Chopped, jumbled drug raid video adds to Hinds DA mystery
A video, as well as courtroom testimony, fails to bolster the Hinds County district attorney’s claims that Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents planted drugs during a raid.
District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith and Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride were indicted last week on charges they had hindered Christopher Butler’s prosecution in four separate cases. Butler faces multiple charges, including drug possession, wire fraud and embezzlement.
RELATED: Hinds DA spars with MBN, AG
Before Smith’s legal troubles began, he told The Clarion-Ledger that a video showed evidence was planted in one of Butler’s drug cases. The video was recorded in 2011 by a surveillance system while MBN agents searched the home of Butler’s girlfriend at the time, Kwanza Hilliard.
Smith wanted the charges dismissed, but Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill opposed him.
An edited, 38-minute version of the video obtained by The Clarion-Ledger shows MBN and other law enforcement officers barging into Hilliard’s home, where officials say they found four gallon-sized bags of marijuana and almost $78,000. What it does not appear to show is the officers planting evidence in the home.
RELATED: Hinds DA produces raid tape contents
Bizarrely, the time stamp on the video jumps back and forward in time, often replaying events or skipping chunks of time altogether.
Smith has also continually charged that the video has been tampered with.
But Hilliard’s testimony during a forfeiture hearing in March 2013 contradicts the allegation.
On the day of the raid, Hilliard told police the marijuana belonged to Butler, and she had seen him with as much as three or four pounds of the drug in the past, according to a court transcript. She’d also seen him in her kitchen with gallon Ziplock bags filled with marijuana.
Bizarre video confuses Hinds DA defense
MBN agents seized a video recording surveillance system, or DVR, during the raid, and Butler and Hilliard were indicted a year later.
Attorneys for Butler and Hilliard made multiple unsuccessful attempts to view the video at MBN headquarters, as did Smith.
Hinds County Judge Melvin Priester ordered the FBI to determine if the DVR even worked. In 2013, a letter from the U.S. attorney’s office to Weill showed the FBI planned to bring the DVR to the court.
The district attorney’s office still hadn’t seen the tape by early 2014, and it’s not clear when his office received a copy. During an unrelated hearing, Priester said he’d watched about a dozen hours of the video and “there was nothing to show.”
Still, there are what appear to be discrepancies between what is shown on the tape and the police report of the raid, like where marijuana was found, a statement from McBride suggests. These inconsistencies contributed to Smith’s uneasiness to continue prosecuting the case.
Smith also expressed concern that failing to produce the raid tape to Butler would violate the defendant’s right to evidence.
“I’ve argued several times that (proceeding with the case) would violate my prosecutorial ethical duties as well as the defendant’s constitutional rights,” Smith said in a Jan. 11 hearing before Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Weill, transcripts show.
Contact Mollie Bryant at mbryant2@gannett.com or 601-961-7251 and Anna Wolfe at awolfe@gannett.com or 601-961-7326. Follow @MollieEBryant and @ayewolfe on Twitter.