The Mississippi police department that employs an officer whose errors led to a mistrial last week in the case of two white men charged in an attack on a Black FedEx driver is being reviewed by an independent third party after a scathing grand jury report cited a number of issues within the agency, including a “lack of professionalism.”
Bobby Moak, the attorney for the city of Brookhaven, said the Board of Aldermen voted unanimously last month to have an “outside expert” review the police department in response to the report.
“We’re not looking at any individual person per se,” he said. “No one was named in that report, so we’re just looking at the generalities of the report.”
A Lincoln County grand jury said that after having considered dozens of criminal cases presented by the Brookhaven Police Department, it found that officers “poorly investigate their cases,” that the department has a habit of witness blaming, that it is complacent, that it “does not complete investigations in a timely manner,” that it “is arresting individuals without sufficient probable cause” and that it “does not utilize technology to their advantage.”
The grand jury also said that police gave it conflicting statements of facts and that there is a lack of training, continuing education and accountability within the department. And it said that “investigations are not completed after the original investigator leaves the department.”
The report was submitted July 7 and presented to Mayor Joe Cox and the Board of Aldermen. The grand jury said it heard sworn testimony from 27 witnesses, returned 28 indictments, continued 15 cases for further investigation, withdrew one case, remanded two cases to Brookhaven Municipal Court and refused to indict 18 people.
The city has hired William Harmening, a former law enforcement officer, to look at the police department’s policies and administrative works, Moak said. Harmening will submit a report on his findings.
Police Chief Kenneth Collins, whom the grand jury said it had spoken to, declined to comment Tuesday about the report or Harmening’s hiring. Cox did not respond to a request for comment.
Some members of the Board of Aldermen did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Three of them — Jeff Henning, Don Underwood and Andre D. Spiller — said in separate interviews that they were concerned by the grand jury’s report. A fourth alderman, James Magee Jr., declined to comment.
“For them to give a report like that, there must be some kind of meat to the source,” Spiller said.
Henning said the board looked forward to Harmening’s findings and what, if any, suggestions he makes.
Grand juries in Mississippi are charged with not only looking at criminal indictments, Moak said. “They also have wide latitude in reviewing wide aspects of county and city government, and that is what they’ve done here,” he said.
Lee Bates, the district attorney for Lincoln, Pike and Walthall counties, said the Brookhaven Police Department has been criticized before — “but not at the same level.” He described the grand jury’s final statement as “scathing and profound.”
Police drew fresh scrutiny last week when state Circuit Judge David Strong declared a mistrial in the case of Gregory Case and his son, Brandon Case. The men are accused of shooting at and chasing D’Monterrio Gibson, a former FedEx employee, who was delivering a package near their homes in January 2022. Gibson was not injured.
Strong said he had no choice but to declare a mistrial after Detective Vincent Fernando acknowledged under oath, while the jury was not in the courtroom, that he had not given prosecutors or defense attorneys a videotaped statement police had taken from Gibson.
“The bottom line is this file should have been turned over to the DA’s office prior to the indictment,” Strong told Fernando last Wednesday. “Lo and behold, here we are on the second day of trial, and we find out something that these attorneys had been looking for for at least a week, potentially months, is actually in your file.”
The judge said Fernando also should not have testified about guns that were found in the home of one of the men on trial and shell casings that were found outside the home.
Bates, who prosecuted the case, said a new trial would be set. Brandon and Gregory Case, who are free on bond, were charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle driven by Gibson.
Collins declined to comment Monday in response to an inquiry about whether Fernando had violated any departmental policies or would face any punishment for not having turned over the videotaped statement.
Underwood, an alderman-at-large who said he has been a proponent of having an appointed chief, as opposed to one who is elected, said he was not surprised by the grand jury’s report.
“It’s completely true,” he said, though he said it did not reflect the entire police department. “We have good policemen in Brookhaven. We just have horrible leadership.”
