Friends of Mike Hurst Releases Statement

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JACKSON, MISS (SEPTEMBER 24, 2015) Today at the State Capitol Building, Simpson County Sheriff Ken Lewis joined Republican Attorney General candidate Mike Hurst in the release of the ad “Interference”, in which Lewis says the Office of Attorney General under Democrat Jim Hood “actively interfered” in an investigation into a corrupt police chief and Hood “turned a blind eye to the problems with public corruption in Simpson County.”

As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, I worked with many law enforcement officials in Mississippi to clean up public corruption in their communities, including Sheriff Ken Lewis. With his help, we successfully sent a corrupt police chief to prison for five years. But it wasn’t without frustration. The case was brought to me and the FBI after Sheriff Lewis first took the case to Attorney General Jim Hood’s office, alerting them to the fact that the Mendenhall police chief was extorting the citizens he swore to protect. Not only did Jim Hood’s office not help,it appears that office tipped off the corrupt police chief to the investigation. It is simply shocking that the Mississippi Attorney
General’s Office would refuse to prosecute a public official who is extorting his fellow citizens, but it is nothing short of stunning that the office of Mississippi’s top law enforcement officer would actively help that individual evade prosecution. “Mississippi needs new blood and new leadership in its Attorney General’s Office, not a career politician invested in the good ol boy’ system that systematically sweeps crimes under the rug,” Hurst said.

After the corrupt police chief was tipped off, he began a cover-up scheme to create and backdate paperwork in an attempt to hide his wrongdoing.
Sheriff Lewis contacted the FBI which then asked the Attorney General’s
Office to discontinue its involvement. Hurst prosecuted the police chief which included an indictment of his cover-up scheme. The police chief pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.