NEWS

Inmate Chris Butler says he didn't ask for transfer

Anna Wolfe

The Clarion-Ledger

An inmate at the epicenter of a criminal case against Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith accuses officials of changing and concealing his location, giving him a fake name and prohibiting him from speaking to his family.

State attorneys said during a public hearing in Smith's case that it was inmate Christopher Butler, not one of the involved agencies, that requested he be transferred from Hinds County to the Rankin County jail. The state attorney general's office alleges Smith aided Butler's defense, a violation of state statute.

But Butler tells a different story.

"I never asked to be transferred," Butler wrote in a letter from the Rankin County Jail to The Clarion-Ledger dated Nov. 23.

The attorney general's office would not comment for this story.

Now, Butler's mother Edia Butler said her son has been transferred to yet another jail, this time in Yazoo County. Yazoo County jail's online booking record shows Butler was transferred to Yazoo and booked at 6:05 p.m. Monday, just hours after The Clarion-Ledger began probing involved agencies about Butler's treatment. The charge reads "false pretense," and his bond is listed as $0.

Edia Butler told The Clarion-Ledger that her son, now a witness in Smith's case, indicated to her over the phone Monday night that the Yazoo jail is keeping him in solitary confinement with only one hour of free time each day.

Butler is facing charges of marijuana possession dating to a 2011 Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics raid on his girlfriend's home, along with fraud, false pretense and embezzlement. Smith's persistence in getting charges against Butler dismissed stem from his belief that MBN planted drugs on Butler.

The MBN responded, saying Smith's allegations are "blatantly and patently false."

"MBN has not received any credible evidence of wrongdoing on the part of its agents in connection with the Christopher Butler case and the MBN stands by its agents that were involved in the investigation," John Dowdy, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, said in a statement Monday. "MBN agents are professionals, highly trained in acquiring search warrants that lead to seizures of illegal narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia, and that is exactly what they did in this investigation."

Butler said officials raided his cell when he was in the Hinds County jail and attempted to coerce him into providing information about Smith. Now, Butler says Rankin County officials have helped the attorney general's office get another inmate to coax information from him on the district attorney.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey would not comment.

Butler said Rankin County officials told him he was being housed in Rankin County "as a favor to Hinds County."

"It's true I felt my life was in danger but it wasn't from other inmates, it was from the very people who claimed they had me moved here to Rankin County Jail in the first place. The MBN!!!" Butler wrote. "It was representative (sic) from the MBN that came here and told me that they had me moved here because my life was in danger, not the attorney general (sic) office."

Dowdy said in his statement that MBN does not comment on matters of prisoner safety or transfers.

In June, Smith subpoenaed Butler to testify in front of a grand jury. In secretly recorded conversations between Smith and Assistant District Attorney Ivon Johnson, Smith indicated he was attempting to charge state or federal officials with intimidating a witness: Butler. Days later, before Butler was set to testify, officials arrested Smith.

"None of this is coincident (sic). So I started writing everyone that I felt could shine light on this matter and then about 10 days later I was moved here. June 27, 2016. My named (sic) was changed and no one knew anything," Butler wrote more than five months later. "Trust me none of this is coincident (sic)."

Butler also indicated officials had withheld several letters written to him in the past month.

Much of the investigation of Smith's office surrounds a bribery scheme carried out between 2013 to 2016 by Johnson, who pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy in connection with the scheme.

A Hinds County grand jury indicted a co-conspirator, Robert Henderson, who worked on Smith's campaign for district attorney, in August. Henderson is accused of offering Johnson a bribe to dismiss the criminal cases of three defendants while Johnson was working as a confidential informant for the FBI in June.

What remains unknown is how a 3-year-old bribery scheme in the district attorney's office turned into charges against Smith for a much less serious crime of aiding a defendant — a defendant seemingly unconnected to the rest of the web of characters.

"You ask do I know Robert Henderson or Ivon Johnson. I do not know either of them," Butler wrote. "And like I've said before, I do not know Robert Smith either. How is it that a man is being prosecuted for alleged (sic) hindering prosecution against or for me and I've never testified to that."

State attorneys indicated in the last hearing that they would not be calling Butler as a witness; however, Smith said testimony from Butler is needed for his defense. On Nov. 11, Senior Status Judge Larry Roberts signed an order requiring the attorney general's office to produce Butler as a witness at trial.

Smith is accused of visiting Butler in jail, which shows Smith's involvement in Butler's defense, the state claims.

"Mr. Smith and my attorney at the time Sanford Knox (Knott) arranged a short meeting with me in April so he could give me an afvidavit (sic) to fill out with my story for a grand jury. The meeting lasted about 3 min. He told me he would be back in a few hours to come pick it up and He did just that. He brung (sic) a notory (sic) republic (sic) so it could be signed and notirized (sic)."

The trial in Smith's case is set to begin Dec. 19, and the legal proceedings should determine whether Smith's actions constituted a crime.

Contact Anna Wolfe at 601-961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.