Ellington

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton admitted to lying in legal documents for more than two years on Aug. 22, saying he had been confused, as he stood before a judge in Lauderdale County Circuit Court. Three days later, Judge Robert Bailey called his explanation "ludicrous" and declared Melton the loser in the lawsuit due to lies he'd told to the court on numerous occasions - leaving the Mississippi taxpayers to pay his damages.

Judge Bailey granted the plaintiffs' motion to strike Melton's answer and enter a default judgment against him - an unusual and harsh penalty in a civil lawsuit. Melton admitted to Bailey that "it was a lie" when he said in answers to legal interrogatories that he didn't leak a Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics investigative memo to Gannett News Service reporter Ana Radelat.

Former MBN pilots Robert Earl Pierce and Jimmy Saxton say they were defamed in the memo Melton leaked to the newspaper two years ago. Melton had earlier denied being the leak, but later recanted his story after a judge demanded Radelat release the name of her source.

"That's a civil litigation case involving a criminal investigation where I used the First Amendment to protect sources and protect some journalists," the Jackson mayor told reporters at an Aug. 23 council meeting the day after his admission in court. "I felt very strongly about that. It's a very serious criminal investigation, and I felt compelled to protect sources of information and also the journalist that was involved in reporting that situation."

Under the gaze of the judge, however, Melton called the deception "a terrible mistake," and said he didn't realize the seriousness of lying in a discovery request. "I had no idea this was a court document. ... I didn't realize that this was testimony."

A Reporter or a Public Servant?
Melton lawyer James Metz described Melton's actions as those of a reporter with news obligations. "Mr. Melton is not a lawyer, he's in the news business," Metz said. "He thought he was protecting a source."

"I still have substantial ownership in journalism," Melton, the former owner and manager of WLBT, told reporters the day after his court appearance. "I'm a journalist. That's what I've been for 30 years. I'll never give that up, and you know the professional courtesies that we have in the industry and that has been violated, and we went over there yesterday to straighten the record out and do the right thing. It's a First Amendment issue."

University of Mississippi media ethics professor Joe Atkins said it looked more like Melton was protecting himself rather than a reporter or the First Amendment, however.

"His duty to journalism, it seemed to me, was to relay information that he believed to be accurate and true," Atkins said. "Whether he admitted to a court he was the source or not doesn't really appear to be a question of journalism. A source is not a journalist."

Atkins' opinion ran in line with that of Judge Bailey.

"Regarding the argument by Mr. Melton that he thought he could lie to this Court because he was protected by the First Amendment, this court finds that nowhere in the U.S. Constitution did the founding fathers state that it was permissible to lie in a Court of law," Bailey wrote. "This argument is simply without merit."

'A Willful Abuse É and In Bad Faith'
Melton and his attorney Dale Danks, the former mayor of Jackson who is currently representing Byram in a lawsuit against the city of Jackson, chose to parse the difference between "sworn" lies and lies told without Melton's right hand in the air. Danks argued that the original statement, however contradictory, did not count as a sworn statement. A discovery response signed by Melton on April 19, 2005, confirms that the document was signed and delivered - not that its contents are under oath, he said.

Smelling a defect, plaintiff lawyers filed a June 3, 2005, Motion to Compel. Bailey's decision noted that Melton's lawyers responded to this with a statement that "Mr. Melton acknowledged before a Notary Public that he 'delivered' the discovery response and that Melton assumed that signing before a Notary was sufficient under the rules."

The wording of the response does disqualify it from being a sworn statement, however, and it is this fact that ultimately sweeps away the possibility of charging Melton with perjury, a felony under Mississippi law.

Melton's lie to the court did, however, leave Bailey incensed.

"Apparently, Melton is now claiming that his prior discovery responses were not under oath as required by Rule 33, MRCP, despite the statement in the response to the Motion to Compel that he assumed and contended that signing before a notary was sufficient under the rules," Bailey wrote.

Melton "stated during the hearing that he thought the purpose of discovery was posturing between the attorneys and that he did not think he had to help the plaintiffs make their case," Bailey wrote. "The court finds this argument to be ludicrous. The defendant has been a party to litigation in the past ... He is a sophisticated and educated person, who is a very successful businessman. This court finds that the defendant knew that the answers were to be used in litigation, that he knew that he was not telling the truth in his answers and that he knew that he should not provide false answers to the court."

Calling Melton's dishonesty "a willful abuse of the discovery process and in bad faith," Bailey handed the mayor an instant loss in part to serve as an example to future attempts at misleading his court.

"The Court finds that the only possible sanction that will achieve the deterrent effect is to strike the Defendant's pleading and enter a default for the Plaintiffs," Bailey said, arguing that "lesser sanctions would not achieve" the same "deterrent value."

