Feds might ask jury pool in mayor’s trial about TV

The Sun Herald, 9/26/8

Potential jurors in the high-profile trial of Jackson Mayor Frank Melton might have to tell federal prosecutors their three favorite TV shows.

It’s not clear why, but it was one of 15 questions the government submitted Friday that could be used on a jury questionnaire.

Melton, 59, and two police bodyguards are accused of using a sledgehammer and sticks to destroy a home the mayor considered a crack house – a duplex apartment in a crime-ridden neighborhood of the capital city. They pleaded not guilty.

The federal indictment in July came more than a year after Melton and the bodyguards – Jackson police officers Michael Recio and Marcus Wright – were acquitted of state felony charges related to the same accusations.