The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Feb. 7 issued an order upholding a lower court ruling denying expungement of a former local lawman's criminal record.
Charles Edward Mack had sought to erase evidence of his August 2000 conviction on a charge of furnishing contraband, $40 in cash, to an inmate at the Tallahatchie County Jail in Sumner.
Mack was a part-time police officer in Tutwiler, and a full-time policeman in Oakland, at the time of the September 1999 crime of which he was indicted and to which he ultimately pleaded guilty.
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The $40 in cash was allegedly offered to the inmate for "a sexual favor," a charge for which Mack also was indicted. However, that second count, for attempted unnatural intercourse, was remanded to the court file.
In January 2020, Mack filed a petition to expunge his 2000 conviction.
In August 2021, Circuit Judge Gerald W. Chatham Sr., presiding in Tallahatchie County Circuit Court for the 2nd Judicial District, denied Mack's petition. The court said the crime was not eligible for expungement because state law specifically bars a "public official ... for expunction ... for any conviction related to his official duties."
Mack appealed Chatham's decision and the matter was sent to the appellate court for a ruling.
