Melton To Face Second Federal Trial
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Mayor Frank Melton Will Stand Trial Again On Federal...
Reaction from people in Jackson
Published: March 5, 2009
Updated: March 5, 2009
Federal prosecutors will retry Jackson Mayor Frank Melton on charges related to the destruction of a duplex he considered a crack house. Melton and his former police bodyguard have been accused of leading a group of troubled young men to use sticks and sledgehammers to damage the house in a vigilante-style raid in August 2006. Melton says he was only trying to get rid of a drug
den in a crime-ridden neighborhood. The new trial for Melton and Michael Recio is scheduled for May 11. Melton was acquitted of state charges related to the incident in 2007. A federal trial ended in a hung jury Feb. 24. Prosecutors decided retry Melton after a conference call Thursday with U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III.
Reader Reactions
unicornprincess - in order for something to count as “double jepordy” - Melton would have to be convicted first!
He was never convicted on the state charges, so the Federal government has the opportunity to convict on Federal charges! If they deem necessary!
Let me spell something out for you, the federal government does not trump up charges just because! If the Federal Government see’s something, then obviously something is wrong!
For Jourdan to be as lenient as he was in the first trial, obviously the Mayor did something wrong!
People, I am telling you to seriously wake up and smell the coffee! Outside Mississippi and Louisiana - no Mayor and I repeat! No Mayor within their god-given right mind - would have pulled off the stunt Melton pulled and got away with it!
Our schools, civil infra-structure, municipalities are shot-to-garbage and none of you even wonder why!? That is what makes this so frustrating!
Everyone keeps screaming good intent, he had the right intentions!?
Well if a 18 year old boy is living with his 75 year old grandmother. He has a odd job working at McDonalds brining in $300 a week! Boys grandmother Medicaid gets cut for some odd reason! She needs a certain prescription and her deductible or some strange tangible comes out of the blue to where the prescription must be paid for out of pocket! The kid just helped with the light bill, gas bill and groceries, needs to keep a few dollars for gas for the car!
He is backed into a corner - he needs to keep his grandmother alive, because she is the only family left on the planet he has! So what does he do!?
Can’t borrow from anyone, because he doesn’t have the money to pay back! So he says f* - it! My grandmother needs this medicine! So I will go ahead and rob a bank, tell the judge I had to do it to get my grandmothers medicine!!!!!
My point is this! He had the right intent! But went about it, the wrong way! Period! In order to maintain order in our society, you need to obey laws that are in place to keep us from harm and to keep us from doing harm!
If he wanted to destroy the “crack-house” he should have went to a judge and said judge, its a crack house and it needs to be demolished/gone!
Nope, he loaded up a bunch of teenage boys in a municipal vehicle, with liquor on the breath and told the kids to have at it! In regards to demolishing the “crackhouse”!
If that isn’t blantant disregard for law and order, then I don’t know what is!
This is sad!The man is guility; he broke the laws! Frank have been a mischievous person for a long time. He is arrogant and a dirty person and to keep letting him do the same thing is redicilous. People who don’t live in Jackson have something to say. They think he is doing a good job! Negative! When the elderly was being abused and all the robbing was going on, Frank was more worried about drug dealers and crack heads. Make me wonder that he is on something or maybe the drug dealers is taking his business. What you do in the dark will come to the light! What goes up must come down.
I truly believe that Mayor Melton should be left alone. He was doing what he thought was best for the city of Jackson and sadly those living in Jackson didn’t agree with his plans. I’m not 100% familiar with the Constitution but I know some where it says that you cannot be tried for the same thing twice, that is considered “double jeopardy” and against the law. Maybe those in charge of this trial should go back and read the Constitution!!!
Rediculous! Let him move on with the job he was elected to do and clean up the City of Jackson. People are killing each other daily and not getting this kind of treatment OR trial publicity! QUIT WASTING TAX PAYERS MONEY! DO YOU NEED A BIG SIGN TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE PEOPLE DO NOT FIND HIM G U I L T Y ?? NOT ONCE BUT TWICE?? LIKE—- CATCH A CLUE!
THIS IS AN EMBARASSMENT TO ME AS A CITIZEN OF MISSISSIPPI! LEAVE IT ALONE! MOVE ON AND LET HIM GET BACK TO HIS JOB!
If the Mayor has been tried twice and not convicted, I just think it is wrong to keep trying until you find a jury to agree with you. Not saying he was right in what happened, just that enough is enough!
I think it is sad, that the trial is being retried - for one reason and one reason only!?
Cost to the taxpayer, in these economic times.
When you get down to the nitty gritty and ask the main question, did Melton violate the civil rights of the property owner and the tenant, it is an obvious yes! No search warrant, bench warrant was issued and plus it was a bunch of teenage kids tearing up a house - to add fuel to the fire, most of the kids doing the demolishing - have not attended to school in ages!!!???
People are so caught up on what Melton was “trying” to do! To have so much blatant disregard for the law has put Mississippi in such a comprimising position in terms of black/white relations, how are children view adults in action, and how Mississippi is viewed to the rest of the country!
If and when this man goes on trial again, if he doesn’t get convicted on the second go round - the people of Mississippi will be opening pandora’s box. It will empower quote on quote civic leaders to have disregard for the law, law enforcemnt to do search and seizure without any regard for a search warrant!
In other words, you are a black male driving a nice car through Madison county - but just because you look suspicious, the can pull you over without a warrant or reason. Simply because Frank Melton did it in Jackson.
Think of what you are asking for as a citizen in regrads to what is right and what is wrong!?
We are already paying the price fiscally due to Melton’s behavior!
I think after a local and federal trial not able to convict the Mayor that he should be left along as long as he follows the law. Who else in this city is even trying to deal with the problems of drugs and crime that plague this city.
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