When Frank Melton was elected mayor in 2005, he ran as a tough top cop, ready to take on the drug-related crime and poverty that plagued the state’s largest city.
Now, the man once portrayed by NBC News’ Tom Brokaw as a straight-talking, surrogate father to this city of about 176,000 faces a possible long prison term.
Melton is accused of violating the civil rights of the owner and tenant of a duplex and of committing a violent crime while in possession of a handgun during an August 2006 raid.
His federal court date is Jan. 5. If convicted, Melton could get 20 years on the civil rights charges and five on the gun charge.
This won’t be the first time Melton, 59, has gone to court to defend his actions in the raid of the duplex, which he alleged was “a crack house.” Last year, a state jury found him innocent of burglary, malicious mischief and other charges.
Magnolia Tribune
