Enterprise-Journal from McComb, Mississippi • 4

4 McCOMB ENTERPRISE-JOURNAL Friday, Oct 25, 1996 Mississippi news 1 19 ft a yy 1 1 1 I litical or financial considerations. "The deplorable actions taken by groups such as BI-PEC, M-FAIR and the MEC have accomplished their objectives in other states. "I strongly resent the manipulation of the minds of our citizenry by the negative campaign currently being waged against the Supreme Court and our judicial system as a whole in the press by politically and financially minded groups," Lee said. MEC President Bob Pittman JACKSON, Miss. (AP) The chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court said Thursday that special interest groups are maligning the high court for political gain.

Chief Dan M. Lee, who will leave the court in January 1998, used a fall conference of judges in Jackson to lash out at BI-PEC, M-FAIR and the Mississippi Economic Council. "No branch of government should be maliciously attacked for political purposes by self-serving interest groups," Lee said. A relatively new factor in this fall's Supreme Court races has. been the campaigns of business groups.

A group known as M-Fair had pledged support to pro-business candidates. Recently, the Business and Industry Political Education Committee (BI-PEC) labeled labeled sitting Justices Fred Banks and Edwin Lloyd Pittman as anti- business justices. Only two justices, Mike Mills and Jim Smith, received high marks. Smith is not up for re-election. In May, the MEC scolded the Supreme Court for decisions over the past five years that it said were anti-business.

The MEC said the court has tilted toward benefiting plaintiffs in lawsuits against business and industry. In its review of court decisions from 1990-95, the MEC said the Supreme Court's "populist jurisprudence" adversely affects the state's economic climate and makes it more difficult to attract industry and new jobs. The MEC, also called the state chamber of commerce, lobbies for business issues. Lee said such criticisms were wrong. He said the honesty and integrity of the court should not be impugned for "any personal po Ensemble group to perform at Saints game said late Thursday that the busi ness group was disappointed a' Lee attack after it published th six years of decisions by the court; "The record of the court speakl for itself and the MEC simply rei attended American All-Stars leadership training seminar in September.

The seminar included the opportunity to perform with some 300 other dancers at the Nov. 3 Saints game. Parklane's Visual Ensemble has 18 members who perform with the band. Directors are Belinda Dyar and Leroy Smith. Parklane Academy's Visual Ensemble will perform Nov.

3 at the New Orleans Saints-49'ers game in New Orleans. American All-Star Inc. of Mandeville, will choreograph the pre-game and half-time festivities. Members of the group, from left, Chasity Lunsford, Lori Jones Julie Cox, Wendy Dickerson, Lou Ellen Williams, Adrienne Garner and Stephanie Pigott, ported the record to its member! and to the public, Pittman said Pittman said the Supremi Court's decisions have been def scribed as "populist" by those in; side and outside the court. Fugitive nabbed in Jackson motel after tv show airs leading authorities to Colemai came Wednesday afternoon.

"My understanding is thai someone contacted authorities first and police went out to chec Unsolved Mysteries phone manager, said the report about Coleman was featured as a special bulletin. "We put up several pictures of Coleman. Our phone correspondent then talked about his various offenses and showed what he looked like. We fielded a number of calls about him from your area," Carney-Davis said. Carney-Davis said the call Sgt.

John Holmes, with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department, said locating Coleman was difficult. "The task force literally had to check half a dozen places. They had to run this guy down. He had received word that the law was after him, and he was getting ready to leave," said Holmes. "Without those tips, more than likely, he would have never been caught." Mary-Pat Carney-Davis, an about Coleman's possible whereabouts after the Unsolved Mysteries program aired a bulletin Oct.

18. The report appeared on WLBT-TV 3, the Jackson NBC affiliate. "I was at the telecenter in California when they aired the segment. We followed up on tips that came from your area and notified the authorities there that he may be in Jackson," Roberts said. night at a motel on U.S.

80 in Jackson. Coleman is charged in Texas with three counts each of aggravated sexual assault against two children under the age of 14. The alleged assaults occurred April 5, 1994. S. Roberts, a deputy with the Harris County Sheriff's Department in Houston, Texas, said the department received several tips JACKSON, Miss.

(AP) David Gentry Coleman, 39, of La Porte, Texas, whose picture was displayed during a nationally televised program, was behind bars today following his capture by the Hinds County Fugitive Task Force. Officials said Coleman, who will remain in the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond pending his return to Texas, was taken into custody Wednesday him out Friday night, but because of the alias he was using, they didj-n't take him into custody," she said. "But when the information came into us, it was very solid and told us where he could be found. An update about Coleman's an- rest will air Nov. 1, she said.

