Jackson Free Press

April 18, 2006—Sources tell the Jackson Free Press tonight that Mayor Frank Melton has filed a civil lawsuit against The Clarion-Ledger for damages in the Hinds County Circuit Court. He is alleging breach of contract in the case filed by Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents. Melton claims that when he provided a memo, written by then-MBN deputy Roy Sandifer, to The Clarion-Ledger that he had an "oral contract" with the reporter to check the facts contained therein. The memo, which detailed wrongdoing by the agents, was later found to be largely false by the state auditor's office. Sandifer is now assistant chief of the Jackson Police Department.

The Jackson Free Press first broke the story last year that MBN agents were suing both Melton and The Clarion-Ledger for the false memo. We also revealed that Melton had lied in court documents, saying at first that he did not leak the memo, then changing his story soon after he was sworn in as mayor of Jackson. The Lauderdale County judge declared summary judgment against Melton due to his lies, thus sending the case straight to a jury for damages. Those hearings are scheduled for October, pending a Mississippi Supreme Court appeal by Melton. Meantime, the defamation lawsuit against The Clarion-Ledger was dropped due to the statute of limitations. A copy of the filing is available here.

Developing ...

Previous Comments

ID

121778

Comment

Gee, I wonder if this might have anything to do with the Ledge's recent (and otherwise inexplicably timed) decision to dog Melton. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-04-18T23:39:07-06:00

ID

121779

Comment

A very petty man! A sure sign of desperation. Look he still hasn't even paid all of his property taxes. After all that bragging about how he pays more in taxes then most of us make! Must be hurting for cash now or something? Didn't he think to check the facts himself? He was the boss? I think Frank needs a new job. Complete with moving expenses!

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-18T23:59:46-06:00

ID

121780

Comment

Talk about a case of sour grapes. Once again Frank has turned on someone that he used in the past for his personal gain. I guess that there are too many individuals for him to arrest, so he will do the next best thing and sue them all. I wonder if he let Ronnie Agnew or any of the rest of the CL staff stay at his house during the mayoral campaign? Or better still, this could be the billion dollars that he mentioned that he was bringing to the city.

Author

lance

Date

2006-04-19T05:52:14-06:00

ID

121781

Comment

pikersam...he's paying his taxes on the installment plan according to the fact the site says he owes about half since he's already paid $3,019.09 which is what many people do(except pay that much overall). His next payment is due end of april... I think that helps paint a clearer picture for people instead of him being a "late tax payer"... You would think with all the ammo you have against the man you wouldn't try to make something out of nothing...

Author

guywithanidea

Date

2006-04-19T08:14:02-06:00

ID

121782

Comment

Last I checked property taxes were due Feb 1! That's when everybody elses are paid through escrow or otherwise. He didn't make his first "installment" until very recently - well past the orginal due date - with penalty! Also, I scanned the names of few rich folks in town and everyone I choose had paid their taxes in Jan. Also, if more people would have been more concerned about his lack of homestead exemption and challenged him on many of his claims about himself; including the one on TV about paying more in property taxes then most people make we wouldn't even be worrying about Frank right now. I really can't find a reason not to point out every failing with this man. As long as he continues to talk first, not listen, and carry on waywardly - screw'em!

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-19T09:21:10-06:00

ID

121783

Comment

Where's the love, Pikersam? Are you all out of love for him? Smile.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T12:22:24-06:00

ID

121784

Comment

pikersam: Yep he was late and he's going to pay a whopping $30.19 penalty. You are ignorant of the fact that you can pay the taxes in 3 installments. I'm pretty sure paying taxes aren't on the top of his list of things to do. I know they aren't for me. I actually forgot to pay my taxes one year and guess what? They sold the property for taxes...Luckily for me all i had to do was pay a couple hundred bucks in fines and i was back good. To tell you the truth it sounds like you're just full of piss and vinegar towards the guy. What does his late taxes have to do with him suing the MBN? What's your solution to the problem besides to moan and groan about all his shortfallings?

Author

guywithanidea

Date

2006-04-19T12:59:52-06:00

ID

121785

Comment

Frank has done plenty to anger Pikersam and many more. I, like many, would just like to see him do something according to the rules since he's the mayor and has been so critical of the missteps of so many others.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T13:06:54-06:00

ID

121786

Comment

Frank Melton meet Ray Carter...apparently Ray's never met you before and was wondering if you could play by the rules for once?

