Suburbs

There seems to be some wild doings down in DeSoto County.

And we aren’t even sure of the exact details of what is going on.

As Rob Moore, our North Mississippi reporter, noted Thursday, a county grand jury was empaneled. And Sheriff Thomas E. Tuggle and Chief Deputy Justin Smith stopped by (or were beckoned) to appear for the proceedings.

Those appearances appeared suspicious, right? I mean the county’s two top law enforcement folks, along with other high-ranking folks showing up for a grand jury?

Making the whole thing even more mysterious was that after the session no one wanted to talk about what went on in the grand jury room.

Not Tuggle.

Not Smith.

Not anyone else who went into the grand jury room.

Not District Attorney Matthew Barton.

That’s not unusual for grand juries. There’s this whole secretive side of what is done in there. I get that. The prosecution doesn’t want to play its hand until they have an indictment against someone. So, no one is telling us what Thursday’s grand jury was talking about. Or investigating. Or gathering thread in case an indictment is forthcoming.

Was this all about the escapes from custody this year at the county courthouse?

Joshua Zimmerman walked away in June, benefitting from a “soft spot” in the building’s design and was captured two months later in Chicago. Then Stephen Graham Russell Jr. fled earlier this week after he was sentenced to 10 years on drug charges. Authorities said Russell claimed a medical emergency, then hightailed it to his car, driving away for a short time while still in handcuffs.

Now, we don’t know if those escapes were part of Barton’s inquiry. If there was something he was pursuing about the way the escapes occurred. Maybe he got some bad intel or acted on a rumor that something questionable led to Russell’s short-term freedom on Monday.

But it is a bit difficult to put the clues together and come up with enough information to imagine criminal charges. Of course, there are things we don’t know. Because the grand jury is secretive and officials are using that as a reason not to talk.

I tell you, the whole thing is so mysterious, it’s enough to make someone start throwing things around their office in frustration.

What we do know is there has been friction in these scenarios all year. There seems to be less than cooperation between the sheriff’s office and the district attorney. Was that part of the background to Thursday’s events? Maybe that somehow came into play here.

I mean, Barton did say after Zimmerman’s escape that he wanted a grand jury to investigate the escape, the design of the courthouse building and any tampering with state’s evidence.

Then he added what is in the running for quote of the year:

“You do not have to get answers from people that have agendas, and as much as it’s going to rock the boat and upset a few people, the fact is DeSoto County does not belong to the good old boys anymore,” Barton said. “It belongs to you.”

Who knows if this was the grand jury session Barton promised after Zimmerman’s escape. Who knows if it was due to Russell running away. Who knows if it has something to do with both cases.

We don’t. Because no one is talking about what happened during the secretive proceedings.

— Clay Bailey, Suburbs editor

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