Drug case load prompts more legal system hirings cases apiece in one term of circuit court." Currently, the circuit court has 338 active cases. month, county officials said. Public defenders handle cases for indigent defendants. The lawyers work under contract from To keep costs down, the court elected to hire more public defenders, Howard said. The district attorney's office gets another assistant on Jan.

1, 1997. "We're getting more and more the county and are assigned cases on a rotating basis. They may con-. going up on ineffective as tinue a private practice while sistahce of counsel simply because ber 1993, there were 438 cocaine-related cases alone. During the last two months of 1993, there were 68 cocaine-related cases, such as possession or sale.

In 1994, there were 67 such cases, followed by 85 in 1995. So far in 1996, 114 cocaine cases have appeared in court. Statewide, the state Bureau of Narcotics says there has seen a 116 percent increase in cocaine-related cases since 1992. The state recorded 738 cases in COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) -Lowndes County's hiring of two more public defenders and another assistant district attorney are linked to a rise in drug cases, a judge says.

"The advent of crack cocaine has killed us. I think our case load in circuit court would decrease by 65 percent, if not more, if we could eliminate crack cocaine," said Circuit Judge Lee Howard. Statistics from Lowndes County show that beginning in Novem 1992; 787 in 1993; 999 in 1994; 1,107 in 1995 and 1,596 so far in 1996. Pat Maher, with the Narcotics Bureau, said not only have cocaine cases increased, but so have other criminal acts such as property crimes, thefts, robberies and violent crimes. The two additional public defenders brings to five the.

total number in the county. Each attorney will be paid $1,666 per of'tne sheer numbers of cases per working tor tne county. i II attorney, Howard said. He said the judges were left two options hire more public defenders or pay a private attorney to handle cases. "The average case load for public defenders was running at 67 apiece on the docket, with about 300 more coming up," Howard said.

"They were looking at 130 Fishing for a good Greenville out of interstate loop for now Catch the great bargains 14 Justices reinstate part of damage case IL in the RS Call 114-2421' the northern edge is north of Helena, Ark. Collier said the nearest possible, crossing to Greenville would "most likely" be south of Rosedale. mittee rejected the proposal. The southern edge of the existing representative corridor runs approximately along the Bolivar-Washington County line, while tig WIWMniiiliii mi i ple, determined that the passenger was Nassar. Although he never met or saw Mike Nassar, Canady filed a complaint in justice court.

Canady later found out Mike Nassar was not the passenger in the car and sought to have the complaint dropped in justice court, which it had been before Canady acted. Nassar, however, sued the gun club for false arrest and malicious prosecution. A Bolivar County judge threw out the lawsuit on Feb. 17,1993. Nassar appealed to the Supreme Court.

Justice James L. Roberts writing for the Supreme Court, GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) A committee's recommendation to avoid crossing a proposed interstate at Greenville may not be the final word about the issue. Greenville Mayor Paul Artman said he thinks "there's still some cards to play," including asking the Mississippi Legislature for a separate study. The 1-69 Steering Committee, a group composed of transportation department officials from the eight states along the route, has rejected a proposal to add Greenville sites to the special issues study.

"Crossings immediately at Greenville will not be studied," said Marlin Collier, a planning engineer with the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Coller said the MDOT's chief engineer, Ken Warren, made a motion to the committee during a meeting Wednesday in Memphis, and "argued strongly to include Greenville (crossings) in the representative corridor." The com JACKSON, Miss. (AP)-The state Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated part of a damage lawsuit against a Bolivar County gun club. Mike Nassar had sued the Concordia Rod and Gun Club in 1990. He sought $250,000 in actual damages and $500,000 in punitive damages stemming from his Dec.

4, 1989 arrest for shooting a firearm from the Mississippi River levee near Gunnison. The charge was later dismissed. It is a misdemeanor to fire guns and hunt from a motorized vehicle off the mainline of the levee. Bobby Canady, an employee of the gun club, had stopped a car leaving the levee, got the identity of one person in the car, but not a passenger. Canady, in talking with several other peo GROWIN' GREEN Announces Our Fall Harvest Festival Saturday, October 26th 10:00 a.m.

Our program will be on Fall maintenance and winterizing your landscape Open to the public. said the justices would reinstate the lawsuit as to actual dam ages, but upheld the trial judge's dismissal of punitive START YOUJ? CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EARLY. COME SEE OUR UNIQUE LAWN 5IFT damages. Handcrafted Bat, Butterfly, Toad Houses Bird Houses Feeders MM Evening television FRIDAY PRIMK TIME Iron Works Statuaries Handmade Pottery: Mexican Cut Glass Many Varieties of Pansies and Mums GROWIN' GREEN i AMrKrAPP 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 lit News Family Vrters Boy Mis. World Sabrina-Witch Clueless 2020 News Nightline News riard Copy Charlie Brown Boo lo You Mr.

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