While the primary election is less than three weeks away, it is still up in the air whether challengers for the Ward 2 council seat will be removed from the ballot.
During a Thursday hearing, Senior Status Judge Jeff Weill Sr. heard arguments from Ward 2 incumbent Joseph Mickens, who claims his opponents – Laisha “Ms. She-She” O’Neal and Roderick Smith – don’t meet the residency requirements to run for office.
“This has been an interesting case, and I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do,” Weill said at the end of Thursday’s six-hour hearing.
Weill is taking the case under advisement and plans to rule over the weekend.
Mickens first challenged whether his opponents lived in the ward in February, but the Democratic Executive Committee for Columbus ruled O’Neal and Smith qualified for the seat based on a lack of evidence from Mickens. A separate complaint alleged Mickens hadn’t filed a campaign finance report in time to qualify, but Kabir Karriem, chairperson for the Lowndes County Democratic Party, said the report was filed on time.
Unsatisfied with the committee’s decision, Mickens filed a civil petition in the Lowndes County Circuit Court on Feb. 19 once again calling his opponents’ residencies into question. The Mississippi Supreme Court assigned Weill, who is retired from the Seventh Circuit Court, as a special judge to hear the case in circuit court.
On Thursday, attorney Walter Howard Zinn reasserted Mickens’ claims that Smith, who does not own the residence listed on his qualifying paperwork, actually lives in a home on Cannon Trace in Ward 3, where his wife lives.
Documents including medical bills and information were exhibited during Smith’s testimony to establish his residency at 226 Meadow Drive, which he listed in his qualifying papers. However, Zinn alleged Smith’s marriage to Avisha Shelton Smith, who he married in October 2024, creates the presumption that his home is actually on Cannon Trace.
Avisha claimed a homestead tax exemption on the Cannon Trace property in 2024, but she told the court Thursday that she and Roderick mutually agreed to live in separate homes for the time being. Ruling against that is stepping outside of the law, argued attorney Jase Dalrymple, who represents the Democratic Executive Committee.
“Mr. (Mickens) is essentially asserting that the court or any other person aside from the lovely couple themselves has any authority or way to tell someone how to live their marriage,” he said. “Just because you get married doesn’t mean that you automatically have a residence and homestead with your wife.”
Concerning O’Neal, Zinn argued her actual residence is on Short Main Street in Ward 1.
“With no doubt, she was living there for a very significant time, from 2016 to 2021 or something to that effect,” he said. “There’s a lot of the documents still to this day that she still has her name at that residence. She still has a relationship with the person at that residence. … The reality is that she still has a vested interest in that property.”
O’Neal previously shared the Short Main address with her ex-partner before she began renting a room in her sister’s home on Vance Street, in Ward 2, last fall. O’Neal is no longer a title holder of the Short Main home, and she deeded the property to her daughter.
By leaving the property well before qualifying, Dalrymple argued O’Neal no longer has any claim on the home.
“She deeded the property away,” he said. “That’s an active action saying ‘I relinquish my right to this home.’ She moved out between September and October. She got to her sister’s house before Oct. 1.”
Under Columbus’ special charter, a person must live in a ward for at least three months to be eligible to be elected to represent it.
On the stand, Mickens was asked why he believes his opponents are lying about where they live. Along with claims from constituents, Mickens said he had frequently driven by the two homes in Ward 2 this year and kept track of when the candidates’ cars were present.
During their testimonies, both O’Neal and Avisha alleged Mickens had been both driving past and sitting outside of their homes often.
While cross-examining Mickens, Dalrymple alleged his claims were not rooted in tangible evidence. Dalrymple asked if Mickens’ complaint had any basis outside of hearsay or “self-serving testimony,” and Mickens referenced a letter sent to Roderick Smith’s address on Meadow Drive that was returned to the sender.
“USPS returned the mail. Does that prove he wasn’t sleeping there nor did he intend on staying there for the foreseeable future?” he asked. “Other than your testimony that their cars are not always present at their houses, do you have any physical evidence or proof aside from your verbal testimony that they don’t live where they purport to live?”
Mickens didn’t offer any other explanations.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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