The scheduled release of a former Mississippi State football player from prison this week has local prosecutors voicing renewed concerns about the inadequacies of the state's correctional system. Dontay Walker, 29, is scheduled to be released from a Mississippi Department of Corrections facility on Tuesday after serving four years of a 25-year sentence for his 2005 conviction on charges of possession of more than an ounce of marijuana and possession of more than an ounce of crack cocaine. Walker, according to a letter sent by fax from MDOC officials to Judge Jim Kitchens, the District Attorney's Office and Starkville and Oktibbeha County authorities, will be placed under house arrest. The decision has prosecutors in the District Attorney's Office unhappy. [continues 543 words]
With a new school year now in full swing, the Starkville Police Department is "D.A.R.E-ing" local sixth grade students to resist using illegal drugs and succumbing to peer pressure. The Police Department's D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program will kick off another year of weekly programs with sixth grade students at Henderson Intermediate School and Starkville Academy in another week, said Officer Sammy Shumaker, the program's coordinator. "It's all about teaching kids to resist using drugs and other harmful substances," Shumaker said. "That's the mission." [continues 323 words]
Local law enforcement officers are conducting a new series of random roadblocks as part of an ongoing crackdown on illegal narcotics trafficking in Starkville and Oktibbeha County. The crackdown, which began in mid-February, has resulted in nearly 200 arrests of suspects in various drug-related crimes by officers with the Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Department, the Starkville Police Department, the Tri-County Narcotics Task Force, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the Mississippi Highway Patrol. [continues 593 words]
Oktibbeha County's newest narcotics enforcement officer does not carry a gun or work undercover, but, in less than a week on a job, has already proven his effectiveness. At two years old, this officer does wear a specially-made badge on his collar to indicate his status in law enforcement. But despite his age, Chocolate the drug dog will be an effective tool for local law enforcement agencies in curtailing narcotics trafficking in the area. A chocolate-brown Labrador retriever owned by Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Carrithers, Chocolate was trained as a narcotics detection dog by Russell Gaines, commander of the Tri-County Narcotics Task Force, over a five-to six-week period. [continues 399 words]
Local authorities arrested two suspects on drug trafficking charges and are seeking a third in what they have deemed as the beginning of a major county-wide crackdown on illegal narcotics. In a joint operation Tuesday night, Oktibbeha County sheriff's deputies, working with Starkville police officers, Tri-County Narcotics Task Force Agents and Mississippi Department of Corrections officers, arrested Sharon Jordan, 20, of 309 Santa Anita Drive, and Leonard "Cuz" Young, 51, of 3335 Peppermill Drive, on individual charges of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute and conspiracy to sell crack cocaine. [continues 387 words]
