A Hinds County judge ordered MDOC to pay up or else he will consider throwing Commissioner Burl Cain in jail.
Mary Hoyt sued MDOC in 2022 in Hinds County Court. She worked at MDOC as an Intense Supervision (House arrest) Agent. The complaint states Hoyt was on call 24 hours a day.
Hoyt alleges MDOC stopped paying her for work performed while off-duty in 2019. A CPA hired by Hoyt reviewed phone logs and time sheets. The accountant determined MDOC owed Hoyt $81,289 for work performed while off-duty from 2019 to 2022.
The lawsuit charged MDOC with breach of contract.
The case was assigned to Hinds County Court Judge Yemi Kings. Special Assistant Attorney General Wilson Minor represents MDOC.
Both sides filed motions for summary judgment in March 2025. However, only the plaintiff filed an object to the opposing party's motion.
Judge Kings granted Hoyt's motion for summary judgment in April 2025. The Court held the MDOC employee handbook "set forth how MDOC compensates ISP agents for their work,.... and payment of overtime wages for hours worked in excess of 480 days in a 28-day pay cycle."
She had to track down offenders who "fled his/her confinement area" or removed their monitoring devices outside f her regular work hours.
The Court noted MDOC did not depose the CPA nor rebut her back pay determination. However, Judge Kings found Hoyt worked 2,079 hours outside of regular work hours. The Court ruled MDOC owed the plaintiff $52,948 and ordered the agency to pay the full amount to Hoyt.
MDOC filed a notice of appeal in August 2025 but Judge Kings dismissed the "unperfected appeal for failure to prosecute" in September. MDOC's attorney did not designate the appellate record, provide an estimate or prepay the costs of preparing the record, or prosecute the appeal. Judge Kings said MDOC had no intention of actually appealing the judgment but instead filed the notice of appeal to delay payment.
Hoyt tried to garnish MDOC but to no avail. She filed a motion for contempt of court in December.
Judge Kings held a hearing on the matter Thursday and issued an order holding MDOC in contempt of court yesterday. The Court said MDOC did not appear at a December 16 debtor examination even though it was subpoenaed to do so.
The judge blistered MDOC and its Commissioner:
MDOC. an arm of the State of Mississippi, can comply with the Court's Judgment by making payment, but has not. It filed a frivolous appeal (which the Court dismissed), then failed to comply with Officer Hoyt's Deposition Subpoena for Judgment Debtor exam.
The Court ordered MDOC to pay Hoyt $52,948 and an additional $11,425 in post-judgment attorney's fees (total of $64,735) by January 30.
Judge Kings warned MDOC Commissioner Burl Cain:
Should MDOC fail to comply with this Court's Order, it will issue an Order compelling MDOC to show cause as to why it has failed to comply, and its Commissioner. Burl Cain, will face potential incarceration to compel MDOC's payment of the Judgment and sanctions totaling $64,373.36.
Kingfish note: It appears a Special Assistant Attorney General dropped the ball.
10 comments:
Well, he was too dirty for Louisiana, so what does that tell you?
Lynn’s tweens dropped the ball? Shock
Well there ya go. He had a track record of some sketchy sh** in Louisiana but nothing do someone to hire him here for MDOC. In interviews here in MS he has always BS'd his way thru them. NO one checks up.. NO one. Those who made that decision to hire him in MS could have done better then and now.
Looks to me like da'Judge is going after the wrong person; yes, that's how the law works but the failure here is not on MDOC's Cain but on the competency of our Attorney General's office. Understand, when one's focus is on properly outfitting the office with new furniture (damn, set the stage for her idol theDon to do the same with the Oval Office, but I digress) and making appearances to further future political campaigns, one should not expect her or her office to bother with such things as filing answers, responses, or perfecting an appeal.
But all is good; I'm sure somebody here will pony up the tens of thousands (of claimed overtime done prior to Burl's becomming the Commish) along with another ten thousand for lawyers fees - and nobody will ever point to the incompetency of the AG's office following her dismissal of all the experienced attorneys in the office and replacing them with her female companions.
Like you know.
I worked for this man. I enjoyed the inmates, good staff and trying to make it a better place. Him and the cronies he empowered made it just not worth it anymore. Criminals, crooks and losers the whole bunch. Hate it for the inmates that were trying to rehabilitate and good staff members. I couldn’t take it anymore.
In the final analysis, the agency (MDOC) is responsible for its debts, not the AG, whose lack of interest and involvement are history.
Wondering how the accountant came up with 81,000 and the judge came up with only 52,000. That's pretty significant when you're only tallying work hours and performing elementary multiplication.
Seems there was a Special Assistant AG assigned to Epps who was also asleep at the wheel.
I worked for this man. I enjoyed the inmates and the job. Him and the cronies he empowered made it just not worth it anymore. Criminals and losers the whole bunch. Hate it for the inmates that were trying to rehabilitate and the honest good staff members. I couldn’t take it anymore.
The AG Attorneys are paid by the State and have unlimited resources but not the knowledge and stamina of a real bulldog attorney! You pay for what you get!
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