The Mississippi Supreme Court will decide whether Curressia Brown’s name will be on Greenwood’s June 2 general election mayoral ballot.
“I am going to see this all the way through,” Brown said. “It’s not an option for me. It’s an obligation I have to this city.”
Brown was disqualified a month ago from running for mayor by the Greenwood Election Commission for allegedly failing to meet residency requirements. The decision was upheld last week by specially appointed Circuit Court Judge Andrew Howorth of Oxford.
Howorth agreed that Brown’s permanent residence is at 103 Eagle St., outside the city limits of Greenwood.
Brown, though, claims to have established residency at 201 W. President Avenue, which is inside the city limits, in early February.
Jackson attorney John Reeves, who is representing Brown, confirmed Saturday afternoon that an appeal will be filed Monday with the state Supreme Court.
“We’re going to put the facts out there and encourage the state Supreme Court to put her on the ballot,” Reeves said. “All Mrs. Brown is trying to do is give the voters of Greenwood a choice.”
Reeves expects a decision to be handed down within days of filing the appeal. Because the case involves an election matter, the attorney said, “it takes precedence over all other matters, by law.”
Incumbent Mayor Sheriel Perkins, a Democrat, is slated at this point to face only one challenger in the general election — independent Carolyn McAdams.
Brown, a 42-year-old Mississippi Valley State University professor, qualified on Jan. 30 as an independent candidate for mayor. On her qualifying papers, she initially listed an apartment on Johnson Street as her address, but on Feb. 5 changed her home address to 201 W. President — the Shamrock Apartments.
Roughly one month later, Perkins successfully petitioned the Greenwood Election Commission to disqualify Brown. Perkins claimed that Brown’s “domicile or true fixed and permanent home is 103 Eagle St. in Leflore County.”
At Tuesday’s appeal hearing inside the Leflore County Courthouse, Brown admitted to having lived on Eagle Street since 2002 but said she moved to the West President address on Feb. 5. Though her husband and three children still live on Eagle Street, Brown said, the family plans to join her in the city in the near future.
Reeves argued at the hearing that Brown is registered to vote on West President Avenue, has her driver’s license there, has utilities in her name there and has registered her car tag there.
Perkins was represented in court by her husband, Greenwood attorney Willie Perkins, who is also a state representative.
Perkins told the court that Brown was “pretending to be in an apartment in Greenwood just to get into this election.” He introduced utility bills of Brown’s that showed the apartment on West President was charged the minimum amount in February and March before rising slightly in April.
Howorth, while claiming the case was “an extremely close call,” sided with Perkins.
“I’m of the opinion … that Mrs. Brown should be disqualified as a candidate because the court finds she is not a bona fide resident of Greenwood,” Howorth said.
In the days following the lower court’s decision, Brown said she was inundated with support n both through phone calls she received and from people she saw in the community.
“And they all said the same thing, ‘You’ve got to keep fighting,’” she said.
Throughout the residency issues, Brown said she has remained committed to leading Greenwood.
“This should not be about where I lay my head at night,” she said. “It should be about fiscal responsibility and accountability in government.”
