The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 12/29/8
U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan has ruled that Mayor Frank Melton can’t use the term “crack house” during his upcoming federal civil rights trial in describing alleged illegal drug activity at the duplex on Ridgeway Street that has been the center of his legal woes for more than two years.
That ruling leads one to wonder just how Melton should refer to the former residence in mounting his defense. What should he call it? A fixer-upper? The House on Pooh Corner? Little House on the Prairie?
Melton, and his former police bodyguards Marcus Wright and Michael Recio beat state charges in 2007 related to the raid using a defense that largely rested on characterizing the house as a drug haven.
But a federal grand jury in July indicted the trio on three additional federal criminal counts related to that raid.
Magnolia Tribune
