Mozingo dismisses charges against officers, rebukes Lokey for accusations
Circuit Judge Tony Mozingo said he had a message for the community as he dismissed charges filed by Columbia real estate broker Richard Lokey against two police officers Friday.
“Law enforcement officers’ commands are to be obeyed. Law enforcement and the courts are to be and will be respected as long as we’re here,” the judge said at the close of a probable cause hearing.
Mozingo threw out a charge of public profanity against officer Joshua McPherson for telling Lokey to “get out of the d*** road” outside a Columbia High School football game, finding it was within McPherson’s First Amendment rights and that Lokey provoked the incident.
The judge also tossed out a charge of simple assault against Sgt. Lanny Arinder, who allegedly told Lokey “I’ll come across this table and whip your a**” after Lokey accused him of taking kickbacks during a meeting at City Hall to discuss the earlier incident involving McPherson. Lokey admitted on the witness stand Friday that he didn’t really think Arinder was going to do it.
Mozingo said Lokey was very fortunate not to have been arrested outside the ballfield that night.
“The court finds that you failed to obey the commands of law enforcement repeatedly. You were belligerent,” Mozingo said. “Then today the substance, integrity and credibility of your testimony was called into question by several things. The court is disturbed that you ... disparage another officer who is not even here (as) the ‘guy that's got all the charges.’ You said quote unquote ‘illegal stuff’ with the department. Your loud tone and aggressive, physical behavior in the court is very disturbing, and your continual laughing throughout your testimony, again, is troublesome.
“This is no joke. The resources of this city and county have been devoted to the point that the county has had to pay a special prosecutor from another county to come here. The Police Department has been forced to defend itself in the court of public opinion. Two officers have been forced to retain counsel at their expense and defend themselves.”
Police officers and teachers have a right to a probable cause hearing in circuit court as a layer of protection when they are accused of crimes committed during the course of their jobs. That hearing opened Friday in the upstairs courtroom at the Marion County Courthouse.
Forrest County Prosecuting Attorney Pam Castle was appointed to handle the case. Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Lawrence Hahn had recused himself because he is also the Columbia city attorney and works with police in that role.
Leigh Berry of Columbia was representing McPherson, and Shirlee Baldwin of Hattiesburg represented Arinder. Both officers were present but did not testify during the roughly hour-long court proceeding.
Lokey took the stand first and began answering questions from Castle.
He had filed an affidavit in Marion County Justice Court against McPherson alleging public profanity outside a CHS football game Nov. 16. Lokey, who lives on a side street near the stadium, said police pulled his daughter over on Branton Avenue about 120 feet from his house.
Lokey testified officers were arresting her for DUI, and he asked if he could take the car but was denied. He said he stood there and recorded the incident for about an hour and a half while officers did what he described as “illegal stuff.”
“Your honor, I object as to his assumption as to whether anything is illegal or not,” Berry said.
“No assumption,” Lokey replied.
Lokey also described another officer, Nate Cook, as “the guy that’s got all the charges on him,” and later during another objection from Berry about hearsay, Lokey replied it wasn’t hearsay before Mozingo could rule, prompting a reprimand from the judge.
“Let’s get something straight, starting right now. I’ve tried to be patient, and I’ll continue to be patient. Anybody that knows about this court knows that I’m courteous in treating people with dignity. But, sir, you’re not in control of this courtroom. I am. And I intend to give you a fair hearing on your sworn affidavit, and I intend to give these officers a fair time to defend themselves. I’m going to make a decision that I believe is correct. What we’re not going to continue to do is make false allegations against officers that are not even here or allegations of any kind, even if they’re false or true. I don’t have any idea who Cook is, Nate Cook, or what charges, if any, are against him but that’s an inappropriate comment, and I think you know that. I also think you know better to say some of the inappropriate things about people’s character. They’re sworn law officers, and you’re not doing yourself any favors. So let’s start over, and let’s try to be dignified and go forward.”
“I apologize to the court,” Lokey said.
Later, Mozingo watched a video clip on a tablet of the incident, which Lokey had filmed.
Berry noted that it was only a two-minute clip from an hour-and-a-half-long video. The video showed Lokey arguing with officers, asking them repeatedly to come over and talk. McPherson initially tells him calmly to get out of the road before saying a few moments later, as Lokey tried to get officers to come back and talk with him, “Get out of the d*** road.”
“There’s people in the road. You’re discriminating against me,” Lokey says in the video.
When the prosecutor asked him what he objected to in the video, Lokey said, “If I’d have said that I might have got arrested.”
Then Castle began asking Lokey about the accusations against Arinder. The alleged incident happened during a Jan. 14 meeting at the City Hall boardroom with Police Chief Michael Kelly, Hahn and Arinder, while Lokey and his daughter, Madelyn, were complaining about what had happened during the November incident during the CHS football game.
He said Cook wouldn’t let him have the car because Cook had asked his daughter if she knew him and she replied, “I don’t forget ugly fat a****.”
