The laws behind the latest wave of change in Webster County

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The Webster County Sheriff remains in jail in Lafayette County, but many have questions.

How is he able to still be sheriff and get paid while he’s behind bars?

And, why does the county now have to pay $75,000 to two people serving as sheriff?

That’s what everyone in Webster County seems to want to know.

People may want answers, but as WCBI found out, those answers are hard to get from county leaders.

On Thursday, we reached out to the Webster County Board of Supervisors President, Pat Cummings, but had no luck.

Why did the board approve Mitchell’s request to withdrawal his resignation?

Do they think it’s their fault that the county now has to pay double for a sheriff?

Where will they get the money?

Those are the answers we wanted and never got in Webster County.

We took a different route, and got some of those answers from a circuit judge who knows Mississippi laws.

One sheriff is no longer resigning and another sheriff has been appointed.

That’s the latest wave of change to wash up in Webster County and will stay that way until Sheriff Tim Mitchell is removed from office.

“Either by resigning, or if there’s a conviction, then the law removes them, but until then, everybody charged with a crime is presumed to be innocent of the crime, and you can’t refuse to pay them just because they’ve been charged,” says 16th District Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens.

Once the board of supervisors approved withdrawing Mitchell’s resignation, 5th Circuit District Judges, Judge Joey Loper and Judge George Mitchell, Jr. stepped in to sign a ruling to appoint a new interim sheriff, stripping Mitchell of any powers.

“What it does is, it protects the judiciary to allow the judiciary to make sure that while all of this is going on, there is somebody in place who is not subject to any litigation or possible criminal proceedings.”

Kitchens says there’s a good reason for the law.

“If a sheriff had a case pending against him, you wouldn’t necessarily want that sheriff working with a jury and the grand jury, while a case may be pending against them and that’s the provision in the law and that’s why that law was set up the way it was.”

It’s been around for decades.

“This particular law has been on the books since 1848 and the first case that I could find that dealt with it is from 1899, so it’s been litigated before in this state.”

For now, the county will continue to pay two people for sheriff.

“There’s a provision in the law for the counties to recover any salaries they pay to any official who they’ve paid that they shouldn’t have paid. So, it’s not just the sheriff, but anytime you’ve got somebody doing something that they’re not suppose to and they’ve paid money out.”

Although people in Webster County have a lot to say about the situation, no one wanted to go on camera.

Some told us they’re disappointed and want answers from their supervisors about why they approved Mitchell’s resignation letter.