Frank Melton, the flamboyant gun-toting mayor of Jackson, Miss., was indicted along with two police bodyguards Friday on numerous felony charges stemming from his controversial crime-fighting tactics.
Last year, Melton won a landslide election after running on a get-tough-on-crime platform. He now faces up to 68 years in jail if convicted of all of the charges, Hinds County Dist. Atty. Faye Peterson said.
Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood, whose office took part in the investigation, called on Melton to resign Friday in a televised news conference. He said he would offer Melton a plea deal if he left office.
"Maybe this is the point where the city of Jackson has kind of hit bottom, and we can move on from here," Hood said.
But Melton's attorney, Dale Danks Jr., said the mayor would not resign, and called the indictment "politically motivated," according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
Most of the charges arose from an Aug. 26 incident in which Melton, the two police officers and a group of young men in his entourage allegedly destroyed an inner-city duplex during a purported crime sweep, according to the indictment and a source close to the investigation. The source said some of the young men were suspected of using sledgehammers to destroy the property.
A state grand jury handed down indictments Friday against Melton and the two officers, Marcus Wright and Michael Recio, charging each of them with malicious mischief, house burglary, two counts of conspiracy and one count of directing or causing a felony to be committed by a minor.
Melton -- who was previously warned about carrying concealed weapons by the state attorney general's office -- was also charged with illegally carrying a concealed handgun into a local law school, a park and a church.
Since his first day in office, Melton -- a former TV executive who briefly headed the state narcotics bureau -- has polarized residents with his unorthodox take on crime fighting. He has personally led dozens of manhunts and drug searches with Jackson police officers.
In many cases, Melton has carried a pistol and traveled in an RV outfitted for SWAT team operations. He has also brought along poor young men, whom Melton says he has hired to help clean up impoverished neighborhoods.
Melton is the city's second black mayor, but his tactics have elicited criticism from civil rights groups that say he has unfairly targeted minorities and possibly violated due-process rights. Others have said his crime sweeps have gone beyond the bounds of his power as mayor, and urged him to focus on the more civilian-minded side of the job.
