Thomas Wells | Buy at photos.djournal.com
Major Jackie Clayton and the rest of the Tupelo Police Department get settled into their new temporary headquarters located at the Tupelo Regional Airport. The city and airport currently are finalizing the details of the lease agreement.

By Rod Guajardo

Daily Journal

TUPELO – Though members of the Tupelo Police Department have been located at the Tupelo Regional Airport for more than a month, a lease agreement between the city and airport authority is still in the process of being finalized.

The City Council tabled Tuesday night a version of the lease agreement that has been going back and forth between the two entities since early April, when the police department began moving from its building on Front Street where mold was discovered to the old Army Aviation Support Facility at the airport.

Universal Asset Management, which disassembles and recycles large passenger jets, occupies nearly 60 percent of the old facility.

The police department is using some of the remaining space, including 20 rooms and offices at varying sizes, until its new facility is completed next year. Officials broke ground on the new $10 million police headquarters on Front Street in early April.

The lease agreement, which calls for the city to pay $3,042 a month to the airport, has been tabled by both the city and airport board several times.

The current issue in discussion deals with regulations set in place by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the airport’s executive director, Cliff Nash.

“There are various agencies involved when you lease property at an airport,” Nash said. “We want to make sure we’re in coordination with all of those before taking action on it.”

The agreement was slated for a vote Tuesday night, but City Attorney Ben Logan said during the meeting that airport officials called him late Tuesday evening asking the matter be tabled.

Logan said he hopes to work through the federal regulations holding back the lease agreement from moving forward in the coming weeks.

The agreement was previously tabled because of the two sides debating how lease payment money will be used and how much the city will pay in utilities.

At one point, the city hoped to apply all of the rent payment toward the airport’s debt.

In 2011, the city agreed to borrow $1.5 million on behalf of the airport from the Mississippi Development Authority to pay for improvements made at the AASF in 1997. The total debt was $1.8 million. Because the National Guard moved to a new Army Aviation Support Facility in late 2011, and the old complex wasn’t used for its original purpose, the note became due immediately to the U.S. Treasury.

The city agreed to repay MDA annually $125,649.87 every July 1 for 14 years.

Airport board members worried the entire payment going to pay of the debt, however, would leave the airport vulnerable if maintenance or other issues were to arise. The final lease agreement states $2,281.72 of the monthly payment will be applied to the debt.

And while the initial lease agreement didn’t include any cost of utilities, the final agreement states the city must pay for all utility charges in excess of $1,900.

Logan said he was confident in the agreement being finalized soon and clarified that the police department is legally able to stay at the location while those matters are resolved.

rod.guajardo@journalinc.com

Twitter: @rodgjournal

THARP

Daily Journal

OXFORD – A routine traffic stop led to the arrest of a Hollandale man on domestic violence charges.

After stopping Kevin Tharp, 39, on Saturday, Oxford Police officers learned that he was wanted in connection with a domestic situation. Oxford Police Major Jeff McCutchen said the investigation determined that Tharp did assault the victim, and he was arrested and charged with aggravated domestic violence.

During his arraignment, bond was set at $5,000.

OLIVER

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – Authorities have captured a Nettleton man charged with a Tuesday evening shooting.

Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson reported at 11 a.m. that Cleveland “Woody” Oliver, 47, was in police custody after being captured in Chickasaw County.

Oliver was formally charged Wednesday morning with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, despite still being on the run, accused of shooting another man around 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday.

Johnson said Oliver and the victim were acquainted and had spent time at Oliver’s home Tuesday. After the victim left, Oliver allegedly sent text messages to the victim, threatening to kill the victim and his young daughter.

“The victim went back to Oliver’s house, got out of his vehicle and Oliver fired several times,” said Johnson. “We are not sure how many times the victim was struck but he lost a good bit of blood.”

The shooting took place near the Lee-Monroe County line. Sheriff’s deputies from both counties searched for Oliver into the night Tuesday.

william.moore@journalinc.com

This June 10, 2005 file photo shows a missing poster for Natalee Holloway, who disappeared while on a graduation trip to Aruba. Aruba prosecutors said Wednesday that a tip about the potential location of Holloway’s body turned out to be false. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch, File)

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) – Aruba prosecutors said Wednesday that yet another tip about the location of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway’s body turned out to be false.

