JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Bribery and conspiracy allegations against the mayor are the latest shock to Mississippi’s capital, where a federally appointed official runs the water system after it nearly collapsed and state police are patrolling parts of the majority-black city because of it White lawmakers’ concerns about crime.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and two other Democratic elected officials — Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Jackson City Council member Aaron B. Banks — pleaded not guilty to the federal charges Thursday. They remain free while awaiting trial in a case related to the proposed development of a long-vacant downtown property.
“I am not guilty, and therefore I will not appear as a guilty man,” said the mayor, who is seeking a third term in 2025.
Lumumba is Black and has described himself as a “radical” who is “uncomfortable with oppressive conditions.” Both he and his sister Rukia Lumumba believe he is facing political prosecution, even though the Justice Department is still run by a Democratic government.
“First Trump wins, now they’re trying to impeach my brother,” Rukia Lumumba posted on Facebook. “As Spike Lee says: WAKE UP! They come to get the best of us because we threaten their power.”
Distrust of government is deeply rooted in Jackson, from people who say the state has blocked efforts to assist the city and from people who say the city has stumbled in providing basic services.
City Council member Kenneth Stokes, a fellow Democrat and repeated critic of the mayor, said the charges would augment skepticism.
“You drink dirty water. You can’t have your streets paved. They’ve already lost trust,” Stokes, who is also Black, told media.
“Don’t say you’re running for office to help people when you’re trying to help yourself,” Stokes said. “If you want to help people, help people.”
Jackson’s population peaked at about 203,000 in 1980, a decade after public school integration, and has since declined to about 143,700. More than 80% of residents are black, the highest proportion of any major U.S. city, and about 25% live in poverty.
The city has struggled for years with water quality problems and staffing shortages at its two wastewater treatment plants.
A chilly snap in early 2021 froze some treatment equipment and left many people with low pressure or no running water at all. For weeks, thousands of people collected water in buckets at distribution sites so they could flush toilets and bathe, and the National Guard helped distribute drinking water.
Tens of thousands had little or no water for weeks in August and September 2022 after bulky rains exacerbated problems at one of the plants. The city had already been under a boil water warning for a month because the state health department had detected overcast water that could cause digestive problems. The federal government appointed an independent administrator to run the system in tardy 2022, despite objections from the mayor and his political allies.
In 2023, a law enforcement conflict arose when the majority-white, Republican-controlled Legislature voted to expand the territory of the Capitol Police, a division of the state Department of Public Safety. State officials previously patrolled around government buildings in downtown Jackson and now do so in a much larger area.
People protesting the expansion said it would give disproportionate power to white state officials in Jackson. Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Mayor Lumumba announced “Operation Unified,” a federal, state and local effort to combat violent crime in the city.
Charges were filed against the mayor, Owens and Banks after two people working for the FBI posed as real estate developers seeking to build a hotel near the downtown convention center and made payments, including $50,000 for the mayor’s re-election campaign, court documents show.
Two other people were previously implicated in the bribery investigation.
City Council member Angelique Lee, a Democrat, resigned in August and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges. Her sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Sherik Marve Smith — an insurance broker and, according to court documents, a relative of Owens — waived arraignment on Oct. 17 and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in the case. 19.
In May, FBI agents raided Owens’ office and a downtown cigar bar he owns. Items found in the office included a locker that looked like a book labeled “U.S. Constitution”; Inside, according to the indictment, was about $20,000 in cash, about $9,900 of which had serial numbers confirming it was paid to Owens by the alleged developers.
Owens bragged to the alleged developers about having influence over Jackson officials, saying he had “information on all the city councilors” and could approve the votes, the indictment says. Owens also told the alleged developers that politicians in Mississippi live off campaign contributions, that he knew how to “clean” outside money by depositing it in a bank in the state, and that he didn’t care where the money came from.
Owens “facilitated over $80,000 in bribe payments” to Lumumba, Banks and Lee in exchange for their agreement to secure approval for the multimillion-dollar downtown project, the indictment says.
Outside the courthouse Thursday, Banks declined to comment. Owens called the FBI investigation flawed and added: “We believe the truth must come to light that carefully selected statements about drunken locker room banter are not a crime.”
