Wingate defends slowness of his court

Presiding over high-profile cases, including the corruption case of former state Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, led to a backlog of more than 100 pending motions on his docket, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate said in defense of complaints he's been moving too slow and having two cases taken from him and assigned to another judge.

Also, Wingate blames former staffers for contributing to the backlog by not doing their jobs.

However, the longtime federal judge said, "It is my fault as captain of the ship. The buck stops with me."

Wingate said he has a new staff and has whittled down a backlog of about 160 pending motions to about 30 or 40 and will have the backlog wiped out by the end of next week.

RELATED: Hood calls Wingate's delays in ruling an unfortunate pattern

Citing delays by Wingate in ruling on motions, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered two cases removed from Wingate and reassigned. The petitions to remove the cases from Wingate were made by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who called the slowness in Wingate's court an "unfortunate pattern."

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the long-running federal lawsuit State of Mississippi, v. Entergy Inc. removed from Wingate, citing the judge’s failure to rule on pending motions. The court also ordered the State of Mississippi, Jim Hood v. Fred Cannon lawsuit, often referred to as the KiOR case, removed from Wingate.

Wingate said he had ruled on outstanding motions in the Entergy case by the date set by the 5th Circuit and notified the court. He said he thought the petition to reassign the case was moot because he had ruled.

In the KiOR case, Wingate said there was a mixup and he didn't receive the petition from the 5th Circuit for him to rule on the motions until the order was sent transferring the case.

Southern District of Mississippi U.S. Clerk Arthur Johnson said his office, unaware that the 5th Circuit sent two petitions since both the Entergy and KiOR  email letters were similar, didn't transmit the Entergy email to Wingate. He said he was also informed a hard copy of the petition wasn't mailed or delivered to Wingate prior to the order by the 5th Circuit removing the case.

Wingate said that had he known of the petition, he would have notified the 5th Circuit that he would rule in a matter of days, like he did in the other case.

"The 5th Circuit could have allowed me to keep these cases," Wingate said. "I'm the one who knows all the background."

Hood's petition said: “This case has languished too long in the District Court, with virtually no movement. A writ of mandamus seeking reassignment is the only viable option available to the state of Mississippi at this juncture.”

Last week, the 5th Circuit said it considered the merits of the petition and concluded the requested relief was appropriate. It directed Wingate to deliver the case to the chief judge of the Southern District of Mississippi for reassignment.

Hood said in a statement: "“We are pleased that this case, which is very important to the state and its citizens, will now move forward.”

The 5th Circuit panel said Wingate's recent ruling on a motion in the case didn't resolve the petition, which seeks to reassign the case based upon Wingate's repeated failure or refusal to rule on pending motions in the eight-year-old case.

Wingate said Wednesday he had no animosity toward Hood and would have filed the same petitions if he was in his shoes and didn't know some of the things that were happening.

Wingate said he won't seek a ruling by the full 5th Circuit on the panel decision to remove the cases.

"I just want to go ahead and move on," Wingate said.

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.