Authorities said they had received a tip from a man who previously claimed to be a witness to Holloway’s disappearance on May 30, 2005. The man, identified as Jurrien de Jong, insisted that Holloway was buried under a staircase of the Marriott Hotel in Aruba, prosecutors said.

They said his claims led chief prosecutor Eric Olthof to ask that Aruba police contact Marriott’s management office in Orlando, Florida, to determine when the hotel’s Spyglass Tower and its staircase was built. Marriott officials said neither the tower nor its staircase had been built when Holloway disappeared, prosecutors said.

“This means that Natalee Holloway could never have been hidden and/or buried there,” officials said in a statement. “This leads to the conclusion that the claims made by Mr. De Jong … cannot be correct, and that his testimony … does not add to the solving of this case.”

Holloway was on a high school graduation trip when she vanished. The 18-year-old from Alabama was last seen leaving a bar with Joran van der Sloot, a Dutchman raised in Aruba who is the chief suspect in her disappearance.

Van der Sloot later pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of a woman in Peru killed five years to the day after Holloway disappeared.

SCRUGGS

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – A Saltillo area man will spend the next 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges from an August 2014 standoff.

Harold Scruggs, 33, pleaded guilty Monday in Lee County Circuit Court to three counts of simple assault on a police officer and one count of aggravated domestic violence.

Scruggs, also known as Dee Mallette, kept law enforcement at bay during a five-hour standoff in the Spring Hill community east of Saltillo. Officers arrived to a domestic violence call on Aug. 22, 2014 around 7 p.m. Scruggs fled into the woods, fired one shot at Lee County deputies from a shop, then holed up inside his County Road 1389 residence.

Scruggs said he had a female hostage and threatened to hurt anyone who approached the house. Around 10 p.m., he fired another shot at deputies.

At 12:40 a.m., deputies used tear gas to flush Scruggs from the house. He used the hostage as a human shield. Inside the house, officers found an arsenal that included 12 guns, night vision and infrared goggles and scopes.

william.moore@journalinc.com

By William Moore
Daily Journal

TUPELO – Police are investigating a south Tupelo crime scene where the body of a man was found inside a house on Rollingwood Drive.

Tupelo Police were alerted to the crime when a female dropped off a letter with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office in Laurel.

“The letter detailed how she killed her live-in boyfriend and left him wrapped in a blanket,” said Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre. “We arrived on the scene and were let in by a family member with a key and found the body like the letter said.”

Law enforcement is now looking for Leah Bishop, a white female believed to be driving a 2005 Dodge Stratus with a handicapped license plate.

“The body will be sent to Jackson for an autopsy,” said Aguirre.

The chief noted that this appears to be an isolated incident.

Daily Journal

JACKSON – Law enforcement agencies across the country will be on the lookout over the next two weeks for people not wearing their seat belts.

Between May 18 and May 31, Click It or Ticket will have authorities stepping up enforcement around the Memorial Day holiday, traditionally one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

In addition, the Mississippi Highway Patrol will expand its patrols and safety checkpoints for the holiday weekend, starting Friday at 6 p.m. and running through Monday night at midnight.

“Every day, unbuckled motorists are losing their lives in motor vehicle crashes,” said Mississippi Department of Transportation Executive Director Melinda McGrath. “As we approach Memorial Day weekend and the summer vacation season, we want to make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash – buckling up.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of people killed in vehicle crashes in 2013 were unrestrained. At night, that number soared to 59 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement.

In Mississippi, the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of $25.

In Mississippi, the number of people wearing seat belts on a regular basis is dropping. Data from the Mississippi Office of Highway Safety shows that the current seat belt usage rate is at 74.4 percent, compared to 83 percent in 2012. The same data shows that men wear seat belts less and almost twice as many males as females were killed in crashes.

Over the last three years, the number of seat belt citations issued by MHP over the Memorial Day weekend has steadily dropped – 975 statewide in 2012, 780 in 2013 and 603 in 2014.

While more people are on the road, MHP has only reported a total of six fatalities on the highways and interstates since 2012 over the holiday weekend. Three people died in 2014, including a man in Tippah County on an ATV and a pedestrian walking along Highway 78 in Lee County.

The MHP statistics do not include fatalities on county roads or city streets.

AGUIRRE

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – Within the year, Police Chief Bart Aguirre would like to see every Tupelo patrol officer with a body camera.

“When we start working on the 2016 budget, I plan on putting in a line item for body cameras for all the patrol officers,” said Aguirre. “It will probably cost around $75,000 to cover the K-9 handlers, the Street Crimes Unit and the Patrol Division.”

