Lexington alderman guilty of harassing and stalking city clerk
By Leonardo Bevilacqua | Originally published by Mississippi Today
A Lexington alderman allegedly bullied and harassed Deputy Clerk Brenda Powell to the point that she required anti-anxiety medication. She also accused him of recording video of her and stalking. She said tint was applied to a teller window near her desk at City Hall to deter future video recording.
Another city employee also accused Charles Earl Simmons, who was reelected last year, of simple assault. Yet another accused accused him of stalking. The incidents occurred earlier this year, court records show.
On Aug. 5, Justice Court Judge Abraham Gates found Simmons, who did not appear for the hearing, guilty in absentia of harassing, stalking and assaulting city employees. Court records indicate Simmons had proper notice of the hearing.
Gates ordered Simmons to pay $2,675 in fines and assessments. Gates also ordered Simmons to stay at least 100 feet away from Powell and to stop calling her unless for official city business.
Simmons’ alleged abusive behavior in the small community just outside the Mississippi Delta stretches back years, coinciding with several lawsuits and a Department of Justice probe into unfair policing practices and harassment by police officers.
Simmons’ harassment and stalking were “constant,” according to court records and testimony from Powell.
Simmons did not respond to a request for comment. Lexington Mayor Percy Washington declined to comment.
Lexington public officials’ abuse, particularly of Black residents, has been well documented in court records and a 2024 federal probe. The Justice Department investigated the Lexington Police Department and city government for subjecting Black residents to excessive force, unlawful searches, retaliatory arrests and detention without due process.
In 2022, the Lexington Board of Alderman voted to fire Police Chief Sam Dobbins, who is white and was at the center of the DOJ investigation, after an audio recording leaked of him using multiple racist and homophobic epithets and bragging about shooting a Black man 119 times.
Simmons, who is Black, voted to keep Dobbins as police chief. They were friends, according to a 2022 civil rights lawsuit filed by Lexington locals against police leadership and the city. The same lawsuit alleges Simmons requested that Lexington police officers harass his neighbors.
Simmons abused his position as an alderman to “retaliate against organizers who worked to correct LPD’s constitutional violations,” the lawsuit read.
Powell, the deputy clerk who filed a criminal charging affidavit against Simmons, said the harassment started in 2019. She accuses Simmons of making inappropriate sexual advances and vulgar comments about her appearance.
As a deputy clerk, Powell was in close proximity to Simmons, who was elected city alderman in 2021, and reelected last year. At city hall, she works from the front desk behind a teller window. The board room for aldermen meetings is adjacent to the clerk’s office in the same building.
Powell said the city eventually installed tint on the teller window because Simmons would linger in the foyer of the city clerk’s office with glasses that recorded video of her. Simmons would also make disparaging remarks toward other city employees until residents stopped by the clerk’s office to pay bills and fill out paperwork. Then he would leave.
Simmons would also yell for work orders and other documentation for city hall meetings at the teller window, and demand them “because I’m an alderman,” Powell recalled. He would sometimes call the office between three and five times per day, she said.
When she reported his actions to city officials in 2024, the mayor and Board of Aldermen restricted Simmon’s access to City Hall, Powell said. Simmons continued to stalk and bully her at work, Powell detailed in written testimony shared with Mississippi Today.
“I think the board has tried to do everything they could to keep him away, but he does what he wants to do,” Powell said.
Powell eventually filed an affidavit against Simmons because, she said, her other formal complaints were unsuccessful despite multiple witnesses including city officials.
On Dec. 2, 2022, Gates found Simmons guilty of stalking. Gates also dismissed two charges of aggravated assault and a charge of simple assault against Simmons that day.
Removing from office a local elected official found guilty of a serious crime requires state involvement. The attorney general’s office must submit a motion for removal to the local circuit court. The circuit court judge then orders them removed.
MS Code § 25-5-1
Jill Collen Jefferson, an activist and attorney, remembers hiring a security team after Simmons continued to harass an organizer she worked with. Simmons took photographs of cars outside the organizer’s home and stalked and harassed her, according to a 2022 civil rights lawsuit Lexington locals filed against police leadership and the city. Simmons also called the organizer’s employer to get her fired, the lawsuit alleged.
Bonita Streeter, who also organized on behalf of city police reforms, said Simmons tried to run her off the road with his pickup truck in 2022. She said she believes it was retaliation for advocating on behalf of victims of police harassment. She said she still tries to avoid him for her safety, but that’s difficult in a community of fewer than 1,500 people.
Removing from office a local elected official found guilty of a serious crime requires state involvement. The attorney general’s office must submit a motion for removal to the local circuit court. The circuit court judge then orders them removed. MS Code § 25-5-1
Simmons could have been punished for up to one year in the county jail for guilty verdicts on both stalking charges. Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office did not immediately respond to a question about whether her office is filing a motion to remove Simmons.
It was difficult for Powell to tell her husband about the harassment she endured at work.
“I had to go to him,” Powell said, “and I had to literally break down and cry and tell him some of the things I had been going through and some of the nasty things that were being said to me.”
Powell said she’s worried of retaliation or more aggressive harassment or bullying. She has asked colleagues to sit with her at the city clerk’s office for protection. Judge Gates mentioned that Simmons could appeal the verdict, Powell said.
“I have been flipping myself on the inside, too, worried about the next step that he’s going to take,” Powell said of Simmons. “No matter what they tell him to do or what restrictions he has, he doesn’t obey them.”
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
