NORTH CARROLLTON - Questions about the recent death of Debbie Loggins in the back of a Carroll County Sheriffs Department patrol car has many residents here seeking answers.
And, authorities have remained mum.
Now, a group calling itself the Committee for Equal Justice has formed and plans a meeting for 6 p.m. Sunday at the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ about a half mile south of the intersection of Mississippi 17 and U.S. 82 in Carroll County.
The group wants to know specifically how Loggins died. Authorities have declined to talk about the cause of death, although autopsy and toxicology reports are back and in the hands of District Attorney Doug Evans.
Delores Lewis, public affairs coordinator for the Mississippi Highway Patrol, said Wednesday that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, a branch of the patrol, had turned over all of its evidence to the district attorney. Lewis declined to be specific about the investigation. Attempts to reach Evans by telephone Wednesday and today were unsuccessful.
The family hasn't received a copy of the autopsy and toxicology results, said Stephanie Tidwell, Loggins' cousin. They had expected some information shortly after Loggins' death on Sept. 17.
Loggins, 33, was arrested in the early morning of Sept. 17 and was cuffed hands to feet in the back of a patrol car while being driven from the sheriff's office in Carrollton to jail in Grenada, where she was discovered unconscious, or dead, in the patrol car.
A member of the Committee for Equal Justice informed the Commonwealth today of the meeting but declined to be publicly identified for fear of retribution from the Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Don Gray said, "They have no reason to be afraid of the Sheriff's Department."
Gray has seen the results of the toxicology tests and said he was told the autopsy findings.The sheriff maintains his office will be cleared in the death of the 33-year-old mother of five.
Three Carroll sheriff's deputies are involved in the case: Chief Deputy Michael Spellman and Deputies Charles Jones and David Mims. Jones transported Loggins from the sheriff's office in Carrollton to Grenada. Spellman and Mims arrested Loggins, intending to charge Loggins with assault upon a law officer and disturbing the peace. She was involved in a fight with another woman, who was not charged.