The Tupelo Police Department hopes to use federal funds to jump-start the project. TPD and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office have applied for a $14,332 Justice Assistance Grant which will be divided evenly.

“We are looking at two different vendors,” said Aguirre. “You have to have something that is compatible with the in-car camera system.

“When you add up the cost of the camera, the batteries and the additional storage space, they run about $1,000 per unit, so the grant will not buy that many.”

Earlier this year, the department tested the body cameras of one vendor. They will have about a half-dozen cameras from the second vendor next week.

“We’ll try them out for about a month,” said Aguirre. “Not only will the officers get to see how they look and feel, we will also be looking at the resolution of the camera, the clarity of the playback and the field of view.”

The two vendors also have different pricing. One company sells cameras, accessories and storage separately for one-time payments. The other company sells a complete unit, including software, for a yearly fee with new cameras every two years.

Recent civil unrest and riots around the country after officer-involved shootings have prompted many departments to look into body cameras.

“With everything going on around the country, we want our officers to be safe,” said Aberdeen Police Chief Henry Randle. “If something bad does happen, we want to have the video to prove what happened.”

Columbus Police Chief Tony Carleton agreed. His department has 50 cameras covering all patrolmen.

“At first there was some hesitancy, but the officers like them now,” said Carleton. “You are able to write a more accurate report.

“The defense attorneys don’t like them, because it is another piece of evidence we can use in court.”

The Aberdeen Police Department went with a less expensive (around $120) model of camera. It ordered 10 cameras in April and plans to order 10 more in October to cover the rest of the officers.

“We have been using them on a trial basis for about a month and haven’t had any complaints,” said Randle. “They say they will work under water. We haven’t tested that. We’re going to take their word for it.”

william.moore@journalinc.com

THOMPSON

By William Moore

Daily Journal

JACKSON – The Mississippi Supreme Court today ordered Lee County Justice Court Judge Rickey W. Thompson removed from office, issued a $3,500 fine and assessed costs in the amount of $7,693.38.

Thompson has 14 days to file a motion for rehearing. If he does not file a motion for rehearing, the removal would become effective June 11.

A formal complaint against Thompson was filed with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance in November 2013. The commission eventually determined Thompson engaged in judicial misconduct in several areas. The commission ruled that Thompson lent the prestige of his office to advance the private interests of others, he denied a defendant her right to the counsel of her choosing and he kept several participants in the drug court program past the two-year limit allowed by state law as well as jailing participants for unspecified violations or failure to comply with drug court.

On Sept. 17, 2014, the commission recommended Thompson, who represents Lee County’s 4th District, be removed from office and pay more than $11,000 in fines and costs. Thompson was publicly reprimanded in 2008 and 2012. He also was fined $2,000 and suspended for a month in the 2012 case.

william.moore@journalinc.com

By Floyd Ingram

Chickasaw Journal

HOUSTON – Authorities are looking for a man who walked into a Dollar General Store full of people Wednesday night, assaulted the cash register clerk and made off with a plastic sack full of cash.

The incident occurred at 8:29 p.m. Wednesday with at least five other customers in the store. The thief jumped the clerk from behind, got her in a headlock and cut her on the web of her hand as she attempted to protect herself.

“He forced her to the floor and grabbed a sack from the store and emptied the register and took off,” said Houston Police Chief Bill Voyles. “We have a video of the incident that shows him entering the store with a white medical mask on and socks over his hands. After the robbery he left on foot and ran through the woods behind the store.”

Voyles said police have recovered a dark hoodie, a mask and pants matching the description of the robber near the creek on Airport Road.

“We have taken those items to the Mississippi Crime Lab for analysis,” said Voyles. “We are surprised more people couldn’t or wouldn’t tell us what they saw.”

Voyles did say two store camera’s caught the robber walking into the store and the second one recorded the assault.

“He walked into the store with the mask on, socks on and knives in both hands,” said Voyles. “We do want to thank the customer who called 911 immediately after the robbery.”

Voyles said they are looking for a medium-build male, about 5-foot-9.

“This is the first armed robbery with a weapon where they hurt somebody that we have had in a long time,” said Voyles. “Physically the clerk is OK, but we were surprised with the way this turned violent, and it could have been worse. We need to get this guy off the street as soon as possible.”

Voyles said anyone with information about this crime is asked to call police at 456-2554.

