Nettie Davis, Charles Penson plead not guilty after first court appearance

Oct. 15—TUPELO — Nettie Davis, a longtime member of the Tupelo City Council, and Charles Penson, a leader in the local Democratic Party, have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of violating state election laws.

In their first court appearance, Davis and Penson on Friday were officially arraigned and informed of their indictment in Lee County Circuit Court. Circuit Judge John White told the two defendants of the charges brought against them and said they were being released on their own recognizance. That means they won't have to post any bond to secure their release.

Davis told members of the media after the arraignment that she has long worked to advance voting rights for all citizens and has been a liaison to the community on behalf of several candidates running for office — including the man who is prosecuting her.

"I have helped a lot of people in this community including John Weddle when he ran for district attorney," Davis said. "He came and asked me to help him in the community. Some of the people who have been helping me, I got them to go from door to door along with me and walked and asked people to vote for him."

Penson told members of the press that he was honored to be standing beside Davis, a longtime civil rights champion, because the two share similar philosophies on the importance of voter education and voter registration in the area.

"Quite frankly, I was surprised to hear about this law that supposedly we have violated," Penson said. "It's an obscure law. Nobody knew anything about it until it came out in the newspaper. Immediately, when we found that there was such a law and we could conceivably be in violation of it, we shut our operation down."

The Mississippi statute the two are accused of violating makes it illegal for anyone to "put up or in any way offer any prize, cash award or other item of value to be raffled, drawn for, played for or contested for in order to encourage a person to vote or to refrain from voting in any election."

The charges against Davis stem from a rally conducted before Tupelo municipal elections where she asked people to donate money for cash prizes that would be raffled off to people who voted in the election. Davis in the video never told the crowd who to vote for.

The charges against Penson are linked to a post on social media that he made, where he said that local ministers were encouraging people to vote through financial incentives.

The charges lodged against Davis and Penson are only misdemeanors and carry no possibility of jail time. Instead, both could face maximum fines of $5,000 if convicted, and Davis could be removed from office.

Weddle declined to comment in detail on the charges officially laid out in the indictment and said he believes everything is "self-explanatory."

When asked if his prosecution of two longtime leaders in the Black community and the Democratic Party is political — as some have alleged — Weddle said that accusation is not worth commenting on.

Judge White said that the next court appearance for Davis and Penson will be on Jan. 24, 2022, but they could appear in court whenever the prosecution and their defense agree on a time and date.

Local activist groups defend Penson and Davis

Local clergy, elected officials and leaders of the NAACP continued to defend the character of Davis and Penson after their arraignment and criticized the local prosecutor for continuing to pursue criminal charges.

Councilwoman Rosie Jones, Davis' colleague and only the second Black woman to be elected to the City Council, told the Daily Journal that she is "appalled" with the prosecution of Davis, given other larger criminal issues ongoing in town.

"We have much bigger fish to fry," Jones said. "We have gun violence. We have drugs that are supposed to be under lock and key. A misdemeanor? Really?"

The Rev. Charles Moore, the local NAACP chapter president, condemned the criminal prosecution as a tactic of voter suppression and voter intimidation.

He also implied that hypocrisy exists in local government, and said are other elected officials in office who were accused of driving under the influence of alcohol, which is also a misdemeanor for a first offense, but that there was "no record" of some of those charges.

Speaking merely as a citizen, Moore also said if Black citizens in town had come together in a unified manner before the election, then Davis would never had made any of the election raffle comments to try and encourage people to vote.

"If the Black people will stand together, they have power," Moore said. "They have dignity and character and integrity that needs to come out. Not as anger, not as resentment, not as disunity, but in unity, we would never be here having this conversation."

The response from the local and state Democratic Party has been somewhat muted since the indictment of the two defendants was first revealed.

Jim Newman, the chairman of the Lee County Democratic Party, has declined to comment on the criminal charges but has said on previous occasions that he does not understand why Davis has been treated "shabbily" by prosecutors.

State party leaders have remained silent on the criminal proceedings against the local Democratic stalwarts.

Tyree Irving, the chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, or other leaders from the state Democratic Party, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges levied against the two defendants.

Defense attorney still plotting future legal strategy

Jim Waide, a well known criminal defense and plaintiff's attorney in Mississippi, said that he will file several motions before the January trial date, but was hesitant to disclose his specific legal strategy.

Waide said the first legal bridge the defendants must cross deals with a declaratory judgement he is seeking in civil court on behalf of Davis. That civil action asks a judge to declare unconstitutional the law Davis is accused of violating.

That matter is currently pending in federal court, but was initially filed in state court, with Secretary of State Michael Watson the named defendant in his official capacity as head of elections.

"My original intent when I filed this declaratory judgement was to get a ruling by a state court on the unconstitutionality of the statute without there ever being a criminal proceeding," Waide said. "Unfortunately that didn't work out because the district attorney proceeded with the separate case."

Waide believes the declaratory judgement proceedings belong in state court and not a federal court. But after a judge determines the appropriate venue, Waide will introduced additional other motions.

Waide could attempt to halt the criminal proceedings until the civil case has run its course.

So far, Watson's office has issued a boilerplate defense as a response to Davis' initial claims. The parties are expected to convene for a telephonic case management conference at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 4 before a federal magistrate.

taylor.vance@djournal.com