A Life Ruined: The Corrupt Players of the Mississippi Senate Race | Jen Kuznicki

A Life Ruined: The Corrupt Players of the Mississippi Senate Race

By On July 8, 2014 · 19 Comments

The Republican Senatorial primary in Mississippi exhibited an over-the-top abuse of power, showing how the accumulation of one party political power corrupts the entire system.

Upon the death of Mark Mayfield, an attorney who had been arrested and charged with felony conspiracy for supposedly telling blogger Clayton Kelly how to access Rose Cochran’s room in a nursing home, I began to look into how that ridiculous incident had gotten so out-of-hand. During the primary, I watched as Bradley Dayspring, communications frat-boy of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), made such a big deal about the arrest of the men that investigators had linked to the photo of Rose Cochran.

It is typical of the NRSC to hammer distracting details of supposed scandals of the opponents of their incumbency protection racket, rather than allow a debate between the establishment Senators they back, and any challengers. So, I treated the arrest of these so-called conspirators as a distraction during the campaign, and didn’t pay much attention to what the phony frat-boy was tweeting at the time.

The death of Mark Mayfield changed all that.

After reading the charges, the bonds issued, the claims by the lead investigator, and the resulting fall-out of the over-the-top political theater from the courtroom in front of a world press, I’ve come to the conclusion that a good, kind, decent man died needlessly, and several factors perhaps contributed to the depressive state in which he took his own life.

First of all, the basic story of the Rose Cochran “break in.”

Clayton Kelly, wishing to establish his blog during the heated Mississippi Senate race, wanted to get a photograph of Senator Thad Cochran’s wife, to prove that she was bedridden while the Senator was gallivanting around the nation and world with a woman who had, at times, been passed off as his wife, his assistant, Kay Webber. If Kelly was able to show that Mr. Cochran was not true to his wife, it could be used as political fodder, and the photo was briefly used in a youtube offering on Kelly’s website. It was taken down very quickly, supposedly when Kelly heard through channels that McDaniel abhorred it, and wanted it off the internet. When Kelly was arrested and charged with a felony, his bond was set at $200,000 by Judge Dale Danks, an appointee of the mayor, Mary Hawkins Butler, a close personal friend of Senator Thad Cochran.

Clayton Kelly held no real ties to the McDaniel campaign, and Senator McDaniel thoroughly denounced the actions of Kelly, repeatedly.

Days later, three other men were arrested in connection with the supposed crime, a high school gym teacher, a former radio show host, and attorney Mark Mayfield. All three were charged with felony conspiracy. The gym teacher, Richard Sager, was also charged with tampering of evidence, and his bond was set the highest of all four, at $500,000. Mayfield’s bond was set at $250,000, and though his attorney claimed it was too high, paid it so Mr. Mayfield could be released.  The bonds were set by Judge Dale Danks who, just to give you an idea of the corruption of politics this case reeks of, had earlier this year, set a bond of $50,000 for each of four counts of sexual battery and gratification of lust for a man who allegedly forced himself on a girl under 16. The former radio host, John Mary, was not arrested because of health problems.  A week later, both Kelly and Sager’s bond was reduced to $75,000 and $50,000 respectively, after the press had a field day with the outlandish news, that a group of “tea-party” McDaniel supporters committed felonies.

Kelly’s lawyer had argued that the charge didn’t fit the crime, and that taking the photo was at the most, a misdemeanor since Kelly made no money on it, the threshold being at least $250, and that there was no lascivious lewd intent.  But, the police investigator, , argued with the attorney, and testified that she believe the photo was “indecent” since the bedridden Rose Cochran was in bed clothes and the monetary amount of the photo was “priceless.”  Because of that ridiculous argument, the felony charges stood, and Mr. Mayfield would be tied to Mr. Kelly, and would be batted around by the NRSC’s Dayspring as if he were a criminal.  The following are tweets either tweeted by, or retweeted by, Bradley Dayspring.

rtd by dayspring

rtd by dayspring

The last tweet by Brian Walsh is important, because he used to have Dayspring’s job at the NRSC, and completely distorts what the police report said.  But also, it shows why the arrest of Mr. Mayfield was huge for the NRSC to be able tobetween the tea party, a very close supporter of McDaniel, and the photo of Mrs. Cochran.  The NRSC did not care that Mr. Mayfield never was found to help Mr. Kelly, and Mayfield insisted on his innocence throughout the whole mess.  They needed to imply that a close personal tea-party friend of McDaniel’s broke into the nursing home to take a picture of a 72-year-old woman in her nightie.  As you can see from the tweeted, and retweeted links by Mr. Dayspring above, once Mayfield was arrested, the entire tea party was indicted, along with Senator McDaniel, regardless of the facts.

The chairman of the NRSC, Jerry Moran, has since stipulated that the NRSC .  That is funny, since the established committee is the foremost defense of, and proponent of, established incumbent Republican Senators now serving in the United States Senate.  If they are not representative of the Republican Party, but the groups that oppose them are held to that standard, who exactly represents the Republican Party?

But what you cannot see, is the fact that Mr. Mayfield, a well-respected , lost everything the day he was arrested.  But he was not just arrested, the sheriff and six policemen descended upon Mr. Mayfield at his office, in front of his co-workers.  Three banks he worked for as an attorney called and fired him the following day.  His work relations ruined, he was used by the system to try to tie McDaniel to Kelly, with no actual proof.

What did he do to be batted around like he was?  Did he “break in” to the nursing home?  No, not even Clayton Kelly did that, as it was apparently easy to get in to the home with a camera.  Did he “conspire” to photograph Mrs. Cochran in a state of undress, as the law he supposedly broke had been used against peeping toms?  No, there is still no evidence that he was even involved, and there is a lot of evidence that he was an ethical man with a very developed sense of justice.  The only time the name, “Mark” was mentioned in the against Clayton Kelly, was by John Mary, who said that “Mark” would have someone contact Kelly.  It could have been Mr. Mayfield or some other Mark, or Mr. Mary could have been making stuff up, but whatever the case, the ruining of his life was, in my view, the result of political overkill by a corrupt Republican machine in Mississippi.

There’s more, there’s a lot more, like how the photographing of Mrs. Cochran , by the Cochran campaign, who said they did an investigation of their own, and waited three weeks to tell the police, on a date closer to the primary vote.  Or, that the lead investigation was done by the firm, Butler Snow, who just happens to , a man who was almost single-handedly speaking for Senator Cochran on a daily basis during the campaign.  It was Butler Snow who gave police investigators the information that led to the arrests of the men.  There is more here on , an apparent breeding-ground for Mississippi Republican politics and government.  Also, lead investigator for the Madison Police department, Vicki Currie had previously faced an intent to file suit of involving a friend of hers on the police department, in a case that should have been handed to a different PD considering the internal conflict of interest.  The cyberstalking case was finally dismissed against a brain-damaged man.

In the end, after all of the accusations by NRSC and their allies in the press, such as the Morning Joe show on MSNBC, the reporter for the Washington Post, Robert Costa, and former staff members, they still lost the primary to Senator Chris McDaniel.  The entire machine from DC all the way down to the Mayor, Judge, and police department, could be linked together, with stronger ties than Mr. Mayfield and Senator McDaniel had with Clayton Kelly.

Of course, from that primary date on, the Mississippi Republican machine, arm in arm with the national one, went even further than framing an innocent man, and framed the entire tea party movement as racist.

Sick.

 

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