Ahem. An anonymous reader has my thanks for a most interesting new piece of the Shelton saga that I understand was part of the record before the complaint tribunal (and now, of course, the Mississippi Supreme Court):
Here (two-page pdf) is a February 12, 1997, letter to James Jennings from the late Ruma Haque, then board attorney to Hinds County’s Board of Supervisors, replying to a complaint from Jennings (unavailable to me) addressed either to the whole Board or to Haque alone. Apparently, Jennings — for the moment acting as his own attorney — had stated to Haque or one or more board-members some kind of claim against Hinds County about County Judge Houston Patton’s having forced him to "buy " his way out of jail.
As you see, the text of the letter proper is unremarkable — merely a polite explanation of the Supervisors’ lack of control over (or responsibility for) the actions of Patton, County Court Administrator Carolyn Broussard, or Assistant County Attorney Craig Bluntson. But in this case, an implication of the “copied to” list on page 2 of this document should disturb us.
Recall that James Jennings and Keith Shelton were arrested and jailed on April 16, 1997. Now here sits Haque’s cc-list, establishing that more than two months earlier, in addition to herself, all of the following people — the five members of the Board of Supervisors, Patton, Broussard, Bluntson, Raymond Bates, Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn, County Judge Chet Henley, Chancery Clerk Alice James, County Attorney Joe Moss, and County Administrator Roy DeBerry — all of them had received notice that Jennings was trying his civilian best to state what lawyers know as a ยง1983 civil-rights claim against Houston Patton.
And then, two months and four days later, splashed across the Clarion-Ledger (no doubt local TV too) the big news that Jennings and his new lawyer had just been “caught on tape trying to bribe Judge Patton!”
Do you see the problem here? In mid-April or thereafter, apparently neither Haque nor any recipient of a copy of her letter to Jennings stepped up to say, “Wait a minute, that makes no sense. I/We know Jennings wants to make a civil-rights claim against — not bribe — Judge Patton!” If any of them did, Ed Peters’ office obviously ignored them.
Verrrry in-ter-res-tink, that. But not, I think we can now agree, surprising . . .
Thanks Lotus. This whole thing makes me want to puke. Scruggs is bad enough but Nifonging innocent people is 100x worse.
What is even worse is that the media will not touch this story for whatever reason. Sure, this occurred 1o years ago but Judge Patton is still on the bench, Shelton is disbarred, and both Shelton and Jennings have guilty pleas attached to their names.
Another GD POS stain on the State of Mississippi in which Ed Peters was involved.
irate, Shelton’s law license got suspended in an illegitimate way, but he’s never been disbarred — otherwise . . .
YEAH, WHAT YOU SAID!
My mistake, suspended!
I went to law school with Ruma and knew her to be a very capable, smart, and high character person. I doubt seriously that she would have condoned, or approved in any way what occurred to these gentlemen, especially had she been aware then of all the real underlying circumstances known by the DA’s office, and by us now due to recent revelations of shenanigins. Such details about this matter would not be known by the atty for the Board of Supervisors as part of her normal job functions. And, unfortunately, Ruma is no longer able to defend herself in this mess, as she passed away several years ago.
I don’t think anyone is intending to disparage a dead person’s character here, but just in case someone reads this the wrong way, and has any desire to go in that direction. I would like to head such off before it even starts.
I imagine the Board probably thought that Jennings was someone with a beef against Patton that had no merit to it.
Agreed, afotl — according to everything I’ve heard about Ruma Haque, I envy y’all who had the pleasure of her company.
The others have had an awful long time to make a clean breast of it (some needing MUCH more cleaning than others), though, and not a one has.
Irate, I don’t have a guilty plea attached to my name. I didn’t do anything wrong and I refused to plea.
“A friend of the law”, concerning your post…I will state that Ruma Haque and I had more than one meeting over the “Patton affair” and she was as disgusted by it as you are. She also believed every word of it. She took her personal time with me to try to assist me in righting what she considered a horrible injustice. I have nothing but fond memory of her.She was a kind and decent person and a credit to her profession. Judge Henley was as well. Both were an asset to the judicial system of Mississippi. I remember getting a long, sincere hug from Ruma leaving Hal & Mal’s one evening and her parting words were, “Have faith, sooner or later, the truth WILL come out. ”
She was right.. RIP.
As for the Clarion Ledger, I’m sure those with puppy dogs to train or bird cages find appropriate use for it.
Thanks. I had the info wrong!!!!! Hope things are going well for you regarding all of this.
As for Shelton’s only being suspended, not disbarred: I would submit that a 10 year suspension is worse than being disbarred. A disbarred lawyer can seek reinstatement after only three years. Of course, that doesn’t consider when the Supreme Court will rule on the petition.
James, thank you for speaking up on behalf of Ruma, and for confirming my belief about her character. And in doing so, revealing a lot about your good character as well.
I don’t think we have ever personally met, but I sincerely hope that the wrongs against you get rectified to the extent possible at this point. Some justice late, is better than no justice at all, I suppose.
Good luck to you and God bless.
James, afotl, I knew Ruma, too. What a lovely person she was. I still miss her.