MELTON BLASTS FEDERAL CHARGES

Feds Prosecuting a Crime He Was Acquitted Of, Mayor Says

A day after being indicted by a federal grand jury, Jackson Mayor
Frank Melton belittled the charges as lacking heft despite their
heavyweight appearance.

After more than a year of investigating Melton, the U.S. Department
of Justice announced Wednesday that Melton and his police bodyguards
Marcus Wright and Michael Recio had been charged with two civil
rights violations and a gun charge as a result of their role in
wrecking a duplex on Ridgeway Street in west Jackson.

Last year, a Hinds County jury found the three not guilty of burglary
and felony criminal mischief related to damaging the house, which
Melton maintains was a drug house. Now the feds are walking the same
ground, despite an intense investigation, Melton said.

"They've been here for 18 months, and it's a totally separate group
out of Washington. They've looked at everything - I mean every durn
thing. At the end of it, there is just that house," he said. "I
haven't stolen anything, I haven't embezzled anything, and I
certainly haven't put my hands on anybody in an abusive way."

Mississippi College law school Professor Matt Steffey said charges
from the federal investigation surprised him, too. Although Melton,
Wright and Recio beat the state charges in their April 2007 trial,
they can be tried in federal court as well because they now are
accused of violating federal law. "That is a technicality if there
ever was one. To the mayor, it's going to seem like he is standing
trial for the same crime twice," he said. "This is a proper charge
under the government's theory of the case. I just wonder what we've
gained as citizens to try him under the state criminal code and then
try him under the federal code. Are we going to try him under the
international code in The Hague next time?"

Evans Welch, a diagnosed schizophrenic with a criminal history, was
living in the house the night it was damaged. Jackson resident
Jennifer Sutton had recently purchased the building and inherited
Welch as a tenant. Melton, Wright and Recio are charged with two
counts of conspiring "under the color of law" to violate the
constitutional rights of Welch and Sutton to be free of unreasonable
search and seizure. The indictment also alleges Wright was armed, so
the three also face a charge of using a gun during a violent crime.

The men are scheduled to appear Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate
Judge Linda Anderson for an initial appearance. U.S. District Court
Judge Daniel Jordan III has been assigned the case.

If convicted on all counts, Melton, Wright and Recio could face
decades in prison. Each conspiracy count carries up to 10 years in
prison. The gun charge carries a minimum five years.

Prosecuting the case will be Justice Department Civil Rights Deputy
Chief Mark Blumberg and Justice Department trial attorney Patricia
Sumner. Wright and Recio are no longer Melton's bodyguards. They have
been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of charges.

In a statement released Thursday by her attorney, Sutton welcomed the
federal charges.

"As an American citizen, I feel that my rights were violated when my
property was destroyed by the city of Jackson and our mayor, Frank
Melton," she said. "I am pleased that the federal government has seen
fit to attempt to right that wrong with the indictment of those who
wrongfully destroyed my property." Melton, who has long held the
investigation was politically motivated, said the investigation
"seems like it is a big scam" to force him from office. He said
before his state trial he was offered a deal that if he resigned the
investigations would end.

"I was offered that deal four times and I was offered that deal in
writing," he said. "They came to me three of four different ways and
said that if I would resign all this would go away."

Melton's attorney, former Mayor Dale Danks Jr., said he is not sure
he still has the written offer. But he said the understanding
verbally was state and federal investigators would drop the case if
Melton resigned. Melton said the deal was "bizarre" and included a
provision he return to his home state of Texas for a year. Without
explicitly saying he caused the damage, the mayor said he stood
behind his actions on Ridgeway Street. "I was hired to get that mess
out of Jackson," said Melton, who stayed home Thursday. "We have a
situation here in the inner city where senior citizens have worked
all their lives ... and have to be exposed to this all day and every
day. "Ethically, morally, I feel like I was dead right," he said.
Former Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Stanley Alexander
said he never offered anyone a deal in the case but he cannot say
what happened before he took over as lead prosecutor.

Alexander, now a prosecutor with the state attorney general's office,
said he wasn't surprised with the federal indictment.

"We have a constitution to protect the rights of the minority, the
little people in our society. No one is above the other when it comes
to our constitution," Alexander said. "I'm prayerful justice will be
served." Former Hinds County District Attorney Faye Peterson would
not comment on whether there was a proposed deal.

"I fully recall all events in reference the case of the State of
Mississippi v. Frank Melton, however, based on the questions that you
are posing, some of those events would be privileged and the Mayor
nor his associates have waived any issues of privilege," Peterson
said in an e-mail to The Clarion-Ledger. "I do not want to respond to
any media inquiries which would impede Mayor Melton, Michael Recio or
Marcus Wright's ability to receive a fair trial."

Danks said he is working out arrangements to represent the mayor. He
said he has contacted attorney Buddy Coxwell, who also was on
Melton's defense team during his 2007 trial.

Robert Shuler Smith and Winston Thompson, the attorneys for Wright
and Recio during the state trial, will not be returning this time
around. Smith was elected Hinds County district attorney last year
and chose Thompson as his assistant.