JPD pointed FBI to cases involving alleged DA conflict

Jackson police expressed frustration with criminal cases not moving forward in Hinds County before District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith's legal troubles began this summer, according to FBI testimony uncovered in a recently unsealed case.

Those concerns may have been an impetus in the criminal charges that followed.

RELATED: Hinds DA case: A timeline

Smith was indicted on felony charges of conspiracy alongside Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride on Sept. 7. The charges came more than two months after the state attorney general's office filed a six-count affidavit against Smith, alleging he illegally assisted two criminal defendants, Christopher Butler and Darnell Turner.

A previously sealed case and testimony transcript shows the Jackson Police Department asked the FBI to look at a number of cases it believed the district attorney's office didn't pursue because of a conflict. The FBI referred the matter, which it determined not to be federal, to the state attorney general's office after having found a suspicious relationship between Smith, Turner, accused drug offender Tommy White and an employee in Smith's office. JPD implied White wasn't indicted after being arrested, but Smith says he was.

All of the current criminal charges against Smith pertain to his activity on Butler's cases.

Questioned in a March hearing about the information provided by JPD, an FBI agent told Smith he was sure the department "came to me in good faith ... and I went to the attorney general in good faith." The hearing pertained to a motion by the attorney general's office to recall a grand jury and place the attorney general as prosecutor in several criminal cases.

RELATED: Judge toggles between sealing, unsealing mysterious case

More than a year ago, a Jackson Police Department sergeant approached FBI Special Agent Robert Culpepper about a number of cases JPD "felt weren't getting properly prosecuted locally," according to Culpepper's testimony in the case in front of Circuit Judge Jeff Weill. 

In July 2015, the FBI sought assistance from the attorney general's office, alleging several violent and nonviolent cases had not been prosecuted by Smith's office and that they had not been pursued because all of the defendants had a connection to Turner. Smith represented Turner before taking office in 2008, but any criminal charges pertaining to Smith's relationship with Turner have since been dropped.

Later, the investigation honed in on White, who grew up with Turner in the Washington Addition, according to Culpepper. "It was considered that he runs with Darnell, and they look out for each other," Culpepper said.

JPD arrested White for possession of marijuana with the intent to sell in 2013, according to a September 2015 letter from Culpepper to Special Assistant Attorney General Marvin Sanders. In that letter, Culpepper suggests White is an associate of Turner's and a strong supporter of Smith and that Smith's office never pursued the case.

But in the 2016 hearing, Culpepper said he didn't confirm whether White had been indicted and that he had taken the JPD representative at his word.

"We were just referring something. And at that point it was kind of hands off for us. I didn't follow up on it," Culpepper said. "I don't know the timeline of when it was indicted, so I don't want to speculate."

Smith testified his office had, in fact, indicted White and that the Hinds County Sheriff's Department had an arrest warrant for him. An indictment for White does not appear in the Hinds County Circuit Clerk's office.

In February, Assistant Attorney General Stanley Alexander — who challenged Smith in the DA's race last year — filed a motion claiming district attorney office employee Deondra Parker signed that she received White's case. Parker is the mother of two of Turner's children. That motion was sealed until The Clarion-Ledger's request to unseal the case.

A 2014 memorandum from then JPD Deputy Chief Deric Hearn shows that JPD sent a list of more than 30 felony cases to be prosecuted by the district attorney. Parker signed the document to show the office had received the grand jury submissions.

But Culpepper said in his testimony that "the DA's office claimed that they never received it to be presented to the grand jury," according to the JPD.

"At a later time, after we reviewed the cases that included Mr. Turner, a representative from Jackson Police Department came forward and brought this case and said that it was a good case, that it was — should have been prosecuted in their opinion."

JPD Chief Lee Vance told The Clarion-Ledger he had no knowledge about his department's involvement in requesting the FBI to look into Smith's office.

"I can tell you that I've never made any conscious effort to initiate an investigation on the DA," Vance said, adding, "there's always information sharing between agencies."

Culpepper's 2015 letter also alleges JPD arrested James Mangum, the son of Turner's employee, on a murder charge, but he was never indicted. Culpepper writes that Turner's company, Southern Miss Transport LLC, is "under investigation for being a front for drug trafficking."  

He also alleges that Smith has protected the owner of the former Express Fuel Store, Chirag Kharbanda, who has been arrested "for a variety of crimes and is under active investigation for drug trafficking," Culpepper said.

"Reporting suggests that Smith's office has deliberately avoided prosecuting Kharbanda due to Smith's ties to the store owning community," Culpepper writes.

A Hinds County grand jury chose not to indict Express Fuel Store co-owner Desmond Brown under odd circumstances after he was accused of causing the death of a homeless man in 2012. Court records show the grand jury met over a "questionable death" and at the time, officials were not able to explain the charges.

Contact Anna Wolfe at 601-961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.