Voyles said people can also anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-773-TIPS (8477), and if the information leads to an arrest and conviction, a cash reward will be paid.

floyd.ingram@journalinc.com

BURLESON

Daily Journal

JACKSON – The state’s highest court reversed a capital murder conviction and will send the case back to Prentiss County Circuit Court for a new trial.

Charles David Burleson, 32, was convicted of the 2010 death of Scott Holley of Thrasher, and sentenced to life in prison.

On appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the trial court erred when it amended the indictment and charged Burleson as a habitual offender. The high court also agreed with Burleson that the jury instructions should have included how to deal with circumstantial evidence.

No date has been set for the new trial.

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – A woman wanted for capital murder in Tupelo was arrested at a Louisiana safety checkpoint Wednesday night.

“She was actually arrested in Louisiana before we had a chance to enter her name in the (National Crime Information Center) database,” said Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre. “She came through a road block and was stopped for a suspended drivers license.

“We have issued a capital murder warrant for her and have started the extradition process to get her back to Mississippi.”

Leah Bishop, 45, is accused of killing her live-in boyfriend Jessie Traylor, 65, four days before police found his body in a bedroom at 1807 Rollingwood Drive. She is being held in the Franklin Parish Jail in Winnsboro, Louisiana.

Aguirre said Bishop called the Jones County Sheriff’s Office around 7 p.m. Wednesday and told them there was a letter they really needed to read at the military memorial building. The letter told of the killing, and Jones County officials immediately called Tupelo Police.

“Inside the envelope was her ID and 21 handwritten pages,” said Aguirre. “She describes the events of the murder, and there are also letters to her children, her sister, her ex-husband and co-workers.

“In the first sentence, she says she included her ID so they would know it was her. She says she killed him Sunday night. It’s pretty detailed.”

When Bishop is returned to Tupelo, she will be formally charged with capital murder with the underlying felony of car theft. Aguirre said she stole Traylor’s car when she fled Tupelo.

william.moore@journalinc.com

Daily Journal

CORINTH – A Corinth man remains in critical condition following a Tuesday night stabbing.

Corinth Police detective Dell Green said officers were called to the Watson Street Apartments around 8:20 p.m. and found Michael Decker with a knife wound to his abdomen. He was transported to the Magnolia Regional Health Center.

Green said the knife was found in an overgrown lot next to the apartments.

When police stopped Jeromy Jerome Walker, 28, of Corinth, a short while later on South Parkway, he had on blood-stained clothes. Walker was charged with aggravated assault.

He was released on a $10,000 bond.

OLIVER

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – The sale of a trampoline sparked an altercation that led to gunfire Tuesday outside of Nettleton.

Clarence Woody Oliver, 47, of County Road 1361, has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. The victim, whose name has not been released, remains in stable condition at the North Mississippi Medical Center.

According to Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, the victim went to Oliver’s house and bought a trampoline. Oliver said the trampoline was not for sale and began calling and sending threatening text messages to the victim.

“The victim felt he needed to go back and set things straight,” said Johnson. “Oliver said he felt threatened and that’s why he did what he did.”

Oliver fired several shots at the man. One bullet struck him in the upper leg. The victim got in his truck and drove away. He stopped at Mike’s Quick Stop.

Johnson said the victim lost a lot of blood and underwent emergency surgery at the hospital. He is currently in stable condition and expected to be released soon.

After the shooting, Oliver fled the area but turned himself in to Chickasaw County Sheriff Jimmy Simmons the next day. Simmons drove Oliver to the Lee County Jail on Wednesday.

Johnson said Oliver has been very cooperative with investigators. Oliver’s story and the victim’s story are the same.

During his initial appearance Friday, Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland set bond at $35,000. She said it was low because she did not feel he was a flight risk.

BISHOP

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – Leah Bishop is being held in the Lee County-Tupelo Adult Jail under a $1 million bond, charged with capital murder.

Bishop, 45, of Tupelo, is accused of killing Jessie Traylor, 65, Sunday evening and leaving his body in the 1807 Rollingwood Drive home that police say they had shared for about two weeks.

“I think the $1 million bond is appropriate because we feel she is a flight risk and a danger to society,” said Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre.

Bishop was arrested Wednesday night in Winnsboro, Louisiana, after she was stopped at a road block for a suspended driver’s license. Tupelo detectives traveled to Louisiana on Thursday to interview her.