Melton now heads to court in November at a disadvantage. The jury will not even be considering whether or not he is innocent of defamation. They will only be gauging how badly he defamed.

Whatever price Melton has to pay, he won't actually have to pay it. The Mississippi Tort Claims Act prohibits actions against individuals who get sued for their actions as state employees. That means the costs will fall to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the state of Mississippi and, ultimately, the taxpayers.

Misconduct Allegations Disproved
State authorities have disproved most of the assertions of misconduct in the newspaper story. Mississippi State Auditor Phil Bryant conducted a two-year investigation of 10 individuals, finding in March 2005 only minor infractions by two of the state employees targeted. Auditors determined the rest to be in compliance with state law. Nevertheless, Melton has recently said things that suggest that he disputes those results, alluding to a seemingly ongoing investigation of corruption, telling reporters that he would be continuing to pursue "allegations."

"I am looking forward to going forth with this case and to prove that these allegations are true," Melton told The Clarion-Ledger after the Meridian Star broke the news of the lawsuit into the mainstream media, several weeks after the Jackson Free Press reported Melton's lie on July 20.

Melton also referred to the closed case against Robert Pierce in the present tense, saying, "It's a very serious criminal investigation, and I felt compelled to protect sources of information." In a recent television interview, Melton told WLBT anchor Bert Case that he "had to get this information out to the public, because this is public corruption at it's highest levels, and I am prepared to prove that."

Attorney Mike Farrell, who is representing Pierce, described Melton's allegations as a diversionary tactic.

"Melton's living in la-la land," Farrell said. "We've got letters from the auditor's office saying the case is closed. I don't know where he's getting this."

State auditor media public relations director Ross Aldridge said the auditor had no inquiries underway related to the memo. "We have no investigations open relating in any regard to this case or anyone that had been investigated. Everything is closed regarding that," Aldridge said, adding that Melton in his new capacity as mayor of Jackson has no authority to pursue allegations at MBN.

Melton and his attorneys did not respond to inquiries regarding the case following the Aug. 25 ruling.

Meanwhile, In Texas
Melton is gracing more than one courtroom this month. The Jackson mayor is also a plaintiff in a case pending in Dallas, Texas. Melton is the plaintiff in Melton v Community Broadcast Group, Inc., Jerry Russell, MRS Ventures, Inc., and Panola National Bank in which he seeks to collect $2 million in loans that are owed to him. But that case also calls into question the ethics of actions Melton took as director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.

Jeffrey Hellberg is the attorney representing defendants Community Broadcast Group, Inc., Jerry Russell and MRS Ventures, Inc. Hellberg has submitted to the court letters that Melton wrote in 2003 on MBN letterhead demanding payment and threatening legal and criminal action for the debt.

Helberg expects the letters to come up and that Melton will be subject to cross-examination with his claims pending in the 101st District Court in Texas.

One letter, dated Aug. 10, 2003, was addressed to Thomas Diggs of the Malachi Group in Atlanta. In that letter, Melton tells Diggs that he had agreed to "satisfy" notes, with interest, within 90 days. Melton then wrote that "failure to get this matter resolved within the time period that you suggested will require that I begin any and all procedures to secure my debt at both the civil and criminal level."

Undermining assumptions that Melton had simply run out of typing paper and resorted to MBN letterhead is the fact that Melton wrote several such letters on MBN letterhead over a number of months. Melton also wrote a Sept. 8, 2003, letter to Diggs explaining that Melton had "a Two Million Dollar senior note" and that he had instructed his law firm, "to begin proceedings to foreclose on the loan."

State Auditor Phil Bryant, looking over the letters Monday while Hurricane Katrina raged outside his Woolfolk Building window, said it was unlikely that formal charges would be lodged against Melton concerning any misuse of state office letterhead.

"(Punishing for this) is a problem. There's not a punitive step that the auditor's office can take. We can only ask what's the financial loss to the state, and that's only a few pieces of paper in this case. But from an ethical standpoint, this is not the proper use of letterhead. State letterhead should never be used to collect a personal debt."

The state Ethics Commission did not return phone calls.

Previous Comments

ID

64718

Comment

Ol' Pike remembers a JPD officer who went around giving loans and then using her badge to collect the debts? She went to jail if I recall. I guess what is good for the ganders is not good for the goose. What do you expect from someone who goes around telling people how to live and obey the law; yet, feels they are above it? And, it is really looking bad that this mayor spends so much time in legal proceedings. He already has to go texas to spend time with family some too! I guess his wife's comment that she will become a more active citizen in Jackson was just a bait and switch.

Author

pikersam

Date

2005-09-02T08:38:20-06:00