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By Emily Wagster Pettus

The Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. 鈥� Bribery and conspiracy charges against the mayor are the latest shock to Mississippi鈥檚 capital, where a federally appointed official is running the聽water system聽after it nearly collapsed, and聽state police聽are patrolling parts of the majority-Black city because of white legislators鈥� concerns about crime.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and two other Democratic elected officials 鈥� Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Jackson City Council member Aaron B. Banks 鈥� pleaded not guilty to聽federal charges聽Thursday. They will remain free while awaiting trial in a case tied to the proposed development of a long-vacant downtown property.

鈥淚 am not guilty, and so I will not proceed as a guilty man,鈥� said the mayor, who is seeking a third term in 2025.

Lumumba is Black and has聽described himself as a 鈥渞adical鈥澛爓ho is 鈥渦ncomfortable with oppressive conditions.鈥� Both he and his sister, Rukia Lumumba, say they believe he is facing a political prosecution, even with the Justice Department still being led by a Democratic administration.

鈥淔irst Trump wins, now they are trying to indict my brother,鈥� Rukia Lumumba posted on Facebook. 鈥淎s Spike Lee says, WAKE UP! They come for the best of us because we are threatening their power.鈥�

Distrust of government runs deep in Jackson, from people who say the state has聽blocked efforts聽to help the city and those who say the city has stumbled in providing basic services.

City Council member Kenneth Stokes, a Democrat and a frequent critic of the mayor, said the indictments sharpen the skepticism.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e drinking dirty water,鈥� Stokes, who is Black, told media outlets. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 get your streets paved. You already lost trust.

鈥淒o not say you are running for office to help people when you鈥檙e trying to help yourself. If you鈥檙e going to help people, help people.鈥�

Jackson鈥檚 population peaked at about 203,000 in 1980, a decade after the integration of public schools, and has since fallen to around 143,700. More than 80 percent of residents are Black 鈥� the highest percentage聽of any major U.S. city 鈥� and about 25 percent live in poverty.

The city for years had water quality problems and understaffing at its two treatment plants.

A cold snap in early 2021聽froze some treatment equipment聽and left many people with low pressure or no running water at all. For weeks, thousands of people collected water in buckets from distribution sites so they could flush toilets and bathe, and the National Guard helped distribute drinking water.

Tens of thousands聽of people had little or no water聽for weeks in August and September 2022 after heavy rains exacerbated problems at one of the plants. The city had already been under a boil-water notice for a month because the state health department found cloudy water that could cause digestive problems. The federal government put an independent administrator in charge of the system in late 2022, over objections from the mayor and his political allies.

A conflict over law enforcement developed in 2023, when the majority-white and Republican-controlled Legislature voted to聽expand the territory of the Capitol Police, a division of the state Department of Public Safety. State officers previously patrolled around government buildings in downtown Jackson and now do so in a significantly bigger area.

People who protested the expansion said it would give white state officials disproportionate power in Jackson. Early this year Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Mayor Lumumba announced 鈥淥peration Unified鈥� 鈥� a federal, state and local effort to fight violent crime in the city.

Indictments were filed against the mayor, Owens and Banks after two people working for the FBI posed as real estate developers looking to build a hotel near the downtown convention center and provided payments, including $50,000 for the mayor鈥檚 reelection campaign, according to court documents.

Two others were previously caught up in the bribery investigation.

City Council member Angelique Lee, a Democrat, resigned in August and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges. Her sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Sherik Marve Smith 鈥� an insurance broker and a relative of Owens, according to court documents 鈥� on Oct. 17 waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge in the case. He agreed to forfeit $20,000, and his sentencing is set for Feb. 19, 2025.

In May,聽FBI agents raided Owens鈥� office聽and a downtown cigar bar he owns. Among the items found in the office was a lockbox made to look like a book labeled as the U.S. Constitution; inside was about $20,000 in cash, with about $9,900 of it with serial numbers confirming it was paid by the purported developers to Owens, according to the indictment.

Owens boasted to the purported developers about having influence over Jackson officials, saying he had 鈥渋nformation on all the city councilmen鈥� and could get votes approved, according to the indictment. It also said Owens told the purported developers that Mississippi politicians live off campaign contributions, that he knew how to 鈥渃lean鈥� outside money by putting it in an in-state bank and that he didn鈥檛 care about the source of the money.

Owens 鈥渇acilitated over $80,000 in bribe payments鈥� to Lumumba, Banks and Lee in exchange for their agreement to ensure approval of the multimillion-dollar downtown development, according to the indictment.

Outside the courthouse on Thursday, Banks declined to comment.

Owens called the FBI investigation flawed, adding: 鈥淲e think the truth has to come out, that cherry-picked statements of drunken, locker-room banter is not a crime.鈥