Mold Remediation in Jackson, MS

A second person in the Jackson bribery scandal pleaded guilty on Thursday, relating to the case that brought down former Ward 2 Jackson City Councilwoman Angelique Lee. At least two other elected officials are involved.

Court documents in the case were unsealed Thursday morning for Sherik Marve' Smith, who is associated with Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens' real estate company "Facility Solutions Team," which is being investigated by the FBI. Smith was also working with "Unindicted Co-Conspirator B" and "Unindicted Co-Conspirator C," who are both elected officials of the City of Jackson, according to court documents

Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery at 10:18 a.m. in a hearing at the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse that lasted less than 30 minutes. Smith was later released on bond and processed by federal marshals. He was scheduled to meet with probation officers.

Wearing a dark suit jacket, Smith looked serious when pleading before Chief District Judge Daniel Jordan.

An anonymous source said that Smith was present at the meetings between Owens and FBI agents, who posed as out-of-town real estate developers. Lee also met with FBI agents who posed as out-of-town real estate developers.

Court documents state that Smith agreed to give "cash payments and campaign contributions to Unindicted Co-conspirator B and Unindicted Co-conspirator C" from the undercover FBI agents posed as real estate agents.

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The case is similar to that of Lee's, who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in August. Both Smith and Lee met with and accepted money from undercover FBI agents posed as out-of-town real estate developers from Nashville to support a development in Downtown Jackson. Lee has not been sentenced. Her scheduled November sentencing was continued.

Lee had a dinner with the undercover FBI agents and "Unindicted Co-conspirator A" in March, where she accepted bribes amounting to $13,000 in cash and approximately $6,000 in goods in exchange for her vote on the development plans.

Smith's case documents show that he was working with a "Unindicted Co-conspirator A," as well. In March and April 2024, both Smith and "Unindicted Co-conspirator A," the court document states, agreed "to give things of value, including cash payments and campaign contributions to Unindicted Co-conspirator B and Unindicted Co-conspirator C."

The following payments, intended as bribes, were given to Unindicted Co-conspirators B and C:

The bribes were in exchange for Unindicted Co-conspirator B's vote in favor of the downtown real estate project, which is what Lee agreed to do when she was bribed. The bribes were also in exchange for Unindicted Co-conspirator C's agreement to move a deadline in favor of the real estate project.

Smith is required to "forfeit" $20,000. Smith was told he had to surrender any firearms as well. As a convicted felon, any other violation would add to his sentence. Smith's sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 19.

Lee also accepted the bribes in exchange for her support of a downtown development project the undercover agents were pitching to her. She also agreed to vote in favor of a road closure in furtherance of the same project, court documents show.

After Lee's indictment, four members of the Jackson City Council revealed to the Clarion Ledger that they were also approached by and met with out-of-town real estate developers interested in building a downtown development. Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell, Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley and Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay all confirmed the meetings. None could verify if they were the same developers Lee met with who turned out to be FBI agents.

What all of the individual meetings described by the four council members have in common is that they were arranged by Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens. Owens and his lawyer, Rob McDuff, declined to answer any questions about the council members' meetings with developers and the DA. Owens, through his lawyer, released a statement in August.

And back in May, Owens' business and office at the Hinds County Courthouse were raided by FBI agents, who also paid a visit to Jackson's City Hall. In a statement hours after the raids, Owens said his office is "fully cooperating" with the FBI. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba denied knowing anything at a press conference days after the raids.

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Smith's LinkedIn bio lists his occupation as an insurance agent with Penn Global Marketing. He is a graduate of Jackson State University. Owens' attorney Rob McDuff declined to comment on Thursday whether Smith was associated with Owens.

McDuff confirmed in a written statement in August that Owens has "been engaged in real estate development," which McDuff said is legal. But the statement also admits that Owens met with two men claiming to be "large-scale developers" who were interested in "the possibility of building a convention center hotel in Jackson."

"He believed them and after multiple conversations, agreed to help them. It turns out they were operatives for the FBI," the statement reads. "Given that status of the investigation, I don’t think it’s appropriate to say anything else at this juncture."

How Jackson's proposed convention center hotel fits

The City of Jackson has sought developers to build a downtown hotel since the mid-2000s.

In January 2024, the city received three bids in response to a "Statement of Qualifications", or SOQ, to develop a "mixed-use development" on the parking lot across the street from the convention complex at 105 E. Pascagoula St. The development would include a 335-room hotel, a green space, and a 1,200-space parking garage.