Author

JSU

Date

2006-04-19T13:16:26-06:00

ID

121787

Comment

JSU, I have always been real critical of Frank. I have said as many bad things about him as anybody. I believe in combining love and criticism. None of us is as good as our best act or as bad as our worse one. We're good and bad and have to make a conscious effort to make sure the good outweights the bad. Frank has the combined problems of habitually lying and being rich, the later of which creates all kinds of other problems with rules meant to control behavior. But I'm still hopeful Frank can get it together.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T13:35:56-06:00

ID

121788

Comment

First of all, Melton is suing the Clarion Ledger not MBN. Second, most good citizens don't have the luxury of paying property taxes in installments or whenever we can. It's called escrow and a majority of mortgage owners pay it! So, if you rich folks want to brag how you make a bunch of money, can pay your taxes when you can, and tell the people of Jackson to F-off cause we're doing it our way - go for it. But, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining! It's all about principle. You know kind of like how do you tell your children not to smoke cigarettes when you yourself are doing it.

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-19T13:37:16-06:00

ID

121789

Comment

Why was he depending on the CL to "fact-check" his memo? Sounds like a case of Fox guarding the Henhouse. Oh, and Money has always equaled power.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-04-19T13:56:10-06:00

ID

121790

Comment

Good luck Frank, you won't get a dime.

Author

JSU

Date

2006-04-19T14:03:41-06:00

ID

121791

Comment

BTW: I'm not mad per say. I've got some love for Melton. But, until he shows love for "all" of Jackson as a mayor, I'll probably be upset with him. Grace and Benevolence - remember.

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-19T14:13:10-06:00

ID

121792

Comment

This suit is likely filed for other reasons than stated here. In law school they taught us that most contract, in order to be enforceable, needed to be in writing and supported by and agreement and consideration. Without a writing it's difficult to know whether a contract (agreement and consideration) existed or the terms of any contract. I'd be shocked if this contract/suit survived a summary judgment and is not dismissed before any trial ever occurs. This very well might be a ploy to keep the CL still involved in some way, or to get back at them for their criticism, or to scare them into silence. Any good lawyer could come up with lots of grounds to defeat this law suit. You can play this kind of game when you're rich. Frank will discover, as he already has, lies don't fly in court like they do outside of it.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T14:15:44-06:00

ID

121793

Comment

For clarity, I should add that some oral contracts are enforceable if the terms can somehow be established clearly. To tell you when they are I would have to do some research as i haven't studied or read contracts since I passed the bar exams.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T14:22:08-06:00

ID

121794

Comment

My bad on the MBN issue I meant to type the C-L. In regards to the tax issue you are wrong again. I do admire your persistence though you can't tell people what fact is based off of ignornace. Please tell me what piece of the law describes good citizens from bad ones and the luxuries that are afforded accordingly in regards to paying property taxes in installments. I am feeling pretty damn confident when you do find out such a provision exists to just pay the taxes in 3 installments (maybe with some interest) you will gracefully reply to this message and state such. Just for your information I pay in installments so I think I have an idea of what I'm talking about. and why are you hating on rich folks? do you have an inferiority complex or perhaps feel guilty for have you obtained your wealth? Because either one feeds the beast on why the classically labeled liberals are disliked by many. I appreciate the compliment that you think I am rich but I'm truely confused how you can make that assesment. You know nothing about me. Your not feeding this forum any facts in this regard. You are just indiscriminately throwing stuff out there with no supporting facts and getting an appeasing reply by most because of a general dislike for an entity. And just so I can have some relevance to the post. I hope that the MBN guys make some money off this lawsuit they are making and Frank loses his against the C-L. Frank made a mistake in supplying the disparging document and so did the C-L in printing it. He should of never put that memo in the public's hands and lied about doing so and the C-L should check their facts before publishing (kind of like Donna does with here FM interviews). if that's how it went and damn sure seems like it they both should be held accountable for their actions immediately in concerns to money and come election day for FM from his constituency. please ignore my spelling errors.

Author

guywithanidea

Date

2006-04-19T14:33:28-06:00

ID

121795

Comment

That's great you can pay in three installments. Seriously though, how about you go plug in the names of all the politicians in town and see who has or hasn't paid taxes by Feb 1st. Since when have we not held our politicians to a higher standard? Funny how all that stops when it comes to Melton. As far as hating rich people. I don't. Heck, I've even got some rich friends. ;-) (sorry I couldn't resist that) But, what I don't have is any arrogant rich friends who make it onto the news for making crappy "I'm rich your not" statements. Money quote: "Melton replied,"I own the home, I pay city taxes and truth is I pay more in taxes than they make in their lives." Sorry, when you make statements like that, you should pay your taxes along with everyone else -on time - if you are to have any creditability with the people. Oh that's right, he doesn't give a crap what we think!

