Mississippi mayor, 2 body guards indicted

JACKSON, Miss., July 9 (UPI) -- The mayor of Jackson, Miss., and his two police bodyguards have been indicted for allegedly destroying a reputed drug house, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday.

Mayor Frank E. Melton and Jackson Police Officers Michael Recio and Marcus Wright were named in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Jackson that accuses them of violating the home owner's civil rights, Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said. The three men also are charged with using a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.

The trio, who were acquitted by a Hinds County jury last year on charges stemming from the demolition of Evans Welch's residence, allegedly invited several young men into the city's mobile command unit and drove them to the duplex, the Jackson Free Press reported. Wright then allegedly ordered the occupants outside at gunpoint.

Melton then allegedly broke several windows of the home with a large stick and ordered the young men accompanying him to destroy the residence using sledgehammers while Wright and Recio stood guard.

The defendants and the young men then left for a short time, only to return and again set about damaging the house, prosecutors allege.