Jackson Jambalaya

Embattled Hinds County District Attorney accused the FBI of engaging in outrageous conduct to "coerce" him into accepting $125,000 in bribes for a Jackson convention center hotel development in a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court Monday.  The motion alleges the Fibbies isolated Owens and kept him drunk for several days until he agreed to accept a bribe.  The Court sealed the motion after the government objected.  

A federal grand jury indicted Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, and Jackson Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks on corruption charges on October 23, 2024* Earlier post with copy of indictment.

Undercover FBI agents posed as developers.  They approached Owens about partnering on a convention center hotel. The District Attorney is also a real estate investor.  Owens in turned introduced them to most members of the Jackson City Council and Mayor Lumumba.  The agents used a common line throughout the introductions: Who are the movers and shakers of Jackson and how much do we have to pay to play in the City with Soul? 

Two Council members bit - Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee and Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks. Lee sold her votes for $3,000 cash and a $20,000 shopping spree.  Lee and Insurance agent Marve Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. Banks stands accused of accepting a bribe as well. 

Meanwhile, the FBI had a bigger target than two-bit councilmen - Mayor Lumumba.  Owens introduced the undercovers to Hizzoner.  The indictment charges they discussed giving the Mayor $50,000 to take care of permits and other matters.   The Mayor allegedly had them make five $10,000 contributions to his campaign account.  The Mayor in turn withdrew the money for his personal use.  His campaign finance reports reported the contributions but did not report the associated disbursements.   

The indictment alleges Owens and Smith met the developers at his cigar bar in the "back room" where the partners in crime "negotiated" an upfront payment of $250,000.  The payment would be split between Owens ($100,000), Smith ($100,000), and Owens' employee ($50,000). 

The agents flew Owens and others up to Nashville in a private jet and partied in a plush penthouse for a weekend.  However, that was not the only trip as the agents took Owens and the Mayor down to Miami again in a private jet where they partied in strip clubs and on the yacht of Donnie Brasco fame. 

 The Owens trio met with the undercovers in Miami in December 2023.  Once again, they flew on a private jet paid for by the FBI.  Owens and the undercovers hammered out the terms of the bribes on a yacht.  The "developers" gave Owens $125,000 in cash to split among he and his partners. .

 It was all recorded on video.  

The case is scheduled for trial in July.  It is assigned to U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan. 

 

Owens filed a motion to dismiss and supporting memorandum in U.S. District Court on  January 12. The motion argues Owens is the victim of entrapment and outrageous government conduct.  The defendant said he had never taken a bribe until the FBI came calling.  

The motion opens by blaming the former Mayor for attracting the attention of the Fibbies: 

 For better or worse, state leaders had become desensitized to Lumumba’s vitriol. Not so with the Feds. Lumumba’s brass-knuckles style, socialist ideology, and revolutionary rhetoric drew the ire of the federal Government and, with it, the undivided attention of the FBI. 

The motion alleges the Feds targeted Torrence Mayfield so it could get to Owens.  A former JPD officer, Mayfield was an investigator and bodyguard for the District Attorney.  Unfortunately for Mayfield, local hoodlum and nightclub owner Tonari Moore was in trouble and looking to take others down with him.  A convicted felon, he got Mayfield to purchase a firearm for him.  The indictment was kept sealed for a year.  Mayfield eventually pleaded guilty to providing false information to a firearms dealer and is serving a two-year prison sentence. 

Owens accuses the FBI of trying to get Mayfield to "incriminate Owens" and infiltrate his cigar shop as an undercover informant.  The motion alleges Mayfield  said although there was corruption at JPD, he did not know of Owens engaging in illegal activity. 

Although an FBI agent claims Owens inserted himself into the bribery scheme, the motion claims such is false.  The Agent had a lengthy meeting with Owens, his cigar shop manager, Marve Smith, Johnny Crisler (Marshand's brother), and Willie Bozeman in August 2023 to discuss the project. The FBI agent allegedly suggested bribery was necessary to "do business in Jackson" but the group did not agree.

The motion claims  Owens "rejected the undercover agent's criminal overtures and demonstrated reluctance for months thereafter." "We've seen your spirit before. They come in, they flash (money).  You do your proposal, if it makes sense, we will support it," said Owens. 

The FBI allegedly needed to "isolate" a reluctant Owens and suggested they go to "the baddest ass condo in Nashville." "Let's go have some fun.  We'll put everyone up in a bad ass hotel. We're going to pay for everything," claimed the motion.  However, the FBI agents excluded Bozeman from the trip because he and "Owens were the most vocal opponents of the bribery scheme." An agent even said he would love our own political party animal, Kenny Wayne Jones. 

The motion accuses the FBI of using the private jet to limit the number of people who went on the trip.  Owens, Smith, Roberts, and Crisler flew to Nashville on the jet on October 9, 2023.  The motion called it a "highly effective inducement." 

Once they arrived in Nashville, the undercovers wine and dined the visitors in the FBI's luxury penthouse.  Since Owens still resisted participating in a bribery scheme, the agents suggested a trip to Miami where they could fish by day, enjoy evenings on a yacht, and party at a famous strip club by night (p.45 of motion).   

