Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and former Jackson City Council Member Aaron Banks declined to plead guilty by a federal judge’s Friday deadline on charges they face in an FBI operation that roiled Jackson officials in 2024.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan set the deadline last year in an effort to ensure orderly resolution of a complex case. An expert says, though, that nothing would prevent the three men from pleading guilty before or during a trial.
Owens, Lumumba and Banks are the remaining defendants in the case. They are set to go to trial on July 13 in what the judge previously wrote he expects to be a month-long proceeding.
Each of three defendants has previously pleaded not guilty. They can change to a guilty plea at any time, said Matt Steffey, a Mississippi College School of Law professor.
“Let’s be clear, there’s nothing that prevents the parties from at any time agreeing to a negotiated plea,” Steffey said. “You can try anything.”
At the same time, the judge is free to reject a plea – a move Steffey said would be unusual but not rare.
“If the judge rejects the terms of the plea agreement, then a defendant has the right to withdraw the plea,” he said.
Owens, Banks and Lumumba are facing multiple charges stemming from a sweeping FBI operation aimed at exposing public corruption. Undercover agents, posing as real estate developers, sought to build a convention center hotel in downtown Jackson on a plot of land the city had previously obtained a federal loan to develop.
The undercover agents enlisted an unsuspecting Owens to help them gain credibility with powerful Jacksonians, including Banks and Lumumba, Mississippi Today previously reported.
The only bribes that the indictment charges Lumumba with taking are campaign contributions. While on a yacht off the coast of Florida, Lumumba discussed the payment Owens was going to give him on behalf of the developers and then placed a call asking a city employee to shorten a bid window for the hotel development, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors allege Banks took cash bribes in exchange for his vote on the development, but the city never selected a winning bid and the vote did not come to fruition.
Two people have already pleaded guilty in the scheme: Another former City Council member, Angelique Lee, and Owens’ cousin and associate, Sherik “Marve” Smith.
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