Jackson mayor and 2 guards acquitted

The mayor of Mississippi’s largest city and two police bodyguards were acquitted Thursday of malicious mischief and conspiracy charges stemming from their demolition of a duplex that the mayor believed was a drug house.

Mayor Frank Melton, 57, would have had to resign if convicted of any of the four felony counts, and he could have faced jail time. Melton, who appeared fatigued by the end of the four-day trial, brushed past well-wishers and reporters without comment as he left the courthouse. Many people were dancing in the streets.

One teen held up a sign that read, “Fight Frank fight.”

Melton climbed into his black Chrysler 300 and was driven away with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing.

The first-term mayor was elected in a landslide in 2005 on promises to root out the crime that has been blamed for suburban flight and an evaporating tax base in Mississippi’s capital.

But it wasn’t long before his unorthodox tactics, including carrying guns and cruising the inner city in the Police Department’s mobile command center, landed him in the sights of the district attorney’s office.

Melton and detectives Michael Recio and Marcus Wright were each charged with malicious mischief and two counts of conspiracy after using sledgehammers and sticks in August to wreck a duplex they considered a blight on the community.

Prosecutors said the defendants had no reason to break windows and tear down walls in the rented home of Evans Welch, a diagnosed schizophrenic with a history of drug use who is currently incarcerated in an unrelated stabbing.

The defense acknowledged the home was damaged but told jurors no malice was involved, so an element needed for conviction was missing.

Dist. Atty. Faye Peterson said the jury made an “unfortunate decision.”