Arguments were made before three Mississippi Supreme Court justices on Tuesday in the longstanding legal battle between former Greenwood mayor Sheriel Perkins and three-term mayor Carolyn McAdams, pushed through the courts over the last three years by Perkins’ husband of 40 years, state Rep. Willie Perkins.
Sheriel Perkins and McAdams were both present as their attorneys presented their cases to Justices Bill Waller Jr., Leslie King and James Maxwell.
At issue are alleged violations of voting procedure in the 2013 mayoral contest between Sheriel Perkins and McAdams and who should be required to pay attorneys’ fees for a portion of the litigation.
McAdams defeated Perkins by 206 votes.
Though Willie Perkins conceded that his case is partially moot, given that his wife cannot possibly serve a mayoral term that has already ended, he argued that the justices need to issue an advisory opinion around the case because of its importance to the public interest.
Specifically, he said that confusion and improper practices at two voting places in Wards 1 and 2 in Greenwood constituted willful wrongdoing on the part of election officials and resulted in votes that were illegally cast.
Poll books were switched between the two wards’ polling places, the American Legion Hut and the nearby former fire station on East Claiborne Avenue, and some voters signed in at one polling place and voted at another, according to witnesses who testified in the case. It is unclear whether anyone actually cast a ballot in the wrong polling place.
Those questionable votes, which overwhelmingly supported McAdams, wouldn’t have made a difference if they were legally cast. But Perkins argued that had they been thrown out, the results could have been different.
McAdams’ attorney Mark Garriga of Butler Snow in Jackson argued that state statutes regarding errors at the polls recognize the possibility of human error and that poll workers “did the best they could” in this case.
He said new voter registration laws passed by the state Legislature at its last session render some of the issues Perkins raised moot anyway, and justices would be writing an opinion on statutes that no longer exist.
Attorney Lem Montgomery, also of Butler Snow, argued that a previous court’s decision to award the cost of attorneys’ fees in favor of Perkins were ill-conceived and should be reversed.
Sheriel Perkins filed suit contesting the election procedure and results in 2014 and procedures ensued in Leflore County Circuit Court in 2015, overseen by Special Judge Henry Lackey.
McAdams’ attorneys moved for summary judgment, a motion that asks the court to rule on the sufficiency of evidence already presented, rather than go to jury trial. Lackey denied that motion and the court went to trial, though ultimately the jury was dismissed and a direct verdict dismissing the case was issued.
Perkins appealed that decision.
Lackey also ordered that McAdams was responsible for $6,500 in attorneys’ fees accrued by Perkins during the summary judgment, and that decision is being contested by McAdams’ lawyers, who asked justices to overturn the fee request.
At the end of the hearing, Justice Waller said he and his colleagues would review the record, briefs filed in the case and the arguments presented on Tuesday and would rule when the case reconvenes.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
The original version of this article misidentified the street at which the Wards 1 and 2 polling places are located.
