there's this, regarding Dorsey Jr.'s co-counsel:

http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2017/07/madison-attorney-accused-of-depleting.html

Anonymous said...

I maintain that this action was creepy and that all of the arrests/public outcry was what they deserved as a result. I have zero sympathy for anyone who plans to take photos of mentally compromised senior adults for political gain.

Anonymous said...

Everything about this case makes me sad. It did when it happened and it still does. So many wrong steps by so many. From the inconceivable step of possibly doing harm to an elderly person to the absolute heartache felt by family who lost someone they loved to suicide. So very very sad.

Anonymous said...

8:29...How much??

Anonymous said...

Mark Mayfield was as nice of a guy as you would ever meet. He should not be remembered for a momentary lapse of judgment.

Anonymous said...

Sad events for all. Anyone dealing with family or friends with dementia realize how sad this is. It was a very tight contentious compendious race. Would be a good story of where they are all now. Sounds like it was a lot of good people who got too involved. But I don't know who would ever think a picture of Mrs. Cochran was a good idea under the circumstances.

Anonymous said...

There's no way the Carson firm did all this on a contingency fee basis. I wonder who paid the bill.

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when you stand against the traitorous swamp. They are lucky they weren’t just murdered. Thad Cochran was very much a swamp creature.

All of you sheeple will attack me and support the swamp because you are brainwashed bugmen.

Anonymous said...

The outcome was never in doubt and frankly, and that their attorneys didn't tell them that they had no legal grounds for a suit is one of the reasons the public perception of the legal profession is so poor.

Too many suits with no evidence or merit are allowed make it to trial when, frankly, they shouldn't make to the courthouse.

All that happened here is that a tragic situation was made worse and even more emotionally and financially costly.

Lawyers who take cases that lack sufficient merit do so to further political agendas, create billable hours, hope to be noticed with accompanying " side gig' income. Such egotists lack commitment to the rule of law and justice which by the way is they ONLY thing that keeps a society from falling into chaos.

Such men and women are untrustworthy, unethical or dishonorable as far as I'm concerned. They rank with paid mercenaries who kill without caring about reasons why or for whom they kill other humans they do not know. Such people or too unethical or too biased to be competent attorneys. AND, more than a few elite law firms agree and quickly show top law review students from Ivy League schools are the door or told they will never make partner if their party preferences are really "blind loyalty".

Once upon a time, lawyers were ethically barred from advertising. They actually even saw it as a good thing if they could protect their client from publicity as they knew it'd have lasting negative consequences for their clients once the gossips were given more " ammunition". And, it would make having an unbiased good jury more difficult.

This is the results divisive politics which leads to empowering insane excessive, destructive behaviors (read about " The Reign of Terror" and how quickly what might have been like our Revolution got out of hand and lasted SO LONG...it's wasn't like just a few months).

Anonymous said...

As a long-term reader of this blog, I’ve seen this attorney (Carson) come up repeatedly over the years representing people in cases seemingly with no merit (Rudy Warnock comes to mind). The final result seems to be that he always comes up on the short end of a verdict.

Question: Has he EVER won a case?

Next question: Is he just the attorney of last resort around here when no decent lawyer will take a case?

Anonymous said...

Shame on you KF. We know what side you're on! bringing up all of this old crap from the past is not going to save Democrat Delbert's ass! We dont't blame Trump for his supporter's actions and neither will we blame McDaniel.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish is a Zionist Neocon.
aka a RINO
Birds of a feather.

Anonymous said...

I agree with 12:37. Now if Girard will rehash this story next week on Supertalk, along with an echo from Gallo, prior to the primaries, the three of them can claim a trifecta.

And while we're reading about who had or didn't produce evidence, let's remember that there never has been, nor does there exist, any evidence that McDaniel had any knowledge about any of this prior to hearing and reading about it.

Anonymous said...

11:16 & 12:21,
a good lawyer knows the law,
a great lawyer knows the judge, and
a shitty lawyer still gets paid for losing.

If you haven’t already, read
“Kings of Tort” by Lange and Dawson, and
“The Fall of the House of Zeus” by Curtis Wilkie.

There is no “Justice System” in America, it’s the “Legal Fee Generation System,” full of fee churning lawyers that in many cases, are the only winners.

A commoner sues the rich man and can’t get the Judge to give them a court date, but when the rich man sues the commoner, a speedy trial is on order.

Like Don Henley sang, The more I think about it old Billy was right,

Anonymous said...

