Lawsuit: Mississippi political scandal pushed man to suicide

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

a
Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press
Updated 4:45 pm, Wednesday, June 28, 2017



JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Relatives of a Mississippi man who killed himself are suing a mayor, police officers and a law firm, saying they are part of a political network that pushed him to suicide during a bitterly-fought U.S. Senate race.

The widow and sons of Mark Mayfield say in a federal suit filed Tuesday that his life was ruined in 2014 when he was charged with conspiracy to exploit a vulnerable adult.

Mayfield, an attorney with his own firm, was prominent in the Mississippi tea party movement and supported state lawmaker Chris McDaniel, who lost to Sen. Thad Cochran in a 2014 Republican primary. The primary split voters between tea party factions backing McDaniel and establishment Republicans backing Cochran, who is now chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The felony charge against Mayfield was tied to the unauthorized online publication of a photo of Cochran's wife, Rose, who was living in a nursing home with dementia. Mayfield died before it could be prosecuted.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Lawsuit-Mississippi-political-scandal-pushed-man-11253936.php

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[Honeycombe8]

1. Oh, I remember that.

Yeah, that was bad. Definitely crossed a line (Mayfield). His guy sneaked into a nursing home and took a pic of the wife, who has dementia. Horrible thing to do. I don't remember how the photo was used or what benefit it could have been.

[groundloop]

2. Damned typical teabaggers.... preach independence yet blame everyone else for bad outcomes

The guy screwed up by having someone sneak into a nursing home to take photos and then posting them online, simple as that. It was nobody's fault but his own that he was prosecuted for that.

[RhodeIslandOne]

3. Personal responsibility?

Uh huh.

[nikibatts]

4. It's sad, any way you look at it.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Don't know which side is the real transgressor but either way shows republicans playing dirty even w

Don't know which side is the real transgressor but either way shows republicans playing dirty even within their own party.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Misleading title. That wasn't "political." It was a "felony" scandal.