A raid at Morgan City Grocery on Friday led to the seizure of 11 illegal gaming machines and the arrest of the store’s owners, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Charles “Bo” Branch, 67, and his wife, Carolyn Branch, 62, were each jailed and charged with one count of illegal gaming operations and one count of possession of illegal gaming machines.
Investigators with the attorney general’s office served the Branches’ arrest warrants Monday morning. The docket at the Leflore County Sheriff’s Office shows the couple was booked into the jail at 10 a.m.
They were released on their own recognizance, though their bond initially was set at $2,000 apiece.
Carolyn Branch was back working behind the store’s counter Monday afternoon. She declined to comment when questioned by a reporter.
Some of the gaming machines were destroyed, and others were kept for evidentiary purposes, according to the attorney general’s office.
In a news release, Attorney General Jim Hood said, “An anonymous tip about illegal gaming led to an investigation which resulted in a search warrant regarding the Morgan City Grocery.”
Charles “Bo” Branch is a former Leflore County Justice Court judge. He resigned from that post in 1988, after being convicted of taking part in a scheme to buy stolen beef, coffee and turkey.
Branch was convicted in federal court in March 1988 of conspiracy and three counts of attempting to sell goods stolen in interstate commerce. At the time, he owned Bypass Wholesale Grocery on U.S. 82 and the store in Morgan City.
Though he said at the time that he did not know the goods n which included part of 40,000 pounds of beef bought from two convicted drug dealers n were stolen, Branch was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site, he was released in January 1991.
Hood’s office also announced Monday that three Holmes County residents were arrested on charges of illegal gaming.
Van Hester, 81, his wife, Mary Hester, 71, and their son, Eddie Hester, 43, were arrested and charged with one count of operating a gaming device without a license and one count of possession of a gaming device without a license.
The Hesters own The Village Restaurant in Holmes County, where the illegal gaming is alleged to have taken place.
All three were booked into the Holmes County Sheriff Department and released on their own recognizance. They could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Charlie Smith contributed to this article.
