Jackson mayor and other local Mississippi officials accused of bribery
The mayor of Mississippi’s capital said Thursday “he will continue to handle the business of the city,” after he pleaded not guilty to charges related to an alleged bribery scheme that has also led to the indictments of a prominent district attorney and former city council president.
JACKSON, Miss. — The mayor of Mississippi’s capital said Thursday that “he will continue to handle the business of the city” after he pleaded not guilty to charges related to allegations of a bribery scheme that have also led to the indictments of a prominent district attorney and a former City Council president.
Flanked by roughly two dozen supporters on the steps of a federal courthouse in downtown Jackson after his arraignment, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he would remain in office.
“I am not guilty, and so I will not proceed as a guilty man,” said Lumumba, a Democrat who is in his second term and last month announced plans to run for a third term.
The allegations stem from what federal prosecutors have described in court documents as an effort also involving Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and at least two City Council members to help developers get approval for a proposed hotel project near the city’s convention center.
The city’s efforts to get a hotel near the venue, which included taking out a multimillion-dollar loan in 2008 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, stretch back almost two decades. It faced a June 2025 deadline to complete the project, according to the federal indictment outlining grand jury charges against Lumumba, Owens and Banks.
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