The fight over whether the challengers for the city council’s Ward 2 seat live in the area they want to represent has escalated to the state’s Supreme Court.
Ward 2 incumbent and Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens filed a civil petition in the Mississippi Supreme Court on Feb. 19, alleging his two challengers Laisha “Ms. She-She” O’Neal and Roderick Smith don’t qualify to run for his office because they don’t meet the residency requirement. A civil complaint represents only one side of a legal argument.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph took up the matter the next day, assigning Senior Status Judge Jeff Weill Sr., retired from the Seventh Circuit Court, as a special judge in the case.
Mickens already challenged the residency of his opponents before the City of Columbus Democratic Executive Committee earlier this month, but the committee ruled Feb. 10 that O’Neal and Smith qualify to run for the seat. A separate complaint in that hearing alleged that Mickens hadn’t submitted a proper campaign finance report, but Kabir Karriem, chairperson for the Lowndes County Democratic Party, said he had filed on time and cleared him to run as well.
In his complaint, Mickens asks the courts to overturn the committee’s decision regarding his opponents.
“(The) petitioner prays that, following a non-jury trial … the court reverse the decision of the Democratic Executive Committee to allow Smith and O’NeaI to remain on the ballot and render a judgment in favor of this petition, that neither Smith nor O’Neal are bona fide residents of Ward 2 … and do not meet the minimum residency requirements to be placed on the primary ballot,” he wrote.
The filing alleges O’Neal does not reside at her listed address on qualifying paperwork, which was registered as a homestead under a different name in 2024 Lowndes County tax records. Instead, it alleges O’Neal lives at an address on Short Main Street, which is located in Ward 1. Mickens cites as proof that “numerous witnesses have told (him).”
The complaint also alleges Smith does not own the residence at the address Smith listed on his qualifying paperwork, also based on 2024 Lowndes County tax records. Instead, the complaint alleges Smith’s homestead is on Cannon Trace, which is in Ward 3.
The filing says Smith married Avisha Shelton in October 2024, who owned and claimed a homestead tax exemption on the Cannon Trace property in 2024.
“As a consequence of Smith’s marriage to Avisha Shelton Smith, and her filing for homestead in the Cannon trace parcel, said parcel (is) also Smith’s homestead,” the complaint reads. “The location of homestead exemption creates a strong presumption of domicile in that location, for purposes of meeting residency requirements for election to office.”
O’Neal and Smith did not respond by press time to a request for comment on the petition. Mickens declined to comment. Karriem didn’t comment on the veracity of Mickens’ claims, instead citing scripture and directing further questions toward the party’s attorney Jase Dalrymple, who did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
“In Scripture, 1 Corinthians 14:33 reminds us that ‘God is not the author of confusion, but of peace,’” Karriem wrote in a text to The Dispatch. “It’s unfortunate that this situation has led to litigation.”
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