JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - An inmate who’s a witness in a criminal case against a Mississippi district attorney has been moved to jails in different counties.
Christopher Butler started in the Hinds County jail, then was moved to Rankin County, then to Yazoo County, The Clarion-Ledger reported (https://on.thec-l.com/2fAeDee ).
Butler said in a letter to the newspaper that he never asked to be transferred. He is to be a witness against Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith.
Smith was indicted Sept. 7 on two felony counts of conspiring to prevent the prosecution of Butler on drug charges, and one misdemeanor count of illegally advising Butler. Smith has pleaded not guilty.
The attorney general’s office went to a Hinds County grand jury to get the indictments against Smith.
Butler is facing charges of marijuana possession dating to a 2011 Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics raid. He is also charged with fraud, false pretense and embezzlement. Smith’s persistence in getting charges against Butler dismissed stem from his belief that MBN planted drugs on Butler.
MBN director John Dowdy called Smith’s allegations “blatantly and patently false.”
“MBN has not received any credible evidence of wrongdoing on the part of its agents in connection with the Christopher Butler case and the MBN stands by its agents that were involved in the investigation,” Dowdy said in a statement Monday. “MBN agents are professionals, highly trained in acquiring search warrants that lead to seizures of illegal narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia and that is exactly what they did in this investigation.”
Butler said officials raided his cell when he was in the Hinds County jail and tried to coerce him into providing information about Smith. Butler said Rankin County officials have helped the attorney general’s office get another inmate to coax information from him about Smith.
The attorney general’s office and the Rankin County sheriff would not comment to The Clarion-Ledger.
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Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, https://www.clarionledger.com
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