JUDGE STEPPING DOWN FROM DRUG CASE

Smith seeking to 'avoid appearance of impropriety'

Pike County Circuit Judge Mike Smith has announced he is stepping down from
hearing a drug case in which he'd been accused of violating judicial rules.

The judge signed an order Monday, citing a Sunday article in The
Clarion-Ledger and saying he was stepping down to "avoid the appearance of
impropriety."

The article detailed accusations the judge had violated judicial rules by
talking with a narcotics agent about the case outside the presence of the
defense, then sentencing the defendant to 20 years instead of a
plea-bargained eight.

Judicial rules bar such "ex parte" communications - communications with a
party without other parties being present. But the judge defended his
conversation regarding Ricky Ramsey, who pleaded guilty to sale of cocaine:
"I have a duty to inquire about the history and character of a defendant
prior to sentencing."

In Pike County Circuit Court documents, Ramsey's attorney, Joseph A. Fernald
Jr. of Brookhaven, suggested Smith violated judicial rules by having ex
parte communications with a Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agent.

According to the Code of Judicial Conduct, "A judge shall not initiate,
permit or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications
made to the judge outside the presence of the parties concerning a pending
or impending proceeding."

Citing those allegations, Fernald sought to have his client's guilty plea
thrown out and Smith removed from the case.

He got half his wish. The judge stepped down, transferring the case to
fellow judge Keith Starrett, but Smith left Ramsey's plea intact, concluding
the defendant "knowingly, willingly, freely, voluntarily and intelligently
entered his guilty plea."

Just before stepping down from the case, Smith also reduced Ramsey's
sentence to 12 years in prison.

On Tuesday, Fernald was uncertain what the judge's order means for his
client. "I can say I've asked for a meeting with Judge Starrett and the
district attorney on this because I'm a little confused," he said.

He said he is unable to communicate at this time with his client because
he's now being processed as an inmate at the Central Mississippi
Correctional Facility. In the meantime, Fernald said, he plans to talk with
his client's family.

In an interview last week, Smith called Ramsey "an organized drug gangster"
deserving of more than eight years in prison.

In a Sept. 11 letter, District Attorney Danny Smith laid out the details
behind what he said happened, saying narcotics agent Henry Witherspoon
acknowledged talking to Judge Smith before the plea and showing him a chart
that listed Ramsey as a drug organization member. The district attorney said
the judge also mentioned the conversation with narcotics agents to him. The
letter said Judge Smith referred to the chart during sentencing.

Judge Smith maintains he didn't talk to the agent until after Ramsey had
pleaded guilty, and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics officials agreed.

"It is not now, nor has it ever been, the practice of the Mississippi Bureau
of Narcotics to discuss the details of a case with any sitting judge prior
to the disposition of pleas in the case," wrote Ronnie K. Frazier, agent in
charge of the narcotics bureau office in Magnolia.

In a Sept. 16 memo, narcotics agents Weatherspoon and Sheldon Jolliff said
they met with the district attorney on Aug. 15 to discuss Ramsey and others
described as members of a drug organization known as "Gangsta Disciples,"
but didn't meet with Judge Smith until two days after Ramsey's plea.

The agents said the only prior contact on the Ramsey case came in 2002 when
they presented affidavits to subpoena records on four cellular telephones.

"The affidavits had not been notarized at the time; therefore, Judge Smith
did not place his signature on the documents," the agents said. "The
documents were later signed by Judge Keith Starrett, after having been
appropriately notarized."

The district attorney would not comment Tuesday on the matter.

Judge Smith has said these accusations have arisen only because Fernald and
the district attorney are upset he rejected the recommended sentence for the
25-year-old Ramsey, who was previously arrested on drug possession and sales
charges, but whose only listed conviction took place in Texas, where he was
sentenced to five years in prison.

The judge said last week: "I'm not abiding by any plea bargain that would
give a 'street dealer' sentence to someone who's a third - and fourth - time
loser."