Starkville board attorney Chris Latimer denied a request The Dispatch submitted Wednesday for dash camera footage and incident reports stemming from an alleged pedestrian accident involving a former Starkville Police Department officer under review by the district attorney’s office.
The newspaper filed its request after aldermen voted 3-2 Tuesday to tender a potential case against former officer William Thrasher to Scott Colom’s office for possible prosecution.
Thrasher does not currently face any criminal charges, Mayor Parker Wiseman confirmed.
The Dispatch also requested Thrasher’s personnel file to see whether the former officer faced disciplinary action in the past, but the city also denied that request.
Latimer based his decision on the grounds that personnel records (Miss. Code Ann. 25-1-100) and private information of law enforcement (Miss. Code Ann. 25-61-12) are exempt from public access requirements, while state law generally allows protections for records that could deprive a person of the right to a fair trial or impede a prosecutor’s ability to prosecute an alleged offense.
Miss. Code Ann. 25-61-12, however, also states law enforcement agencies at their discretion “may choose to make public all or any part of any investigative report.”
Latimer’s email to The Dispatch did confirm that both the investigative findings and Thrasher’s personnel file have been sent to Colom’s office for review.
Details on the incident remain scarce after numerous elected officials and city employees declined to comment on the record about the potential legal action.
According to multiple sources on background, however, it is believed a police cruiser Thrasher was driving while patrolling struck a pedestrian from behind in either Ward 6 or Ward 7 on or about Feb. 21.
One source said aldermen viewed the same dash camera footage The Dispatch requested during Tuesday’s almost hour-long executive session before the board voted to transfer the findings to Colom.
Discrepancies, the source said, could exist between information provided in police reports accounting the incident and what the video shows, but The Dispatch cannot verify the claim without access to the appropriate information.
Tuesday’s 3-2 vote was split along racial lines, as the city’s three African-American aldermen — Ward 2’s Lisa Wynn, Ward 6’s Roy A. Perkins and Ward 7’s Henry Vaughn — supported the motion and were opposed by Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver and Ward 3 Alderman David Little, two of the board’s four white representatives.
Each alderman contacted by The Dispatch declined to comment on the situation, except for Perkins.
“All lives matter,” he said.
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker and Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard were absent from the meeting.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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