A federal judge denied former Lowndes County supervisor Jim Terry’s appeal of his 2007 fraud in office conviction Thursday.
Terry, 53, was sentenced to 13 months in prison and five years probation after he was found guilty of committing fraud or embezzlement while holding a public office. He was found in Lowndes County Circuit Court to have misused his county-issued vehicle and fuel card for personal trips to Tunica and Philadelphia casinos between Jan. 1, 2004 and Dec. 31, 2005.
Terry contested whether a lack of specific dates of incidents when the fraud occurred was sufficient evidence for a conviction. The opinion written by U.S. District Court Northern District of Mississippi Senior Judge Glen Davidson states Terry said not having the exact dates put him in “the unfair and awkward position of having not only to know when I put gas in my own county-issued car and its purposes, but every other vehicle or piece of gas operated equipment I might have used a Fuelman card for during that time period.” Davidson said the indictment in Terry’s case fully complied with the Uniform Rule of County and Circuit Court and failure to provide specific dates do not render the indictment defective. The opinion also states Terry made “over 90 trips” to the casinos and was best positioned to determine the time and reason for each trip. His card was used hundreds of times during the two-year period and he “lost many thousands of dollars gambling during that time.”
Terry filed the petition in 2011.
Terry was banned from public office in Lowndes County upon his conviction.
In 2012, Lowndes County deputies arrested Terry for violating his probation by paying only a portion of restitution he owed to the county.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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