n Police and court officials are targeted in the documents.

By Emily Le Coz

Daily Journal

TUPELO - Several more paragraphs edited out of the Tupelo ethics report were leaked this week.

This time the claims targeted the Police Department and Municipal Court.

Officials from those agencies deny allegations made in the leaked pages. But Tupelo attorney Jim Waide, who has represented numerous former city employees, said he believes the claims have merit.

"I'm trying to look into this stuff," said Waide, who successfully obtained some of the edited material for an upcoming trial against the city.

The information appeared Thursday on TupeloVoice.com, an online forum operated by former Tupelo Police Department employee Andrew Black. Black said he received the data in an e-mail from an anonymous source.

This is the second leak in as many weeks from the edited portions of the report. In all, 14 pages were edited, and several more taken from the appendices.

The first set of leaked information concerned the executive department.

The mayor and council agreed last year to make public only an edited version of the report, which was delivered Sept. 30 by hired consultant Cindy Brown and claims numerous deficiencies in Tupelo's government.

They did so to protect the municipality and council members from potential lawsuits in case allegations against people in the report are untrue.

City attorney Guy Mitchell wasn't immediately available to comment about why these particular pages were edited.

A full version of the report was sent to the State Auditor's Office for review. The office has read the report but hasn't yet decided whether to investigate, a spokeswoman there said.

Although the council has the power to conduct its own internal investigations, it has not done so with regards to the allegations in the report.

The information released this week alleges the Municipal Court administrator instructed staff to withhold paperwork and receipts from detainees appearing in court. It also said the court kept inadequate records, resulting in people being made to pay the same fine twice, and sometimes with added fees due to the appearance of a late payment.

Municipal Court Administrator Larry Montgomery denied those allegations. He told the Daily Journal that detainees get receipts for all fines paid but don't necessarily get their court orders unless they file a request.

Montgomery also said the court has a system of checks and balances to ensure proper record keeping when fines are paid. He recalled only one incident in recent years when a record wasn't correctly filed, and he said the situation was quickly rectified.

Most of the leaked information, though, focused on the Police Department - and one unnamed employee in particular.

It claims "the Chief of Police is not the leader of the TPD." Instead, "the Major, a long-time TPD employee and one of the three majors in the department 'calls the shots.'"

The edited pages also accuse this major of being racist, of favoring staff in his "clique," of ordering officers to ticket minorities, and of harassing another city employee who works nearby. In that incident, the major allegedly blocked the female employee's vehicle with his police car because she parked in his preferred spot.

The Tupelo Water amp& Light Department has an office next door to the police administration building. TWamp&L Manager Johnny Timmons said he hadn't heard anything about the incident. Neither did Police Chief Harold Chaffin.

But TWamp&L employee Patrice Stone said it's true. Although she doesn't recall the Police Department official's name, she said he repeatedly and purposefully blocked her car until she finally complained to her supervisor and then-Mayor Larry Otis about it. That was roughly four years ago, Stone said, and the harassment has since stopped.

Chaffin also denied the other allegations. He said he does run the department, his majors are good people and his staff doesn't deserve such criticism.

"These are unsubstantiated reports made by anonymous people and-or former city employees," Chaffin said. "We have a good department and good supervisors and good officers. Our only goal is to serve the citizens of this city and make this city safe and try to do it in a fair and impartial way."

Chaffin and Montgomery said the ethics consultant never spoke to them about the allegations before issuing her report. The report doesn't identify sources or specify how many people were interviewed.

Most of the allegations appear to be based solely on the testimony of unnamed sources.

Waide said Brown has raw data to substantiate her claims and that he's trying to get it from her.

Brown could not be reached for comment.