“She agreed to waive extradition, so we sent transport officers early Friday morning to get her and bring her back,” said Aguirre. “We wanted to get her arraigned in Lee County before the holiday weekend started.”

Bishop is charged with capital murder with the underlying felony of car theft. If convicted, she could face the death penalty. When asked by Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland if she knew how serious the charges were, Bishop quietly said, “Yes ma’am, I do.”

She confessed to the crime in a lengthy handwritten manifesto and called the Jones County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday night to tell them where the document could be found in Laurel.

“Her letter was pretty detailed, but she has not given us anything as far as a motive,” said Aguirre. “We’re still in the dark on that.”

Officials are tight-lipped about details on Traylor’s death. Aguirre hopes to have the preliminary autopsy results next week.

Bishop did have one prior felony arrest in Prentiss County in 2008. The burglary charge led to house arrest and probation that ended in 2013, Aguirre said.

william.moore@journalinc.com

THOMPSON

By William Moore

Daily Journal

TUPELO – Unless the Mississippi Supreme Court grants him a rehearing, Rickey Thompson’s judicial career will end in mid-June.

Thompson is one of seven candidates who qualified to run for Lee County Justice Court Judge District 4. But it appears unlikely his name will be on the Democratic primary ballot on Aug. 4.

On Thursday, the state’s highest court ordered Thompson removed from office. According to the Commission on Judicial Performance, when a judge is removed, he or she is prohibited from ever being a judge again.

Mississippi Code 9-19-17 states, “A justice or judge removed by the supreme court or the seven-member tribunal is ineligible for judicial office.”

Thompson has until June 4 to ask for a rehearing, which would extend the removal. If he chooses not to, his removal will be effective June 11. Neither Thompson nor his attorney, Lisa Ross of Jackson, responded to telephone calls for comment.

A formal complaint against Thompson was filed with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance in November 2013. The commission eventually determined Thompson engaged in judicial misconduct in several areas between June 2012 and October 2013.

If Thompson is removed from the ballot, that will leave Marcus Crump, Duane Jones Sr., Fredrick “Fred” Washington and Dovie Outlaw Williams in the Democratic primary. The runoff, if needed, will be held Aug. 25. The Democratic winner will face Independents Joseph “Eddie” Beasley and Michael Stafford in the Nov. 3 general election.

Thompson is the only District 4 Justice Court judge Lee County has ever had.

Population growth according to the 2000 Census forced the county to go from three judges to four. In fall 2003, Thompson became the first African-American elected to Lee County Justice Court.

That year’s primary had six people running for the new office. Thompson took 72 percent of the vote in the runoff to beat former coroner Roy Barnett. Thompson won re-election in 2007 and 2011.

william.moore@journalinc.com

By Jeff Amy

Associated Press

JACKSON – A former employee of a Mississippi hospital is getting almost $3.5 million as part of a string of settlements where 18 hospitals in seven states have agreed to pay $20.4 million over allegations they broke federal law by receiving Medicare reimbursements for psychiatric services that were not “medically reasonable or necessary.”

Ryan Ladner worked for Allegiance Health Management at what’s now Merit Health Wesley in Hattiesburg when his lawyer says Ladner saw illegal billing.

As the person who brought the fraud to the attention of the federal government, Ladner is getting 17 percent of the settlement amounts. None of the hospitals admit liability in their settlements. However, LifePoint Hospitals self-reported the practices to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2011.

Settlement documents indicate Ladner has been pursuing a whistleblower lawsuit in federal court in Arkansas since 2010 against Allegiance, which is based in Shreveport, La. The case remains under seal, though. Whistleblower actions under the False Claims Act are filed under seal with the private plaintiff seeking to recover money on behalf of the federal government.

The plaintiff, called a relator, sends the lawsuit and a statement to federal authorities, who must decide whether to intervene or not. Cases can remain sealed for years while the government investigates, if a judge agrees. It’s unclear if the government intends to intervene against Allegiance. Lawyers for Ladner and Allegiance declined to confirm that the suit exists.

Allegiance denies wrongdoing and still operates outpatient therapy programs at 17 locations in five states, according to its website.

“Allegiance remains confident that the outpatient psychiatric services provided in the IOPs managed or operated by Allegiance were medically necessary and appropriate as has been confirmed by various government contractors and agencies on multiple occasions through audits, surveys and other inquiries,” the company’s lawyer, Michael Schulze, wrote in a statement.

