DA Motion (PDF 64 KB)
A decision by Judge Joe Webster to exclude Aug. 26 events from the Upper Level may keep out intriguing testimony described in a prosecution motion filed April 12, though Webster left open the possibility that such evidence might be introduced in rebuttal.
The motion, signed by Senior Assistant DA Stanley Alexander, said that Josh Foster, a nurse, and Derrick Malone, a paramedic, were prepared to testify about Melton's behavior after Upper Level manager Tonarri Moore was allegedly beaten while in handcuffs by Melton's associates following Moore's arrest the same night as the Ridgeway incident. Moore was allegedly arrested for refusing to desist in photographing Melton and police officers inside the club. Moore attorney Sharon Gipson said he was arrested for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and abusive language.
According to the DA's motion, Malone would testify that when Melton accompanied Moore in the ambulance taking him to Central Mississippi Medical Center, Malone "smelled the aroma of alcohol." Because of the cramped quarters, Malone could not be certain where the smell originated, but he "observed that on the night in question Defendant Melton's speech was slurred." The motion goes on to describe how Melton refused to stop talking to Moore even as he was being treated for injuries. Melton threatened Moore's attorney, the motion states, after she asked him to stop talking to Moore, saying, "she did not want to mess with him because his attorneys would deal with her." The motion goes on to describe how Melton "retrieved an extra stethoscope from the ambulance, attached it to his head, and then placed the other end to the chest of the patient and stated, 'Nope, he doesn't have a heart.'"
Moore confirmed to the Jackson Free Press Sunday at an ACLU barbecue at the Upper Level that Melton certainly seemed intoxicated. "Oh yeah, every body knows he was drunk. (The smell) was all in there with us," he said.
Foster is prepared to testify that Melton refused to stop talking to Moore once they arrived at the hospital, the motion states. Moore told Foster that he did not want to speak to Melton, but "Melton then side-stepped Mr. Foster and continued to speak with the patient." When Foster called his supervisor, Melton relented and went across the hall to the nurse's station, according to the motion. "While Defendant Melton was across the hall," the motion states, "Mr. Foster heard Defendant Melton state that, 'I am the Mayor of Jackson and by tomorrow I will own this hospital.'"
Former Mayor Dale Danks, who serves as Melton's attorney, did not return calls for comment. He did comment to The Clarion-Ledger: "The newspaper certainly is not a place to be making assertions less than a week before the trial. This appears to me to be another attempt to try this case in the newspaper in lieu of where it belongs."
He then added: "Common sense would tell me that if anyone had alcohol on his breath it would be more probable that the manager of a bar commonly known as the Upper Level would be a better candidate to have alcohol on his breath than Mayor Melton."
Melton told The Clarion-Ledger that "he had not been drinking on the night in question, saying he is on a combination of heart medications that prevents him from drinking alcoholic beverages." Melton went on to speculate that the "only reason someone could have smelled alcohol on him was because earlier in the evening he attended a sporting event and threw out some beer bottles as he was leaving."
He went on to state that the allegations were "ridiculous" and false: "I didn't get a stethoscope and check his chest and say he didn't have a heart. That's absolutely incorrect ... where the hell would I get a stethoscope from?"
On Feb. 6, Danks submitted Melton's medical records as part of a motion attempting to verify that Melton had double-bypass surgery in Texas in January. Those records, which were signed by Dr. William Turner, who was Melton's surgeon, list Melton's "ongoing tobacco abuse" and "history of alcohol abuse in the past."
Last April, Melton was visibly intoxicated when JFP Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd went to his home and then rode along on the Mobile Command Center for several hours on a police raid. His breath smelled strongly of liquor at his home before leaving on the raid, and he fumbled with his gun shoulder holster several times when trying to fasten it and his bulletproof vest in his bedroom.
Police Chief Shirlene Anderson and Assistant Chief Roy Sandifer, as well as Melton's bodyguards, were at the house and then along on the raid. After a visit to Pops Around the Corner, Anderson joked to the entourage that no one had better be bringing alcohol back on the bus. And outside The Birdland nightclub, Melton joked to the manager on duty that he could not have a drink before the chief was along that night.
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