Jackson Free Press

The defense called it "the case of the sore loser." The plaintiff called it "the case of the stolen election." The jury agreed with the latter.

The jury listened to testimonies and closing arguments for nearly four days in the Ward 3 election hearing last week, as plaintiff Joyce Jackson challenged LaRita Cooper-Stokes' narrow victory in the Feb. 28 run-off election for the ward's city council seat.

After a short deliberation Friday, June 8, the jury came back with a unanimous verdict: The election results from the Feb. 28 race will be set aside due to unlawful activity at the polls. Now, Ward 3 will hold another election to determine their city councilwoman.

The plaintiff brought numerous witnesses to the stand during the hearing. They claimed election-law violations, from workers campaigning within 150 feet of the polling location and a radio playing Cooper-Stokes' ads in one polling precinct, to poll workers telling voters to "vote for Stokes." One Jackson supporter testified she heard poll manager Linda Anderson call Jackson, who is of mixed heritage, a "half-white n*gger" within earshot of voters.

Cooper-Stokes' attorneys, lead counsel Imhotep Alkebu-Ian and Bruce Burton, spent much of the week trying to discredit Jackson and her witnesses, three of whom were her sisters. The defense seemed under-prepared for the trial in comparison to Jackson and her attorney John Reeves, who has tried similar cases, including Straughter vs. Collins in Yazoo County. In that case, McArthur Straughter, now mayor of Yazoo City, challenged an election for county supervisor that he lost to Cobie Collins by 36 votes in 1999.

The defense's lack of preparation seemed most apparent when the plaintiff rested, and time came for Alkebu-Ian to call witnesses to the stand.

Reeves said he did not receive the defense's list of potential witnesses, some 15 of them, until June 4, the morning the hearing began. Attorneys were supposed to turn in lists of witnesses and evidence to the judge and to each other in April. Cooper-Stokes' attorneys did not claim any witnesses at that time, so they were only allowed to recall witnesses Reeves listed as well as three witnesses in direct response to allegations that arose during the trial.

Just before concluding his argument, Reeves called City Clerk Brenda Pree to the stand with a new piece of evidence. The defense quickly objected to the evidence, a list of the city's paid poll workers, because it was not named in any documents by the April deadline.

Reeves expected them to object. In fact, he asked Pree to bring the document specifically so the defense would object.

"We're just setting them up, because they didn't give us their stuff until Sunday," Reeves whispered to Jackson after getting Pree to present the list. "We're just setting them up for a fall."

After the judge agreed with the objection, Reeves asked that he remember that once the defense was ready to present their argument. Sure enough, as soon as the defense began their argument, Reeves objected to their 15 witnesses, and the judge again sustained.

The defense called poll manager Anderson, one of their three witnesses, to dispute the claim Jackson's witness made. Anderson denied she ever called Jackson, or anyone else, a "half-white n*gger." She also said that as soon as someone brought it to her attention that it was a violation of the law for a radio to play campaign ads inside the precinct, she turned the radio down during the commercials.

In the closing arguments, Reeves told the jury they had to take his witnesses' testimony as evidence of unlawful behavior and, therefore, set aside the election. He tried to discredit Cooper-Stokes' witnesses by pointing out that they would, of course, deny breaking the law.

In response, Alkebu-Ian spent most of his closing argument trying to discredit Jackson and her witnesses. He pointed out that only Jackson's family members testified that they witnessed several of the alleged violations. He repeatedly called Jackson a "sore loser."

"He just was a big bully," Jackson said after the hearing Friday. "That's bullying when you call somebody a sore loser. He called me out (by) my name. That's the same as calling me a half-white n*gger. It's a bully word."

Jackson said the hearing was not about her, but about the people of Jackson and Ward 3 getting a fair election.

"The people who were here, they've seen the same kind of irregularities throughout these years," Jackson said. "It has happened within the last 20 years. No one would have had a fair chance to ever be elected if we had let this go on. So, it has to stop and I am the person to stop it. It has to be exposed. (The people) had to know the truth."

Cooper-Stokes said she is still the Ward 3 councilwoman, and she took her council seat at the regular meeting Tuesday. Her husband, Hinds County Supervisor Kenneth Stokes, said the verdict is not final and their attorneys will look into the appeals process.

"We can't allow the majority of people to vote for a candidate in Jackson, Mississippi, and the majority vote be overturned on bullsh*t," Stokes said.

Reeves said Monday that it is Cooper-Stokes legal right to remain on the council until the new election. An appeal would take about a year, he said, and the state Supreme Court would have to stop the new election for it to not happen.

He also said that he sent letters Monday to Sheriff Tyrone Lewis, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and the U.S. Department of Justice Voting Rights Division to request help to make sure the election is run correctly this time.

Because of an automatic 10-day stay on any judgment issued to the council, City Clerk Brenda Pree must wait until June 18 to put a resolution on the council's agenda to set a date for the new election. The city council will likely set a date for the election at its June 26 regular meeting, which must be between 20 and 30 days later.