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-19T14:56:37-06:00

ID

121796

Comment

I can't wait until the next get together at Hal and Mals. I see a love connection between pikersam and Guywithanidea. "It's a thin line between love and hate." Once upon a time I saw a girl jump a desk and slap the living crap out of my best friend Jim for inappropritely touching another girl. To top it all off, that heifer used the wrong hand. We were trained to look for and block the right hand but not the left. Years later they had a hot love affair that lasted about 10 years. I always knew something was peculiar about jumping a desk and slapping somebody.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T15:08:31-06:00

ID

121797

Comment

Agreed, Ray. It sounds a bit like a slap suit to me.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-04-19T15:25:11-06:00

ID

121798

Comment

Pikersam and Guy.... I hope yall can take a joke. Ladies don't hold it against me for calling my friend a heifer. We love each other.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2006-04-19T15:30:17-06:00

ID

121799

Comment

Not at all Ray. Most know here that I've been picking on Melton and his property taxes since last year. A majority of it is poking fun at the mayor; but, some does go back to the fact he talks too much and doesn't always back it up. Whether it is taxes, jobs for the poor, Mary's house, etc... I'm sure Guy is a great guy! He didn't have to call my argument ignorant though. If my point didn't have merit then there wouldn't be several stories regarding Melton, homestead and taxes. Every media outlet covered the story during the election and even recently. Sorry for hijacking this thread. Back to the fact Melton is suing the Ledge. Which gets back to my first point - he is petty!

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-19T16:06:51-06:00

ID

121800

Comment

i'm more likely to offend than to be offended. Ignorant is such a great word and people always get offended. It's definition from dictionary.com says: 3. Unaware or uninformed. It's not an insult just a great summation. FM has enuf legitimate issues to be critical on than to try to make petty matters that are well within the realm of normalcy a big story or some credibility issue. I mean this thread really should just reinforce the fact that what the man says is probably bogus and to point it out as so and how to make sure he is held accountable and not us (taxpayers) liable for damages.

Author

guywithanidea

Date

2006-04-19T17:06:40-06:00

ID

121801

Comment

Guy, we tried that last year and the Meltonites (were you one?) were too mesmerized by his double talk to care if he could back it up. It's not like the red flags were not there before we voted; yet many people still voted for him. Now that is the definition of ignorant. You have to give Melton credit he kept alot of his problems off the table during the election. It doesn't take the city getting sued to tell the quality of life is being sucked right out. One taxpayer at a time. Many of my non-political, not governmental friends have expressed how Jackson seems to have taken a downturn in the past year. Melton nor the government comes up, just the fact things don't seem as groovy as they were just a short time ago. BTW: Guy, I thought you may want to know that Saturday will mark the one year anniversary of the last News posting on the City's website. ;-)

Author

pikersam

Date

2006-04-19T22:08:16-06:00

ID

121802

Comment

Donna, enjoyed the show on 90.1 FM tonight. Eric Stringfellow of the C-L stated that he wasn't aware of Melton's MBN and perjury trial before or during Jackson's mayoral election campaign. That's hard for me to believe. Either he was outright lying or he's not doing his job as an investigative journalist for the largest newspaper in the state. The same caller mentioned Melton's pending lawsuit against C-L. It appeared that Eric Stringfellow wasn't aware of this lawsuit either. Donna, you had to bring Mr. Stringfellow up to speed on this breaking news on the air. That was excellent! I'm sure you enjoyed that! He made himself look pretty bad by not knowing that his own newspaper was being sued by the city's mayor. I contacted WLBT. The person from WLBT stated that they were aware of the lawsuit, however the news director did not want it publicized for whatever reason. WJTV and WAPT did not appear to be aware of this news either. Neither station mentioned this breaking news during their 6pm telecast. Way to go JFP!! You're unintentionally making the C-L look incompetent... AGAIN!

Author

Joerob

Date

2006-04-19T22:20:49-06:00

ID

121803

Comment

Good to see the Ledger isn't going to try to hide this lawsuit involving Melton for months like they did their role in the other one. They report it today: Jackson Mayor Frank Melton has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against The Clarion-Ledger's parent company and a news service reporter whose stories appear in the paper. The suit, filed Friday in Hinds County Circuit Court, stems from a libel case accusing him of leaking an internal memo to the newspaper when he was director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. In April 2003, the memo was given to Ana Radelat, a Gannett News Service reporter. ... John Sneed, an attorney for Radelat, called the suit "without merit." He said Melton lied in court documents for more than two years, claiming he was not the source of the memo. "The mayor has changed his story on this subject several times, and there is simply no merit to the claim that the defendants made any promise they didn't keep," Sneed said. Sneed said Radelat only made one promise to Melton: that she would not reveal his name as the source of the memo. Radelat, Sneed said, kept that promise for two years, until Melton personally released her from that obligation. "It boggles my mind that she would have kept that promise so steadfastly, and then turned around and breached a different promise," Sneed said. Dale Danks, Melton's attorney, said the suit was filed days before the statute of limitations for breach of contract expired so Melton could preserve the chance for a lawsuit against Radelat and the company. Danks said he could not comment further because of a gag order in the other case. Melton could not be reached for comment Wednesday. I real bad for Radelat in all this. Melton is going after her, saying she violated a contract -- which is going to have a very hard time proving -- and The Clarion-Ledger keeps distancing itself from her, here calling her "news service reporter," although she's been identified many times in the paper as the Clarion-Ledger's Washington bureau reporter. And you wonder why an editor isn't named in this? I'd be real surprised if we don't see a shake-up at the top over there soon. It's amazing how poorly Mr. Melton's campaign, and the reportage about the Meridian lawsuit, was handled. And that responsibility lies at the top.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-04-20T09:05:51-06:00

