A trial is scheduled for March 15 for a Columbia man appealing a misdemeanor conviction that he says was the result of unfair treatment from police.
Myjellious McKenzie filed notice of appeal of the Columbia Municipal Court verdict on Feb. 7 in Marion County Circuit Court.
The case dates back to an interaction with police at his home at 401 Hawkins Ave. in August where he was charged with disorderly conduct (failure to comply) and resisting arrest. McKenzie said he received notice that he was found guilty of disorderly conduct and not guilty of resisting arrest on Jan. 15.
He then posted a surveillance video of the incident on Facebook. The black-and-white video provides a clear picture of the front porch but doesn’t have audio. It also doesn’t show the actual arrest of McKenzie inside his home, but he provided a narrative of what he says happened in a Facebook post and in an interview. An incident report, which McKenzie also posted on Facebook, gives the police account of what happened.
The 46-year-old lifelong Columbia resident, who works as a DJ, said he thought hard about posting the video before doing so on Jan. 23.
“Somebody’s got to do something, and if I don’t stand up for myself, who else is going to speak for me?” he said. “It wasn’t done for publicity or anything. It was done because this was wrong. Somebody needs to step in and do something because it was obvious they were comfortable doing that.”
McKenzie says he did nothing wrong and that police came on his property and instigated the confrontation.
Police Chief Michael Kelly said he could not comment because it’s an open criminal case pending the appeal.
McKenzie said an FBI agent came twice to his house, first to interview him on about Nov. 20 and then to pick up a DVD of the surveillance video a week or so later.
The video is time-stamped Aug. 23, 2018, just after 8 p.m. McKenzie said he had friends at his house watching a preseason NFL game. He said he saw an officer shining a light into a friend’s truck, which was running and had music playing while the friend came inside briefly and was watching the game.
During the argument that ensued over the loud music, McKenzie said the officer cursed at him when he went inside to call another officer who he knew. Other officers arrived, including one armed with a Taser, and people came in and out of the house.
The police incident report says McKenzie was screaming at officers, and they gave him “several loud and verbal commands to come down and talk to me so we could figure out the situation” but that he ran inside and other people blocked the door.
Later his wife passed out on the porch during what McKenzie describes as a panic attack, and several people gathered around her until paramedics arrived and carried her onto a stretcher. After his wife is taken away, the video shows McKenzie going back inside his house and an officer motioning to him with his finger to come back.
At that point the officer follows him inside, as do several other officers.
While what happened inside can’t be seen, McKenzie alleges police slammed him into the kitchen counter, tased him and smashed his head into the floor.
The incident report says they attempted to handcuff him because they didn’t know if he was going to get a weapon or not and that McKenzie continued to fight officers and was told to stop resisting before being handcuffed.
About a minute and a half after going inside, officers lead him out in handcuffs, the video shows.
After he bonded out that night, McKenzie said he went to the hospital to check on his wife. He said she’s doing OK now but still has problems as a result.
“It’s a mental strain that’s on your brain to know that this could happen,” he said.
It’s not the first incident involving his family on that block, which they own most of the property on.
His father, Eddie McKenzie, was shot dead on April 15, 1997, by Columbia Police Officer Greg Elkins in an incident that began with police trying to pull over the car Myjellious McKenzie was driving during a low-speed chase. That happened at Myjellious McKenzie’s mother’s home, which is across the street from his home. Circuit Judge R.I. Prichard III initially ruled in a lawsuit that Elkins didn’t have immunity because Eddie McKenzie was retreating into his home while holding a gun at the time he was shot, but the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned that ruling in 2003 and found that Elkins’ actions were reasonable. Elkins is out on parole as part of an 18-year sentence on a manslaughter charge after being convicted of fatally shooting Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Hooper in 2005 in a separate case.