Cliff Johnson, Ladner’s lawyer, said Ladner was hired by Allegiance to serve as program director for its Inspirations outpatient psychotherapy service at what was then called Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg. Ladner got the job even though his previous background was in mortgage lending, Johnson said.

“My client is a smart man who takes seriously the responsibilities he’s given,” Johnson said. “As responsible people do, he attempted to educate himself about the legal requirements for billing services provided at Inspirations and the type of patients who qualify for such services.”

The settlements indicate Allegiance would perform the therapy, the hospitals would bill for it, and Allegiance would get either a share of what they collected or a flat fee. The federal government contends the therapy wasn’t eligible for federal reimbursement for one of several reasons — the patient’s condition didn’t qualify, the treatments weren’t provided according to an individual treatment plan, patient progress wasn’t adequately tracked, or the therapy was “primarily recreational or diversional in nature, and was not therapeutic.

The Justice Department said hospitals knowingly submitted improper bills as early as 2005 and continuing into 2013.

“Hospitals that participate in the Medicare program must ensure that the services they provide and bill for are based on the medical needs of patients rather than the desire to maximize profits,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in announcing the settlements earlier this month.

Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tennessee, is paying $15.2 million for 15 hospitals, one in Hattiesburg and others that formerly belonged to Health Management Associates, which Community took over.

Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered $15.3 billion in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.

BROWN

Daily Journal

An Endangered/Missing Child Alert has been issued for a 13-year-old in Holly Springs

According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, Alissa Monay Jones Brown was last seen around 10 p.m. Friday on West Street in Holly Springs, wearing a blue T-shirt and underwear. She is described as 5-foot-1, 132 pounds and has two burn marks on her left leg.

Family members say Brown suffers from a medical condition that could impair her judgement. Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts should contact the Holly Springs Police Department at (662) 252-2122.

Daily Journal

NEW ALBANY – One woman is dead after evening storms caused a tree to fall on passing vehicles.

Police Chief Chris Robertson said the accident happened near highway 30 when the tree fell on two cars as they passed each other around 6 p.m. Sunday. A female passenger of one of the vehicles died on the scene.

Other passengers of both vehicles were injured.

No other details are being released at this time.

The accident remains under investigation.

Tishomingo County deputies Mark Nichols, from left, Eric Bowman and Stan Hester traveled to Bremerton, Washington, in March to train with the boat near the factory. (Courtesy)

William Moore | Buy at photos.djournal.com
Tishomingo County deputy Eric Bowman tests the boat’s forward-looking infrared camera system behind the county jail in Iuka.

By William Moore

Daily Journal

IUKA – The Tishomingo County Sheriff’s Office’s newest crime fighting tool – 23-foot search and rescue boat – hit the water for the first time Memorial Day weekend.

The $240,000 custom-made boat was paid for by a federal Homeland Security grant.

“It will not cost the county citizens anything extra for this extra protection,” said Sheriff Glenn Whitlock. “Our matching funds are in the form of wages and expenses for the boat’s operation.”

The boat brings state-of-the-art technology to the waters of northeast Mississippi. The boat is designed to handle rough waters. Foam bumpers offer more flotation to allow the boat to maneuver in waters as shallow as 2.5 feet.

It features forward-looking infrared (FLIR) that detects changes in temperatures and allow for searches at night and in vegetation. It features side scan sonar that will show what is in the water both below and beside the boat. It also has satellite navigation that will not only tell deputies where they are, it can plot searches to aid in search and rescue missions.

“It will be used in the event of boating accidents or drownings,” said Whitlock. “The technology on this boat should help with the recovery of persons or objects who have fallen or been thrown overboard at night or during inclement weather.

“Where we used to call off a search when it got dark or if it was too foggy, we’ll be able to keep going now.”

Since the funds for the boat came through the Port Safety Grant program, the boat will serve as a response unit for the Unites States Coast Guard. It will be used as a first responding vessel in a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or any other catastrophic event.

“It will not be on patrol every day, but it will be in the water every week,” said Whitlock. “Instead of a patrol boat, it will be a response, rescue and investigation type of boat.”

The boat will be kept on a trailer at the county jail in Iuka, more or less in the middle of Tishomingo County’s more than 70 miles of water that stretches from Bay Springs Lake, up the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and around the Tennessee River and Pickwick Lake.

“We will be able to have a much quicker response that way,” said Whitlock.

william.moore@journalinc.com