Story
Cover
Love Thy Neighbor: How to Connect in Divided Times
You can't sugarcoat it. In the wake of the 2016 presidential campaign, these are tough, divisive times. We're all hearing a lot about how Americans don't talk to people who …
Story
Crime
Saving Tax Dollars with Re-entry and Rehabilitation
Former inmates could leave Mississippi prisons with dignity and be able to find jobs, U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett told the Mississippi House Corrections Committee last week. The advocate of …
Story
City & County
Informant: Butler Case ‘Became the Big Thing’ in DA’s Office
It all began in the P.F. Chang’s parking lot, a former assistant district attorney testified on Tuesday in the trial of Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith for two …
Story
Crime
Informant Recorded DA Smith, Reported to FBI for Months
Former Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Ivon Johnson secretly taped District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith on several occasions over the last year, FBI Special Agent Robert Culpepper testified this morning …
Story
City & County
AG's Office: Assistant DA to Testify For Prosecution After Charges Dismissed
One of Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith’s former assistant DAs will testify for the prosecution in his trial for alleged tampering with wire-fraud suspect Christopher Butler, the attorney …
Story
Crime
DA Robert Smith's Trial Starts Today
The trial of Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith for alleged tampering with criminal cases began today, with jury selection this morning. The list of potential witnesses in Special …
Story
City & County
10 Local Stories of the Week
There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them.
Document
Jury Instructions for Smith Trial
Jury Instructions for the Hinds County DA Robert Shuler Smith Trial
Story
Trump Moves to Cancel Deals in Azerbaijan, Georgia
The Trump Organization has canceled a licensing deal for a hotel in Azerbaijan and is taking steps to do the same for a project in neighboring Georgia, part of recent …
Story
LGBT
HB 1523 Opponents Fight Back, Say Law Gives 'Special Rights'
LGBT rights proponents are pushing back on Gov. Phil Bryant's effect to bring House Bill 1523 back to life today, saying that it endorses and gives special treatment "to certain …
Story
City & County
Council Pulls Mayor's Sexual Harassment Settlement from Agenda
The possibility of a settlement in the sexual-harassment and discrimination lawsuit a former executive assistant to Mayor Tony Yarber filed popped up for a moment in the last regular Jackson …
Story
Mississippi Governor Searching for New Public Safety Leader
A spokesman says Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is searching for a new public safety commissioner as the current one gets ready to retire.
Story
Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Retiring in January
The Mississippi commissioner of public safety says he will retire Jan. 31.
Story
Cover
‘Not a Dungeon’: The Evolving Approach to Juvenile Detention
Across the pod, from inside the darkness of a cell, two shining circles stared out: the still and steady eyes of a black boy, locked up before he is even …
Photo
Story
Business
Fighting for Women: Workplace Rights, Paid Leave and Pay Gap
Child care, wages, domestic violence, pay equity and paid family and sick leave are at the top of the Mississippi Women's Economic Security Initiative's agenda for the upcoming legislative session.
Story
City & County
‘One Lake’ Supporters Banking on Federal Bill
The "One Lake" flood-control/development project will move forward under a new U.S. president and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, members of the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District …
Story
Mississippi Court Hears Appeal in Fight Over Worker Lawsuits
A worker is fighting one of Mississippi's largest industries in a skirmish over who can be sued when employees suffer on-the-job injuries.
Photo
Entry
Council to Consider Settlement for Mayor's Lawsuit
By Tim Summers Jr.The City Council's agenda for their regular meeting tonight, Dec. 13, at 6 p.m. in City Hall includes a possible settlement with the former executive assistant to Mayor Tony Yarber, Kimberly Bracey, alleging the mayor of sexual harassment, sexual discrimination and a hostile workplace.
Bracey alleged in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 25 of this year that she began to work with the mayor i 2014, and while she worked for him, the complaint states, he and she began a sexual relationship which she ended when she and her husband reconciled in 2014.
Bracey alleges that Yarber then forced her to continue their sexual relationship "by making it clear that she could be terminated if she did not have sex with him." Yarber, she alleges, also asked her "to encourage another female to give Defendant Yarber oral sex in exchange for guaranteed employment." She also heard him say inappropriate sexual remarks about other women, the complaint states.
The mayor released a statement concerning the lawsuit soon afterward.
"The City of Jackson has been made aware of a vicious and scandalous lawsuit filed by a former disgruntled employee, Kimberly Y. Vaunterice Bracey," the mayor's statement said. "Although the City has not been served with a copy of the complaint and summons, Mayor Tony T. Yarber and the City of Jackson stand ready to vigorously defend against each and every frivolous allegation made by Kimberly Y. Vaunterice Bracey."
The item on the council's agenda seems to indicate that the lawsuit will not go to trial. The details of that settlement would usually be included in the council's agenda packet, but the packet, filled with information that the public is supposed to be able to read before the council meets, has not been uploaded to the city's website yet.
