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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 scheme in which he accepted at least $115,000 in cash from two undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers seeking support for a Jackson hotel project, and facilitated more than $80,000 in bribes to city officials, including $50,000 to then-Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba's reelection campaign. Owens was federally indicted and arraigned on November 7, 2024. He later pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge and resigned as district attorney.

Jurisdiction
local
Location
Jackson, Mississippi

Abuses documented

Actors

  • Jody Owens (Hinds County District Attorney)

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 maintained not-guilty pleas and are not named here as actors, because their guilt has not been established.

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.

Why we recorded this

Public office is a public trust, and prosecutors in particular are entrusted with impartial enforcement of the law. Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens used his office to solicit and accept at least $115,000 in bribes and to funnel payments to other Jackson officials, converting the authority he held to serve the public into a vehicle for private gain. This archive records when officials trade public power for personal enrichment, eroding the integrity on which democratic governance depends.

Sources

  1. United States v. Lumumba, Owens, and Banks — Indictment — U.S. District Court, S.D. Miss. (via DocumentCloud) primary accessed July 3, 2026
  2. Hinds County DA Jody Owens Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy Charge in Jackson Bribery Case, Resigns — Mississippi Free Press secondary accessed July 3, 2026
  3. Hinds County DA Jody Owens pleads guilty to conspiracy charge — Mississippi Today investigative accessed July 3, 2026

See also