“And so he charged her for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct (failure to comply) for saying ‘a**.’ She cussed him and she had to pay for it,” Lokey said.
Lokey said they wanted to call Big Grip wrecker service, which was going to do it for $100, but that an officer cancelled it and called another service, which charged $250. He said he felt they did him wrong for that and accused officers of taking kickbacks.
“I pointed at Lanny and said, ‘Him or Cook are taking kickbacks from the wreckers.’ And that’s when he said, ‘I’ll come across this table and whip you’re a**,’” Lokey said during his testimony.
Lokey said Arinder lunged at him when he said that. He said the tables were “pretty long” and that Arinder could not have touched him from where he was sitting but that he felt threatened because Arinder was a black belt. Lokey also said Hahn told Arinder to sit down.
Lokey said he had responded “come on” to Arinder.
“In essence inviting that towards you, inviting him to come on and fight you?” Castle asked.
“I knew he wasn’t going to do it. I was just reacting to that kind of reaction,” Lokey said.
“So you knew Arinder was not going to fight you?”
“Well, he’s threatened me before. I didn’t know if he was going to come across the table or not. But he did that in front of his boss and in front of the city attorney and they didn’t say a word,” Lokey said.
On cross-examination, Berry asked Lokey if the incident with McPherson happened as they were leaving the traffic stop. She said the officers were walking off and Lokey “re-engaged” them.
Baldwin asked if Arinder was present at the November incident, and Lokey said he was.
Mozingo then asked Lokey if he had anything else he wanted to say, and Lokey described how he got arrested later that night for allegedly abusing 911 calls. Lokey said he had called to ask McPherson to visit him and was going to file charges then. He said some officers asked the 911 dispatcher to change the transcript and she walked out that night.
Berry then made a motion to dismiss the charge against McPherson because he was leaving the scene and was re-engaged by Lokey.
“He was not approaching Mr. Lokey in any way; Mr. Lokey was calling him to come back, according to the video. He calmly asked Mr. Lokey to get out of the road on one occasion. And then had been repeatedly asked again to get out of the road, and finally said, and will admit he said, ‘Get out of the d*** road. Or you will go to jail.’”
Berry said a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case, Cohen v. California, gave McPherson a constitutional right to freedom of speech. She said the use of expletives like “d***” and even harsher words are not considered “fighting words.” Words that someone can be criminally charged for have to “invoke a breach of peace or be considered a fighting word,” Berry said. She moved that the charge be dismissed against McPherson.
Baldwin filed a similar motion to dismiss for Arinder. She said Lokey testified he knew Arinder wasn’t going to do it and that it was a “pretty long” table. She also said Lokey provoked Arinder by accusing him of taking a kickback.
“There doesn’t appear to be any viable threat or overt act,” Baldwin said.
Mozingo then took a brief recess before making his ruling. When court reconvened, the judge dismissed the charges and reprimanded Lokey.
“The circuit court’s time and resources have been drained, not to mention the reputations of the Columbia Police Department and the officers involved individually,” he said. “You have threatened and intimidated officers of the law and threatened them with quote ‘other charges that you’re going to file.’ You’ve disparaged their reputations as well as others, and I would just tell you as an aside that there is a statute on the books in Mississippi regarding malicious prosecution, and if you file charges that do not have merit you, sir, could be charged yourself with filing false allegations.”
At one point Lokey began to move, and Mozingo said, “I’m not through, and if you interrupt me that might be the tipping point, Mr. Lokey, it might be the tipping point for me. So just, I heard you out, now you’re going to hear the court out.”
The judge then continued, “This is no joke. I’m responsible to the people of this county and this city to conserve their resources. So far we have devoted a lot of time that could be given to these defendants and these prosecutors on legitimate business.”
Mozingo finished by defending himself against what he said would likely be an appeal.
“This is not personal. You may bully and intimidate in this community and law enforcement, whoever, but I’m going to caution you. I caution you not to continue your irrational behavior and threaten and intimidate this court, this judge in the future because I can assure you that legally there will be consequences to doing so,” Mozingo said.
After the hearing, Police Chief Michael Kelly posted a statement on Facebook that said, in part, “The City of Columbia Police Department does not condone or tolerate misconduct on the part of its officers. CPD exist to serve and protect the citizens of our community and takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, and is committed to investigate such allegations and take necessary action when appropriate.
“Due to privacy rights and other legal rights and out of safety considerations, the City (CPD) will not attempt to litigate allegations against its officers on social media, or through news organizations. These matters are best handled in the impartial forum of our Courts which exist for the administration of justice. And, today justice was served.”
Lokey said Tuesday he didn’t have comment and considered the matter over.
Pictured Above: Circuit Judge Tony Mozingo, left, talks with Richard Lokey on the witness stand Friday at the Marion County Courthouse. Mozingo sharply chastised the Columbia real estate broker, saying he wasted public resources in filing charges against two police officers and that there would be consequences if Lokey kept it up. | Photo by Charlie Smith
