The Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to appoint an interim county prosecuting attorney and an interim justice court judge in the 1st Judicial District, further ordering that special elections for both be held in conjunction with the Nov. 5 presidential election.
On a motion by District 1 Supervisor Kenneth Havens and a second by District 3 Supervisor Larry Cole, the board voted 5-0 to select Lance Dahl Tennyson, 34, as interim county prosecuting attorney.
Tennyson had served as justice judge in the 1st Judicial District at Charleston since January after winning the post in the 2023 elections following the retirement of longtime judge Steve Ross.
Cole made the motion, and Havens the second, to put forth the name of Shannon van der Poel, 34, for interim justice judge in the 1st District. She was appointed on a 3-1-1 vote. Cole, Havens and District 2 Supervisor Johnny Goodwin voted yes, District 5 Supervisor Eddie Meeks voted no and District 4 Supervisor Marcus Echols abstained.
Van der Poel served as a clerk under Ross and had continued in that position under Tennyson, against whom she waged an unsuccessful campaign to succeed Ross in the 2023 Democratic Primary.
Attorney yields post
The interim appointments come on the heels of July 26 board action to declare the position of Tallahatchie County prosecuting attorney vacant.
Carol Jones Turner, now Carol Turner Felty, 48, who had served two terms as county prosecutor and ran unopposed last year to win a third term starting in January, placed her license to practice law on inactive status with The Mississippi Bar effective June 27.
To serve as county prosecuting attorney, a lawyer must be an active-status licensed, practicing attorney in good standing with The Mississippi Bar.
In a typed, one-page letter to The Sun-Sentinel Monday, Felty noted that it was with a “heavy heart” that she made the decision to go on inactive status, thereby forfeiting her legal qualification to serve as county attorney.
Qualifying to begin
In the wake of the interim appointments, supervisors ordered that qualifying for the Nov. 5 special elections for prosecuting attorney and justice judge may get underway now, setting a Sept. 5 deadline for prospective qualifiers.
Tallahatchie County Circuit Clerk Daphane Neal said Friday morning that her office has received the order for the special elections, so the qualifying period is open.
Qualifying papers are available at Neal’s offices in Charleston and Sumner. For more information, contact the Charleston office at 662-647-8758 or the Sumner office at 662-375-8515.
The winners of these special elections will serve out the remaining three-plus years of the unexpired regular terms of both positions.
More special voting
Two other special elections already were scheduled in Tallahatchie County this year and also will be held on general Election Day: for constable in the 2nd Judicial District and for a West Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees post in Education District 3.
The qualifying period for those seats opened on July 1 and will close Sept. 5.
As of Tuesday, Neal said no one had qualified for the constable or Education District 3 positions.
The special election for 2nd District constable will seek to determine who will serve out the remaining three-plus years of the unexpired term of late longtime Constable Clifton H. Bailey.
Mr. Bailey died Jan. 27 of end-stage renal disease after serving just shy of 28 years as Tallahatchie County constable in the 2nd Judicial District. He was reelected last year to a new four-year term that began on Jan. 1 this year.
In February, the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors appointed Mr. Bailey’s wife, Sharon E. Jackson-Bailey — who already held a school board seat in the WTSD — to fill her late husband’s vacant post on an interim basis pending November’s special election.
One-term Education District 3 school trustee Edith Gipson did not seek reelection last fall, and no one else qualified for her seat on the West Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees.
The school board chose not to appoint anyone to fill the ED 3 position when it became vacant in January at the end of Gipson’s term.
On June 11, the WTSD Board of Trustees voted to request that a special election for the vacant ED 3 post be conducted on Nov. 5.
Other school posts
Adding to the logjam of potential qualifiers over the next month, not to mention possible confusion on the part of voters and candidates alike, is the fact that regularly scheduled elections for two other school board seats will also be held on Nov. 5.
The qualifying period for the Education District 4 seat on the West Tallahatchie school board, now held by Sharon E. Jackson-Bailey, and the Education District 9 seat on the East Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees, now held by Darrell W. Neal, opened Wednesday, Aug. 7, and closes Sept. 6 — a day after the qualifying deadline for special elections.
Members of the East and West Tallahatchie school districts’ five-member boards of trustees serve staggered five-year terms, with one seat in each district coming up for election every fall.
Although there is no qualifying fee for school board, candidates must file a Qualifying Statement of Intent and submit a petition signed by not fewer than 50 registered voters who live within their respective education district.
Properly formatted petition forms are available from the circuit clerk’s offices.
In this cutout from a group photo, Carol Turner is pictured at the swearing-in of Tallahatchie County officials on Jan. 2, 2024. (Sun-Sentinel file photo by Clay McFerrin / Copyright 2024 Emmerich Newspapers Inc.)
Carol Turner Felty
In her letter to the newspaper, Felty said she closed her law office in December 2022 and placed her license on inactive status this year due to “tremendous medical issues” that resulted from her having become a target of “defamation, harassment and bullying” after she reported “alleged criminal activity” to the federal government involving a contractor and county employees.
Felty also said family members had made “numerous false reports to law enforcement, child protective services and the Mississippi Bar against me, and made false reports against my husband” as a result of a family dispute over probating the last will and testament of her father, who died in January 2023.
“I want to thank all of my supporters, who voted me into this position three times, and but for the ongoing harassment, I would have continued working because I loved my job,” wrote Felty.
Late longtime Tallahatchie County prosecuting attorney Joe Lee Tennyson, the grandfather of newly appointed county prosecuting attorney Lance Tennyson, is pictured in this photo submitted to The Sun-Sentinel in August 2006.
A Tennyson tradition
Having been appointed interim county prosecuting attorney, Lance Tennyson follows in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather, longtime Charleston attorney Joe Lee Tennyson, who died in 2006 at the age of 71.
Lance began his law practice in his late grandfather’s office building.
Mr. Tennyson was a jurist for more than 40 years, including, like Lance, a stint as city of Charleston prosecuting attorney.
Unlike his grandson, the elder Mr. Tennyson was never a justice judge, but he served nearly 25 years as Tallahatchie County prosecuting attorney — from his Sept. 11, 1981, appointment by the Board of Supervisors following the death of incumbent Donald Whitten, until his own death on Aug. 8, 2006.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:05 a.m. on Aug. 9 to include the fact that the circuit clerk's office received that morning, the special elections order for county prosecuting attorney and justice judge in the 1st Judicial District.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:48 p.m. on Aug. 13 to correct who made the motion and second for the appointments of Lance Tennyson and Shannon van der Poel. District 1 Supervisor Kenneth Havens made the motion, and District 3 Supervisor Larry Cole the second, to appoint Tennyson interim justice court judge. Cole made the motion, and Havens the second, to appoint van der Poel justice court judge. Initially, it was stated that Cole made the motion, and Havens the second, for Tennyson.
