Hinds County DA Jody Owens accepted at least $115,000 in cash bribes and facilitated payments to Jackson officials

Between October 2023 and May 2024, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens orchestrated a bribery scheme in Jackson, Mississippi, accepting at least $115,000 in cash from two undercover FBI agents who posed as real estate developers seeking official support for a hotel project near the Jackson Convention Complex. Prosecutors said Owens facilitated more than $80,000 in bribe payments to city officials, including $50,000 directed to then-Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba's reelection campaign.

Owens was federally indicted and arraigned on November 7, 2024, appearing at the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in Jackson. As a sitting elected prosecutor, Owens held the county's charging authority over public-corruption and other crimes even as he solicited and accepted the payments. Co-defendants former Mayor Lumumba and former City Councilman Aaron Banks initially maintained not-guilty pleas; both later pleaded guilty (see Updates below).

Updates

2026-06-29 — Owens pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge and resigned as district attorney [2, 3]

Owens pleaded guilty to one federal conspiracy count on June 29, 2026, two weeks before his scheduled trial, and resigned as Hinds County District Attorney effective July 1, 2026. He faced up to five years in prison, with sentencing set for October 15, 2026.

2026-07-06 — Lumumba and Banks pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges [4, 5]

Former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and former City Councilman Aaron Banks each pleaded guilty on July 6, 2026, to one count of conspiracy in the same bribery scheme, reversing prior not-guilty pleas days before their scheduled trial. Prosecutors said Lumumba accepted $50,000 from undercover FBI agents posing as real-estate developers, disguised as five $10,000 campaign-contribution checks, in exchange for helping the agents gain an advantage on a Jackson construction project his administration wanted. Sentencing for Lumumba, Banks, and Owens is set for October 15, 2026; each defendant faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.