Jackson Free Press

A Democratic lawmaker wants the Legislature to look deeper into the allegations of corruption that have ensnared longtime Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps.

State Rep. David Baria, D-Waveland, wants to convene a legislative panel to look at the charges against Epps, who was indicted along with former lobbyist Cecil McCrory last week on 49 counts involving an alleged bribery and kickback scheme, as well as Epps' reappointments to head MDOC.

"The conduct alleged in the indictment—bribery and kickbacks concealed as consulting services—enriched individuals at the expense of Mississippi taxpayers," Baria said in a statement to news media this morning. "As a member of the Legislature charged with being a good steward of public resources, I have questions about what our state leaders knew and when they knew it as it relates to former Commissioner Epps."

Epps, 53, had been the only African-American director of a Mississippi agency. After being appointed to the post by lame-duck Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in 2003, Epps convinced Republican Govs. Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant to keep him on, in part because of Epps' reputation as a good fiscal steward of the agency's finances.

In 2011, the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review criticized Epps' no-bid contract for commissary services, but policymakers failed then to take further action on the report. The agency's commissary contract became a key aspect of the federal indictment, unsealed Nov. 6.

The indictment alleges that in 2007, McCrory paid Epps $3,000 to $4,000 on roughly 15 occasions in exchange for the contract that McCrory's companies had with MDOC. That contract with G.T. Enterprises was later transferred to St. Louis, Mo.-based Keefe Commissary Network LLC, which resulted in a large profit for McCrory. Keefe Commissary is a privately held company, owned by the Taylor family of St. Louis, which founded and owns Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

Baria believes the MDOC scandal represents systemic corruption throughout state government, pointing to the 2013 Department of Marine Resources scandal that resulted in multiple federal convictions of former DMR officials. Baria also took direct aim at Republicans in his criticisms.

"At a time when we are told by Republican leadership that the state does not have the money to adequately fund education and ensure that working-class Mississippians have access to healthcare, there never seems to be a shortage of funds to enrich those who feed at the trough of state government," Baria said.

Gov. Phil Bryant has said he would appoint a special task force to review MDOC's contracts and has ordered the agency to terminate agreements with one McCrory-affiliated company, Adminpros LLC.

Speaker Philip Gunn's office did not have an immediate response to Baria's request for a legislative hearing.