Accusations of vote buying, with alleged compensation ranging from a $2,900 culvert to new shoes and clothes, were disputed under oath by the alleged beneficiaries in the Greenwood mayoral challenge Thursday.
In the June 4, 2013, contest, Mayor Carolyn McAdams, an independent, defeated Democrat Sheriel Perkins by 206 votes. Perkins has claimed there were irregularities in the voting, and the challenge is before a 12-person jury.
McAdams is represented by Jackson attorneys Mark Garriga, Lem Montgomery III and Kat Carrington of the firm of Butler Snow. Perkins is represented by her husband, Greenwood attorney Willie Perkins.
Walter Hunter and Andre Williams, who Perkins claims engaged in vote fraud, took the stand Thursday.
Hunter, who lives at 501 Wagner St., denied under questioning by Willie Perkins that a $2,900 drainage culvert was placed by the city near his home around the time of the 2013 election in exchange for his vote.
Rather, he testified that flooding was a frequent occurrence before the culvert was installed. “Just about every time it rains, it floods,” he said.
Also, he said the culvert was not installed on his property.
After the election, Hunter said, “David Pitts called me and asked me if I would help a person out. I had no idea it was you,” referring to Willie Perkins. “I’m always helping people. I told him ‘yeah,’ so you showed up. You showed up and wanted to talk about the ditch.”
At that point, Willie Perkins requested that Hunter be treated as a hostile witness.
Willie Perkins said he talked to Hunter in November 2014. He tried to talk to him again in December 2014, but Hunter refused to meet with him.
“When you refused to talk to me in December, had you talked to anyone else about the culverts at your house or near your property?” Willie Perkins asked.
“No, sir,” Hunter replied.
“Where those culverts on your property?” Willie Perkins asked.
“No, sir,” Hunter said.
Attorneys for McAdams also looked at the site of the former ditch later, Hunter said.
“Well, how do you know they were lawyers?” Perkins asked.
“Because they are lawyers. I knew they were looking at the ditch,” Hunter replied.
Hunter maintained he never talked to McAdams’ legal team but said he became concerned when rumors began circulating.
“I knew around town the case was already out about what was going on about that ditch. I didn’t want to be involved,” he said, adding that he didn’t want anyone to say he “took a bribe or something.”
When asked if Hunter had a Sheriel Perkins sign in his yard, Hunter replied he had signs from both campaigns there.
He declined to say how he voted, saying, “My vote is private. My vote is supposed to be private. I don’t know who said I voted for McAdams.”
Williams said he was a campaign worker for McAdams in 2013, as was his mother, Nicole Williams, at the Ward 4 Fire Station on Main Street. For his work, he said, he was paid a $100 check from the campaign.
Willie Perkins asked Williams if people claimed that McAdams bought him shoes and clothes and paid his mother’s electric bill in exchange for his vote.
Williams called that claim “a lie.”
Regarding a woman working for Perkins on Election Day in Ward 4, Willie Perkins asked, “Did you have a discussion about why you should or should not vote in support of Ms. McAdams?”
“No, sir,” Williams said.
“Did you not tell them that you were voting for McAdams because ‘she bought me shoes and clothes and paid my mama’s bills’?” Willie Perkins asked.
“I didn’t tell her that; no, sir,” Williams said.
In response to a cellphone video taken on election day by Latoya Rose, Williams said he told Rose it was Sheriel Perkins who “told me and my mama that she was going to take care of me and my brother.”
Rose “started the video in the middle of the conversation,” he said.
“The lady asked me, “Why did you vote for Mrs. McAdams?’ I said, ‘Because I have my own right to vote for who I want to vote for,’” he said. “Just because you have something against white people doesn’t mean I have something against them. I have nothing with back then. I’m living in the now.”
Williams said he met with McAdams’ legal team at The Alluvian on Wednesday.
Rose, who came to Ward 4 to deliver food to her sister-in-law, testified she saw Williams campaigning for McAdams. She said that Williams claimed at the time that McAdams bought him shoes and clothes and paid his mother’s electric and grocery bills.
When asked by Willie Perkins why she began to video Williams talking, she replied, “Because I didn’t feel that it was right — what was going on.”
Rose said Williams boasted of the gifts before she began recording him.
However, when asked by Montgomery if someone offered anything in exchange for Williams’ vote, Rose replied, “No.”
McAdams was questioned about the culvert on Wagner Street near Hunter’s home and the city’s procedure about installing culverts.
She said some residents call her office asking about culverts and others contact the city Department of Public Works.
McAdams said culverts are placed on city easements and usually not on private property. If a homeowner wants a culvert placed on his or her property, the homeowner must pay the city for the cost of the culvert. McAdams said the city does not maintain a file on requests for culverts.
She said the culvert on Wagner was added in response to heavy flooding in January 2013. An unidentified man had run off into the ditch near Hunter’s home and was upset because his truck was stuck in the deep ditch, she said.
McAdams said Hunter never contacted her about the ditch. She said she did meet him while campaigning door to door in 2009 but denied she arranged for the culvert in exchange for a vote.
Greenwood Public Works Director Susan Bailey testified about the culvert placed along Wagner Street, saying that McAdams had requested she look at the site in May 2013.
She said the culvert — consisting of six 20-foot sections — was installed on the city easement and not Hunter’s property. Work was begun on June 3, 2013, and completed two days later, she said.
Also Thursday, Willie Perkins asked Ward 2 resident David Lee Ouzts about his residency status. Ouzts’ homestead exemption expired in 2012.
Ouzts said the homestead exemption on his home at 1308 Myrtle St. lapsed following his divorce. He now lives at 310 W. Adams Ave. and has since August 2013. Both residences are in Ward 2.
When asked by Willie Perkins if he remembered voting in the 2013 mayoral race, Ouzts replied, “I don’t know. Check my signature in the book.”
Jamilah Perkins, daughter of Willie and Sheriel Perkins, said she monitored the hourly vote counts at the Perkins campaign headquarters.
Garriga asked if the tally sheets had any notations about chaos at Wards 1 and 2 from 7 to 9 a.m. on Election Day. She replied they did not.
Willie Perkins asked on re-direct if the poll watchers reported problems over the phone.
“There was something about confusion with the boxes between Ward 1 and Ward 2 during those two hours,” she said.
Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill began testifying about rejected affidavit ballots, but Garriga objected to his testimony when it was determined that he had not personally verified all the ballots.
Garriga said the McAdams team vote count differs from that of Stockstill’s office.
Special appointed Judge Henry Lackey, who is presiding over the trial, ruled that Stockstill could not testify on ballots that he did not personally examine.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