Dorsey, the staunch liberal, helping defend the tea party McDaniel camp is rich in its own right. I wonder why Mayfield’s family didn’t include McDaniel as he was most likely pulling the strings on this stunt. It shows you just how out of touch the tea party people are.

Anonymous said...

9:54. my mother has dementia in a nursing home. it’s core shaking to see people in that condition. i’d never think of taking their photos for political gain.

no “nice guys” are doing what he did. only perverts and people without a soul do that kind of thing.

it’s the gospel truth. sorry you can’t admit that.

Anonymous said...

Birds of a Feather.
Hmm yea! But bet you've never ever seen KF with McDaniel or that idiot attorney, who makes millions from dumb clients who have millions to piss away, D Carson.
If you have please us all know.

Anonymous said...

I see the libertarian tea party crackpots have come in defense of their own. The fact is, the plaintiffs got kicked out on summary judgment, long before a trial could take place, and they jus wouldn’t let it go.

I can’t help but wonder if payment of the legal fees trace back to McDaniel, in order to prove to his people he’ll stand behind them. If he had pardon power, he surely would have used it for those committing crimes on his behalf. It reminds me of another anti-politician running for political office.

Kingfish said...

McDaniel had nothing to do with this caper. None.

Anonymous said...

We all really need to learn more civility and chill out.

Anonymous said...

Chris McDaniel is right about how corrupt this state is. I would rent a room in a crack house before I would ever live in Madison.

Anonymous said...

Robin must be as dumb as her brother John Reeves.

Anonymous said...

KF -surely you jest. I thought when I first saw that comment at 4:35 it came from an anonymous commentator, but now I find it came from you. Maybe your tounge was firmly implanted in your cheeck, but to saw McDaniel had 'nothing' to do with the Rose Cochran caper is nothing but parroting what Chris said.

Just like - he had nothing to do with Janis Lane and a campaign staffer breaking into (and can't get out) of the Hinds Cotunty Courthouse on election night. Those were just "supporters" and he has no control over supporters - every campaign has some that might wander off course.

Or those supporters that attacked Senator Jeramy England over his Halloween costume worn to support "men wear pink" raising dollars for Breast Cancer Awareness. One of those "supporters" that had no connection to the campaign was Senator Melanie Sojourner - hard to say she had no 'official' connection to the campaign (or any connection to Chris or the campaign) when she brought up the picture of England in pink tutu. Or the crazy IT guy that has been blogging for this years Don Quixotie campaign when he sent it out. Or when it was reposted by one of the handful of State Senators supporting and speaking "on behalf of the campaign, Senator Chism.

Want me to name other instances of where "volunteers and supporters" did crazy shit on behalf of Chris? The list doesn't stop here.

Yes, every campaign has supporters that are not connected to the campaign, but please explain how it is that the only campaign that has 'unrelated supporters' doing criminal and dispicable acts such as breaking into a nursing home, or breaking into a county courthouse where the election materials are all stored ----- always are Chris McDaniel supporters.

Anonymous said...

11:48 - I hope I'm never the accused with you on a jury. The way you connect dots would surely lead you to vote to convict because I bought peanuts from the vendor six hours before he was found dead.

Anonymous said...

McDaniel either had nothing to do with it, or other crazy events, or the majority of his supporters are crazy. Either way it’s enough for me to not vote for him. What has he done, or what will he do, that makes him the prime candidate? All they do is talk trash, post nonsense on social media, or break into places(on his behalf while he knows nothing about it). Chris is a sore loser and has been that way since the first time he lost a state wide election. All he does is try and out-‘Merica the guy he’s running against. I want one McDaniel supporter to tell me one thing he has done while in office, one.

Anonymous said...

McDaniel has always struck me as being a bit of a nut, but the nastiness of Hoseman's campaign and the meanness of his supporters has flipped me to a becoming a McDaniel supporter.

I'd rather have a nut with integrity than a ruthless politician.

Anonymous said...

12:37, see the date on that decision?! Wake up. This is current news.

Anonymous said...

KF 4:35????? WHAT????? Surely you jest. Of COURSE HE DID! He is a crazy, egotistical, opportunistic degenerate, and he surrounds himself with the same. God HELP US if he gets elected and lets the Lt. Guv power go to his head. He'll go back up against Tater and the Speaker and have himself a little dictatorship.

Anonymous said...

A stupid action, over reaction to protect then senile THAD. sad memory, a decent man kills himself over a big mistake. The error in thinking Mississippi cares about what our political elite do, no grasping the Bible belt is long dead, it was in my view always an incorrect label. Rose RIP THAD no comment.


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