ID

121804

Comment

Also, I'm a bit confused about how this helps Mr. Melton. This seems a frivolous suit -- who would she have confirmed the info with? MBN! -- and it is very likely to get picked up by national media, which in turn will spotlight that Melton lied in documents in the Meridian case. More people will then know that, and it may p!ss off the judge in the Meridian case more. Sometimes I truly wonder who is giving him advice. I think he should do like Bush is doing and clean a great deal of his house. I don't get it.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-04-20T09:08:49-06:00

ID

121805

Comment

Why is the rest of the media not reporting this story? Looks like the JFP is the only outlet that lets the public know what's going on.

Author

Curt Crowley

Date

2006-04-20T12:11:18-06:00

ID

121806

Comment

And I should add, Curt: Thanks for the compliment.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-04-20T12:22:41-06:00

ID

121807

Comment

Harumph. Somehow, this lost my sarcastic comment just before the last one about how perhaps it isn't news when the mayor of a capitol city sues the state's largest newspaper for running a false memo about state law enforcement officials that he leaked to them.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-04-20T12:25:10-06:00

ID

121808

Comment

Last year, a Sociologist, now retired from JSU - by way of the Univ. of Chicago, MS State and the military, wrote a letter to the Editio of the CL entitled: I SALUTE MAYOR JOHNSON. I wish that we could find and reprint that letter. It will explain in no uncertain terms what the City was faced with and the germ of the problem we are now facing. Can you really believe that Eric Stringfellow and Agnew are now writing negative (truthful) things about FM??? Did a trunk drop one their heads or is this a stitch-in-time? Still another factor is the economic position. Donna has really been kicking a@# with the JFP. People can't wait to get their hands on a copy. Now that the CL is losing money (many of my friends dropped their subscription after the CL endorsed FM) they are trying to play catch-up. Eric was definitely out of step with his drummer (CL). All of the "then" bedfellows seem to have awakened in a nightmare!!! Stringfellow certainly had his information wrong when he said, "The Black middle class has moved out of Jackson." This was truly irresponsible.

Author

justjess

Date

2006-04-20T13:04:36-06:00

ID

121809

Comment

*and it is very likely get picked up by national media, which in turn will spotlight that Melton lied in documents in the Meridian case.* -- Ladd That scenario is, I'm afraid, becoming more and more probable and inevitable. And when it happens, once again, Mississippi will be portrayed in a negative light: blatant disregard for individual rights by a runaway-train Mayor who intimidates the media and impersonates law enforcement by his 'crusade against crime' antics and the majority of people know he's wrong but not a single person in authority has yet had the courage to step forward and put a stop to it (translation: City Council, the Mayor's own legal department, Attorney General's Office, State Auditor, Ethics Commission all hearing no evil and seeing no evil!) When CNN or MSNBC or 60 Minutes or some other national media outlets come here, they will leave no stone unturned in their effort to ferret out all of the players--from the petty to the powerful--in a public corruption expose the likes of which has never been seen in Mississippi. They have the resources, they have the crusading news personnel, and they have an insatiable appetite for blowing the cover off an ever brewing scandal. I hope I'm wrong, but I believe it's just a matter of time.

Author

Kacy

Date

2006-04-20T22:58:26-06:00

ID

121810

Comment

kacy the media is on top of this situation and while the first round goes to fm with his appearing on the panel in new york to discuss the ways to get guns off the street. He also exposes the situation to more and more media types, just wait and see how this turns out

Author

mslink

Date

2006-04-24T23:08:37-06:00

ID

121811

Comment

Is there a plan to get guns off the streets? What happened to the buy back JPD had? Does anyone know.? and was it effective?

Author

jada

Date

2006-04-25T10:47:30-06:00

ID

121812

Comment

As I understand, that's a big GUN CONTROL conference. Wonder what the packin'-type supporters will think of that?!? He's sounding lately like he's ready to follow Giuliani down that road.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-04-25T10:59:58-06:00