Last Monday at the regular board of supervisors meeting District Three Supervisor and President of the Board Carl McGee asked Chief Billy Barber about an investigation his department conducted involving an accident in a parking lot on US 82.
Barber said the accident involved a county truck running into a light pole base in The Way Church parking lot, and the truck was assigned to District Four Supervisor Mala Brooks.
The accident took place on Sept. 21, and wasn’t reported until several days later, Barber said.
Brooks immediately said she reported the accident the next day.
Well, the next day, Barber said. “I asked the deputy where it happened, and he said the parking lot of the Way Church, So I asked why it wasn’t reported to the Greenville Police Department.”
Barber explained if a sheriff’s vehicle was involved in an accident inside the city limits that GPD would work the accident.
Barber said his Deputy made the report anyway.
“The deputy went out and took pictures of the pole that was damaged,” Barber said. “And he said he tried to do a follow-up but couldn’t make contact with Ms. Brooks, he tried to contact you by phone...”
Brooks interrupted Barber wanting to know who tried to contact her.
“Seargent Young tried to contact you by phone, and he even went by your residence but no contact was made,” Barber said. “Then he wrote on his report that there was nothing else he could do.”
Barber said he was told the state of Mississippi governs the board of supervisors, so he thought the state of Mississippi should be investigating this instead of his office
“Because if an officer were involved in something like this, of this magnitude it would be leaving the scene of an accident,” Barber said. “Also if they didn’t report it the day of, then we would take disciplinary action and we would suspend them.”
Barber said he didn’t know how the board was planning on handling the incident but he wanted them to know how he would handle it if it had happened in his department.
McGee asked Brooks if she had anything to add to what Chief Barber said.
“Well, first, I did not know I was under investigation,” Brooks said.
Barber explained that she was not under investigation, but instead, the deputy was investigating the accident for the report.
“For Clarity, I called the County Administrator immediately and she advised me to contact the sheriff’s deputy,” Brooks said. “So that’s why I called the Sheriff’s deputy because the County Administrator advised me.”
Brooks said the first deputy she called was off duty and gave her the number of another deputy, who she made contact with the next day.
District One Supervisor and Vice President of the Board Lee Gordon said that there were procedures that needed to be done and he agreed with Barber about the Mississippi Highway possibly handling the investigation.
“They’ve already done an investigation on me,” Brooks said. “But we can do a second one if you like.”
Sheriff Milton Gaston said he wanted to make it clear that his office was not investigating Brooks, that his office received a call on Sept 23, two days after the accident occurred, and that a deputy was sent out to investigate the accident in the parking lot.
“First of all the report should have gone to the Sheriff’s Department and not a deputy, it should have been handled that way, but it was called in on the 23rd and we sent a deputy out to do the report,” Gaston said. “They weren’t investigating you, it was the vehicle that you were driving that was being looked at for the report, the only way to make a report is to ask questions.”
Brook said she was displeased because an investigator told members of the Way Church that she was being investigated because she failed to report the accident, which was not true she said because the church member was right there when she called the County Administrator who told her to contact a sheriff’s deputy.
Chelesa Carter, the County administrator said she told Brooks to contact the sheriff’s Department.
McGee said the Sheriff’s Department wasn’t contacted until Monday.
“No, no that’s not right, Brooks said. “If you’re going to tell it, tell it right.”
Brooks again said she called a sheriff’s deputy the day of the accident but he was off duty but gave her the number for another deputy.
“If anyone has an accident in a county vehicle they must report to the Sheriff’s Department, and not an individual,” McGee said. “And leaving the scene of an accident is a major…”
Brooks interrupted McGee to say she didn’t leave the scene.
Brooks said McGee had let a county employee use his truck and they had an accident, but the board’s attorney was called instead of the sheriff’s Department.
“None of that was reported,” Brooks said. “So I know this is an attack on me.”
McGee again said Brooks left the scene of an accident, only to be interrupted by Brooks again.
McGee said that they had gotten to the bottom of what had happened and told Brooks her truck was repaired and ready for her to pick up, so she needed to relinquish the replacement truck back to the county.
Brooks said the truck she currently has is better than the other truck, and suggested she might keep driving it for a while.
McGee tried to explain that she’s not authorized to drive that truck and isn’t insured in it which puts the county at risk.
“You don’t tell me what to do, I’m going to keep driving it until I go and pick the car up,” Brooks said. “What are you going to do, take it from me?”
Willie Griffin, the board’s attorney, said that was for the board to decide, but he wanted to make it clear that no county employee had ever called him about an accident.
Brooks disagreed, but wouldn’t elaborate on any details.
McGee said county employees can go in and out of vehicles, but Brooks was a policymaker and can only use the vehicle assigned to her.
Brooks said she’d like to see the statute because she thought it was just something McGee was making up.
Again McGee said Brooks was not insured for the truck she’s driving and that puts the county at risk.
Brooks said she’d return the truck eventually,
Gordon asked about the repair costs and an insurance claim.
McGee said they did the repairs in-house, not to hide anything, but to not have to make an insurance claim.
No action was taken by the board.