 

The motion to dismiss claims the FBI used the fact that Owens "is a diagnosed alcoholic" to target him with alcohol.  The motion reports several rather um, choice FBI quotes: 

FBI: Probably bang that ass, bounce that ass

FBI: You do three of those, you are shit faced, dude. 

FBI: I woke up the next morning with all my clothes on.  I think my boots were on too. Like damn, something just rolled me." 

FBI: Welcome to our place... take a look around, I ain't fuckin' around. 

FBI: If you can't get any pussy at this place here, you can't get pussy anywhere. 

FBI: Look at our whiskey, beer, wine, and you guys tell me what you want. 

Yeah, buddy!

The motion provides salacious quotes and pictures from the Nashville trip on pages 45 to  61. 

The trip to Miami indeed took place as Mayor Lumumba and Owens flew to Miami on the FBI's private jet.  They fished as promised and partied on a yacht used in the Abscam and Donnie Brasco cases.  They hit the Tootsie strip club at night.  A good time was had by all. It was on this trip the Mayor worked out the payment arrangements (that look an awful lot like money laundering) and called his office to close down the bidding process for a convention center hotel.   

The race card is played near the end of the motion: 

 145.  To investigate black public officials in Jackson, Mississippi, the FBI sent agents with disturbing attitudes toward black people, generally (comparing black women to pieces of meat – “steak,” “black pussy,” “What’s the difference?”³²⁴) and black politicians,  specifically  (“It’s  all  black  run  down  there.”³²⁵).  Armed  with  such dehumanizing attitudes, the FBI agents predictably were willing to do whatever was necessary to “get something” on Owens. Moreover, these attitudes were not part of the act. When in Jackson, the FBI agents typically would drink with Owens at the Cigar Shop until late in the evening.³²⁶ Thereafter, the FBI agents would hit the nightclubs in downtown Jackson looking for entertainment.

 Eager to avoid any scrutiny of its "outrageous conduct", the Justice Department tried to get Owens to plead guilty by using a "speaking indictment". A typical indictment is usually five pages or less. The Justice Department instead filed a 45-page indictment packed with "highly inflammatory quotes and photographs" so it would win in the court of public opinion.  The motion uses no less than seven JJ comments to bolster its case.  (Good job guys, you got noticed. ;-)). 

Talk of the indictment dominated Jackson talk radio, social media, this website, and the media for weeks.  

Owens charges the government made material misrepresentations, concealed evidence, lied to the grand jury, induced Owens after he expressly rejected criminal overtures, targeted Owens with alcohol since he is a diagnosed alcoholic, and circumvented the Court by using a salacious indictment guaranteed to generate a storm of negative publicity.  

A supporting memorandum claims Courts find the government conduct is outrageous when it seeks to induce a defendant to become involved for the first time in certain criminal activity as opposed to the government inserting itself into an ongoing  criminal enterprise.  

Translation: It is not entrapment or outrageous if the District Attorney was already soliciting bribes but is it such if Owens would not have participated but for the actions of the government. 

Owens alleges the government sought to engineer and direct a criminal enterprise from start to finish, using mental coercion to get Owens to engage in criminal conduct.  The government manufactured the case so it could make a criminal case.  It pursued him for months and in the end, isolated him for days and kept him drunk until it got its way. 

The memo states Owens did not demand compensation. 

The motion and memo included 47 exhibits.  

Needless to say, the Justice Department was not pleased as it filed an emergency motion to restrict the pleadings because they violated a protective order the same day Owens filed his motion.  The U.S. Attorney tersely  argues: 

The Protective Order protects the disclosure of personal identifying information, financial information, grand jury testimony, and other sensitive witness statements, and protects the integrity of ongoing criminal investigations related to this case....

 The United States has produced or otherwise made available to the defense discoverable material containing confidential and sensitive information relating to the United States’ investigation. This information includes the entirety of witness interviews, grand jury transcripts, and recorded interviews of 3rd party witnesses. Some of this information was publicly filed, in unredacted form, in defendant’s Motion to Dismiss and Memorandum in Support.
If this information were to be publicly disclosed, such disclosure might impede other investigations, substantially impair the privacy of third-party witnesses, and jeopardize the defendants' right to a fair trial. 

The Justice Department asked Judge Jordan to seal the motion, memorandum, and all exhibits. 

Judge Jordan agreed and sealed the motion, memorandum, and exhibits a day later.  

 

 

 *The charges are: 

Aaron Banks: conspiracy and bribery

Chokwe Antar Lumumba:  Conspiracy, bribery, Use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, honest services wire fraud, money laundering

Jody Owens, II: Conspiracy, bribery (3 counts), use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, honest services fraud, money laundering. 

 Kingfish note: Posted below are motion to dismiss, memorandum, motion for TRO, and Owen's response to motion for TRO.  Agents' names were redacted.   WLBT already posted the pictures in its coverage. The motion is already all over town as lawyers and reporters emailed it back and forth.