Feds to Pay Recio’s Legal Fees

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The government will be picking up the legal tab for former mayoral bodyguard Michael Recio.

by Ward Schaefer
April 15, 2009

The federal government will take up the burden of Michael Recio’s mounting legal expenses. Cynthia Stewart, Recio’s attorney, requested that the court appoint her as a public defender, and yesterday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson granted her request. Recio is the former bodyguard of Mayor Frank Melton, and is Melton’s co-defendant in a federal case based on their roles in the 2006 destruction of a Ridgeway Street duplex.

In her March 31 filing, Stewart argued that Recio’s monthly salary of $2,168, his base pay as a Jackson Police officer on leave, is not sufficient to cover his $4,548 in monthly expenses, which include a $1,689 monthly mortgage payment.

After reviewing a detailed financial affidavit, which Stewart filed under seal yesterday, Anderson ruled that Recio’s financial resources were insufficient for him to afford qualified representation himself.

“In determining whether such insufficiency exists, consideration should be given to the cost of providing the person and his dependents with the necessities of life,” Anderson wrote in her order.

In the case against Recio and Melton, federal prosecutors allege that they violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The two defendants beat different state charges for the Ridgeway incident in 2007, and their first federal trial ended in a hung jury in February. A re-trial will begin May 11, with a jury selected from the entire Southern District of Mississippi.

Anderson also ruled against a motion by Stewart to compel the government’s production of internal memos. Stewart argued that the government’s successive prosecutions of Recio violated internal policies of the Department of Justice. Any evidence of the government’s rationale for prosecuting Recio could exculpate her client, Stewart argued.

Anderson rejected Stewart’s reasoning and agreed with prosecutors that the government was not required to produce its own internal communications in the case.

“Defendant Recio cites no authority which would allow the discovery of any such materials, although he contends they are ‘relevant and potentially exculpatory,’ ” Anderson wrote in her order.

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