Mississippi
Mississippi Judge Affirms Settlement After 62-year-old Died in Police Encounter
![Mississippi Judge Affirms Settlement After 62-year-old Died in Police Encounter Mississippi Judge Affirms Settlement After 62-year-old Died in Police Encounter](https://www.insurancejournal.com/app/uploads/2024/06/police-pic-scaled.jpeg)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge has ordered the enforcement of a lawsuit settlement between Mississippi’s capital city and the family of a man who died after police officers pulled him from a car while searching for a murder suspect.
George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019, days after the encounter with three Jackson police officers. His relatives sued the city in October 2019, saying Robinson was not the subject of any warrant and alleging the officers “brutally, viciously and mercilessly beat Mr. Robinson by striking and kicking him.”
The Jackson City Council on April 23 unanimously approved the payment of $17,786 to settle the lawsuit with Robinson’s relatives, including his sister Bettersten Wade. City documents said the settlement was not an admission of liability by the city or the three officers named in the suit. Robinson was Black, as are the three officers.
But Wade’s attorney, Dennis Sweet III, released a letter April 24 saying the city violated a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement. Sweet said that because of the public disclosure and because the city “appears to claim or infer some sort of perceived victory,” Wade would continue suing the city.
In a ruling Friday, Circuit Judge Faye Peterson wrote that she found “no merit” in arguments made by Sweet. Peterson wrote that the plaintiffs and the city had entered a legally binding settlement.
“Moreover, the City of Jackson cannot legally choose to keep settlements confidential, and this fact does not amount to some abstract form of fraudulent misrepresentation,” Peterson wrote.
Robinson had been hospitalized for a stroke days before the police encounter and was on medication, Wade has said. He had a seizure hours after he was beaten, and he died two days later from bleeding on his brain.
Second-degree murder charges against two of the officers were dropped in the case. In August 2022, a Hinds County jury convicted former detective Anthony Fox of culpable negligence manslaughter. In January of this year, the Mississippi Court of Appeals overturned Fox’s conviction. A majority of the appeals court wrote that prosecutors failed to prove Fox “acted in a grossly negligent manner” or that Robinson’s death “was reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.”
Wade is the mother of Dexter Wade, who was run over by an off-duty Jackson Police Department officer in March 2023.
Dexter Wade was buried at the Hinds County Pauper’s Cemetery. But it was October before his mother was told about the burial. His body was exhumed Nov. 13, and an independent autopsy was conducted. A wallet found in the pocket of his jeans contained his state identification card with his home address, credit card and a health insurance card, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Wade’s family.
On Nov. 20, Dexter Wade’s family held a funeral for him, and he was buried in another cemetery.
Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics
Legislation
Law Enforcement
Mississippi
Interested in Law Enforcement?
Get automatic alerts for this topic.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Mississippi
Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record
![Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/10/PJAM/75154627007-1000001789.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1078,606,x2,y184&format=pjpg&width=1200)
‘When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons. She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.’
Watch: Texas officer wrangles angry gator from family’s front porch
Body camera footage captured the moment a police officer swiftly removed a small alligator from a home in Texas.
After two frustrating nights on the last weekend of the season, a Mississippi hunter caught the alligator he’d been after, but what he didn’t realize when he pulled it in his boat was that not only did it break two state records, it’s possibly a world record.
Jason Ullendorf said a cousin of his was buying a part at a boat shop last week when he was told about an alligator in the Pascagoula River. The alligator had been spotted near a sandbar and had been making people visiting the location uncomfortable.
“We figured we’d help them out and get it out of there,” Ullendorf said. “We went down there to look at it, and it was a pretty good gator. It’s kind of crazy how it happened.”
Catching it was easier said than done, though. Ullendorf and members of his hunting party repeatedly hooked the alligator, only to have the hooks pull out or break off when the alligator would go under logs.
“We chased it from about 9 o’clock until about 3 o’clock in the morning,” Ullendorf said. “By then we’d lost all our hooks.”
More: Hunters bag Mississippi alligator weighing almost 700 pounds
Another long night of hunting alligators
The following day, Ullendorf bought more hooks and returned to the river with only one other hunter, Joseph Mangano of Richton. Fortunately, they found the alligator in the same spot as the night before. Unfortunately, it was shaping up to be a replay of the night before with the two repeatedly hooking the alligator, only to have the hooks pull free.
“It was frustrating,” Mangano said. “At one point, we got so frustrated we left it and an hour later started again. We knew we would hook it, but we were going to have to get it out of the trees.”
At 4:45 a.m., the hunters got a break. The alligator surfaced in open water near the sandbar. The two hooked the alligator with a rod and reel and then got a hand line on it as the alligator towed the two men and their 18-foot pontoon boat upriver. Everything was going relatively smoothly until they pulled the gator near the boat.
“When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons,” Ullendorf said. “She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.”
More: ‘The size and mass of his head is unreal.’ Mississippi alligator hunters bag 800-pound giant
Mississippi hunters suspect their alligator is a female
The two got the alligator in their boat and while Ullendorf referred to it as a “she,” he didn’t think it was a female at the time. This alligator was too big to be a female, and the longest female alligator ever recorded in the state was caught in 2022 by Jim Denson and measured 10 feet, 2 inches.
“As soon as she came up we said, ‘That’s a male,’” Ullendorf said. “We never second-guessed it.”
But then they did. When to two took the alligator to Mangano’s business in Richton, Running M Meat Company, they discovered the alligator didn’t have male sex organs.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Ullendorf said. “We called Andrew Arnett to come down and verify it. I didn’t believe it at all.”
Is this Mississippi alligator a world record?
Arnett is the head of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Alligator Program. He confirmed it was a female and certified it at 11 feet, 3/4 inches long and 324 pounds. Not only was it a state record for longest female, it was the new state record for heaviest.
However, it may have broken another record, if only it existed. Multiple internet searches came up empty for an official world record for female alligators, but some states keep official records. According to searches by the hunters and Arnett, the longest female alligator on record before Ullendorf’s was 10 feet, 6.75 inches long and it was caught in Florida. If that’s true, Ullendorf has the new world record for longest female alligator.
“Just from what I’ve seen online, I think so,” Arnett said.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
Mississippi
Mississippi Mass Choir new album
![Mississippi Mass Choir new album Mississippi Mass Choir new album](https://gray-wlbt-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/LN5AVK73IRECJB53MST6TFOPVM.jpg?auth=7293d246690750f402210a8085107a94402842e689fadd2a04c7637358c3eda3&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The Mississippi Mass Choir has a new album! We Still Believe is available!
The director and some choir members joined Studio 3 to discuss the songs.
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2024 WLBT. All rights reserved.
Mississippi
Fascinating Snake Species Found Along the Mississippi River
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump impersonates Elon Musk talking about rockets: ‘I’m doing a new stainless steel hub’
-
World1 week ago
Locals survey damage after flooding in eastern Romania
-
World1 week ago
Taiwan court orders release of ex-Taipei mayor arrested in corruption probe
-
World5 days ago
Meloni says 'we are making history' as Italy’s FDI reviews progress
-
World1 week ago
Seven EU members hadn’t received any post-Covid funding by end-2023
-
Politics1 week ago
Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery
-
World1 week ago
Oasis fans struggle to secure tickets for band’s reunion tour
-
Politics1 week ago
Michigan becomes a top GOP Senate target as Mike Rogers ties with Dem opponent among older voters