{"id":946,"date":"2026-06-30T17:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=946"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:23:12","slug":"mississippi-district-attorney-pleads-guilty-to-bribery-conspiracy-and-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=946","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi district attorney pleads guilty to bribery conspiracy and resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">JACKSON, Miss. &#8212; <\/span>A Mississippi district attorney has resigned and changed his plea to guilty in a bribery scheme that ensnared other officials in the state&#8217;s capital city, including Jackson&#8217;s former mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens was <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jackson-mississippi-mayor-district-attorney-indicted-9aeaacd1686b2fcabba3af4720e8d453\">indicted<\/a> in November 2024 after two FBI agents posing as real estate developers offered bribes to him and the other officials to greenlight a development project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The indictment accused Owens of soliciting and accepting at least $115,000 in cash as well as facilitating more than $80,000 in payments to his alleged co-conspirators, including $50,000 for Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba&#8217;s reelection campaign. Lumumba, who called the charges a political prosecution, lost his reelection bid last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Owens could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThis was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made,\u201d Owens wrote in a social media post announcing his resignation. &#8220;While it hurts beyond measure to step away from a position I love, I believe this decision is what is best for me, my family, and the District Attorney\u2019s Office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Lumumba and former Jackson City Council member Aaron B. Banks pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to stand trial starting in mid-July. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Angelique Lee, another Jackson City Council member, and Sherik Marve Smith, a relative of Owens, pleaded guilty to the federal bribery charges in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/mississippi-district-attorney-pleads-guilty-bribery-conspiracy-resigns-134345012\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACKSON, Miss. &#8212; A Mississippi district attorney has resigned and changed his plea to guilty in a bribery scheme that ensnared other officials in the state&#8217;s capital city, including Jackson&#8217;s former mayor. Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens was indicted in November 2024 after two FBI agents posing as real estate developers offered bribes to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}