In September, Jackson Spokesperson Melissa Payne confirmed that Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens heads one of the companies, the Facility Solutions Team LLC, that responded to the city's SOQ. The other two bidders were 2K Developments LLC and Speed Commercial Real Estate.

Facility Solutions Team LLC was formed by DA Owens on March 19, 2024, according to the Mississippi Secretary of State's website, eight days before former councilwoman Angelique Lee and "Unindicted Co-Conspirator A" met with FBI agents posing as Nashville real estate developers. The company's nature of business is stated as "other activities related to real estate."

City of Jackson releases statement on guilty plea

Jackson Spokesperson Melissa Payne released this statement to the Clarion Ledger when asked about Smith's plea and the elected officials involved.

"We know nothing more about that situation than what has already been made public and it would be absolutely inappropriate for us to comment," Payne said.

Staff writers Ross Reily and Grant McLaughlin contributed to this report.

'Good water system's don't exceed 10% water loss,' according Interim Third Party Water Manager Ted Henifin

Mississippi Clarion Ledger

As the federal takeover of the City of Jackson's water system nears the two year mark, 50% of the drinkable, purified water is still being lost due to leaks.

This report, along with a few others, came from Interim Third-Party Water Manager Ted Henifin during a status conference Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate. Henifin was appointed by Wingate to run and repair the water system in November 2022, creating the company JXN Water and hiring a small staff to help with repairs.

How much money are leaks costing?

The system is losing nearly 37 million gallons of water per day, Henifin said. After the hearing, Henifin told the Clarion Ledger that before his appointment he estimates leaks were causing the system to lose nearly 65-70% of drinkable water.

Currently, the system is producing 40 million gallons per day, compared to 50-55 million gallons per day when Henifin was first appointed. A city with the population the size of Jackson only needs to produce about 18 million gallons per day, Henifin said, so the plant is still losing 18 to 20 million gallons per day due to leaks.

"Fifty percent of that purified water does not make it to the household," Wingate pronounced seemingly astounded. "Instead, it gets lost in transit."

Wingate asked Henifin how much money that meant the system is wasting due to the leaks. He thought it would be a better way to show the public just how beleaguered the system is, as well as how much of their tax payer dollars have been wasted over decades. Henifin said he didn't have the figure, but would have one for the judge at their next status conference.

"We're still on the hunt for water leaks," Henifin told Wingate. "We think most of these leaks are subsurface, it's water that's not reaching the surface."

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How to find Jackson water system leaks

Because the leaks can't be seen from the ground, it makes it harder to identify where to make repairs in the approximately 150-square-mile water system. Henifin said the plan is to have a "contest" between four subcontracting companies who will be using acoustic equipment stuck in the ground that will listen for water leaks.

"We put them in different times at the same locations to give us the pinpoint location of where they say you need to dig down to find the leak," Henifin said. "We'll dig down at the locations that each of these four technology companies claim to be able to locate leaks and see who is actually accurate. Assuming one or two of them are, we'll continue to use them over the next year to try and find more of these subsurface leaks throughout the system."

If they can't, Henifin said "we're back to square zero to try to find the technology to help us find these unknown leaks."

But if the subsurface leaks are able to be found, the goal is to bring the system's total water loss to "somewhere around 30 million gallons per day."

"Still significantly more than our customers need. But if we get to that point, we can supply all of the city's water from just the O.B. Curtis plant and we'll be able to close the JH Fewell plant, which will save millions of dollars in annual operating cost," Henifin said. "This would be great for us going forward to reinvest in the system as opposed to operating a second plant just to put the water out to the community that doesn't get to anybody."

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Henifin also noted that the loss of water due to leaks is also connected to the water system's pressure challenges.

"If you're losing water, you can't keep pressure up throughout the system and it's also a reason we have to keep the (JH) Fewell plant open," Henifin said.

All in all, the subsurface water leaks attribute to wasting taxpayer money by losing drinkable water that's not making it to people's homes, causes pressure problems in the system. There is also the fact that if the water leaks were fixed the city could shut down the JH Fewell plant, saving billions.

"Good systems don't exceed 10% water loss. In fact that's kind of the borderline the EPA thinks is acceptable…," Henifin said. "And again we're at 50%, and trying to work our way down to 10% would be the goal."