There are those readers who remember the day when a young whipper snapper who didn’t know his place got elected to the position of district attorney in Jackson County. The under 30 Mike Moore set out to stop corruption dead in its tracks. He wasn’t deterred. Even in the face of defeat, he continued to find novel methods under which to prosecute corrupt county officials.
Thirty years have passed. “The godfather” Eddie Khayat is but a memory, the least of Lum Cumbest’s progeny now fills his seat, but there remains no man who can fill the shoes of Mike Moore during that time.
You have all seen the records of who filled Tony Lawrence’s campaign coffers. You know who his boss was before he was elected to DA. You understand the reasons why he won’t even attempt to prosecute a case as it relates to Singing River Health System.
Mississippi’s mail fraud statute is very broad, as we have previously reported.
The time has come for Jackson County to demand a district attorney who will stand up to corruption, whether it comes in the form of a sheriff or a hospital executive.
The time is now. Mark it down. Tony Lawrence must go.
If he isn’t willing to do his job now, he should go ahead and resign. Call his office and let him know that if he isn’t willing to fully prosecute corruption in Jackson, George, & Greene Counties, it is time to move on.
Here are his offices’ phone numbers:
228-769-3045
228-769-3345
601-947-8801
Those were the days! Oh, if we only had a Mike Moore again!!
My grandpa once work for Jackson County in the District 1 road department and he told me back when the beat system was in place the county supervisors were nothing more than godfathers who ran an organized crime operation.They got paid a percentage of all monies that were spent in their district. He said Lum Cumbest and Eddie Khayat both were controlled by the likes of Johnny Whitehead and Cody Loyd Vice who paid them handsomely. He was enraged when the Cumbest clan bought the naming rights to the East Central Park or golf course and then naming it after convicted felon Lum Cumbest. I guess next you will see the Bolton Building, where the DMR is located in Biloxi, named after William Walker and the Singing River Hospital System renamed the Chris Anderson World Class Hospital System.None of this would surprise many.Mike Moore did Jackson County a big favor and it is now past time for someone to step up and repeat history by cleaning out the new nest of crooks.