Judge May Decide to Revoke Bond of Jackson Mayor

A federal judge could decide this morning wether or not to revoke bond for Jackson Mayor Frank Melton. MPB's Lawayne Childrey.

The shocking revelation that mayor Frank Melton personally served a subpoena to Evans Welch, the tenant in the Jackson duplex destroyed in 2006 came at the end of the first day of testimony. And if that wasn't enough, federal prosecutor Mark Blumberg also asked the judge to revoke the mayors bond for meeting with witness Michael Taylor and giving him gifts over the past two weeks. If found to be true Mississippi College of Law Professor Matt Steffy calls the mayors actions disturbing.

“If I were facing serious federal prison time for disregarding the rule of law and specifically not obeying the dictates of the constitution I would avoid speaking to how I answer to a higher authority than the constitution. And his basic defense is that he didn’t mean to violate the constitution but I mean that’s harder to maintain if your public posture is so I don’t care.”

Earlier in the day federal prosecutors heard testimony from State Attorney General Jim Hood who testified that he was asked by then Jackson Prosecutor, Fay Peterson to speak with the mayor concerning past incidents. Peterson says she did so to prohibit misuse of power.

“The mayor had actually displayed a badge and other paraphernalia that a mayor under our government in the state of Mississippi is not allowed to act as if he’s a law enforcement officer. So what the prosecution is doing with this testimony is show that this defendant had a pattern of conduct of this same nature prior to the night in question.”

Testimony is set to continue this morning. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.