The QUESTIONABLE Scandal Of The Columbia P.D.
In this episode of *Exposed: Scandalous Files of the Elite*, Jim explores a very questionable civil case involving the Columbia Police Department in Mississippi, where five officers, including Chief Michael Kelly, resigned. Jim details the a lawsuit...
In this episode of *Exposed: Scandalous Files of the Elite*, Jim explores a very questionable civil case involving the Columbia Police Department in Mississippi, where five officers, including Chief Michael Kelly, resigned. Jim details the a lawsuit filed by Ginger Upton and her daughter Sarah Beach, highlighting troubling claims surrounding a traffic stop and alleged illegal body cavity searches by Officer Delta Ward. Stay tuned as Jim continues to follow this developing story.
Timestamps
03:23 Resignations Shake Columbia Police Department
04:16 Civil Lawsuit Filed Against Police Officers
11:04 Allegations of Illegal Searches and Assault
17:48 Officer Delta Ward Responds to Allegations
23:42 Certification Issues of Officer Jamie Moulds
#police #scandal #crime #exposed #podcast #deltaward #sarahbeach #gingerupton
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0:18 Hey, everyone, welcome back to Exposed, Scandalous Files of the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and we are jumping right into today's wild episode of Exposed. And look, we cover it all on this show. Maybe you're a famous football player, or maybe you are a politician who's acting bad, or maybe you're a trusted member of the society like a police officer, and you are doing the wrong thing, you may end up on this show. And that is what has happened to five officers of the Columbia Lice Department in Mississippi. And look, y'all, this this story is Craig Cray. That's the best way I can describe this one.
1:12 I'm gonna bring you through the whole thing, but I need to preface this one with none of this has been adjudicated. This is a civil case that has just been filed, and all of the people I'm gonna mention are innocent until proven guilty. I don't know, I wasn't there. I don't have firsthand knowledge of any of this, but I'm certainly going to report what the accusations are and let you kind of follow the case. And y'all, this has just occurred within the last few weeks. So I'm gonna bring you back to August sixteenth and bring you to Columbia, Mississippi. And a newsflash came out across the internet and it said five officers submit resignations from the Columbia Police Department. Mayor says, and I'm going to credit W Damn seven wdam seven, and it says the Columbia Police Department is in the midst of a major shakeup after several officers, including Chief Michael Kelly, submitted their resignations or quit according to the mayor. Columbia Mayor Justin McKenzie confirmed that the chief and five other officers have either turned in their resignations or walked away from the police department over the past week. Mackenzie said one of the officers has since asked to rescind her resignation. According to the mayor, Kelly tendered his resignation Friday, that being the chief,
2:47 and it will be effective at the end of the day. On Tuesday, August twentieth, after the city's board meeting, the mayor said Kelly left on good terms. The mayor says two other administrative officers also quit on Friday, and walked away. Mackenzie says two officers submitted resignations late last week and early this week, but the resignations weren't presented to the board since the meeting was not until August twentieth. On Thursday, another Columbia Police Department officer resigned after learning she had been placed on administrative leave pending an outcome of any action taken at the board meeting. The reasons behind the chiefs and other officers resignations are unknown as of this time.
3:31 Well I know what they were. Mackenzie said all Columbia Police Department shifts will be covered and said he was confident that officers will maintain safety in town. Mackenzie said he has spoken with the Marion County Sheriff, Berkeley Hall, and has his support if any assistance is needed. And so that came out. That was on the sixteenth of August. And look, if you're in Columbia, Mississippi, you're like, ma'am, what the hell? We just have people five officers resign, one of them being the leader, the chief. That's enough to make you kind of wonder what is going down in Columbia, Mississippi. Well, it didn't take long to figure that out shortly thereafter. As a matter of fact, on August twenty second, just a week later, in the State District Court of Southern District of Mississippi in the Eastern Division, there's a civil suit filed. This was filed on behalf of plaintiff's Ginger Upton in plainiff Sarah Beach. Ginger Upton lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as does Sarah Beach, and they file this lawsuit against Jamie Molds who is a defendant.
4:47 He is a police officer with the Columbia Police Department. Chris Bush, also a police officer with the City of Columbia Police Department. Lance Pourier a police officer with the City of Colombia Police Department. Austin Riles, a police officer with the City of Columbia Police Department. And Seth Blackman, a police officer with the City of Columbia Police Department. Delta Ward also known as Delta Hit, who is a police officer with the Columbia Police Department. Michael Kelly, who is the Chief of Police of Colombia. So what did they do? You may wonder, what are the facts of this case? So this is according to and it's important to note that this is according to the plaintiffs in this case. Again, that's Ginger Upton and Sarah Beach, the filers of this lawsuit. So they say, on or about January thirtieth of twenty twenty four, Ginger Upton and Sarah Beach and two male passengers, they're traveling down what's known as Lafayette Street in Columbia, Mississippi, and they were going at what they say is a safe and reasonable speed.
6:11 And they note that they were obeying all of the traffic laws. And it says in the civil lawsuit, I'm going to quote this verbatim to understand just how cruel, invasive, callous, and or malitious the defendant's actions were. It's important to note that missed Upton and Miss Beach are a mother and daughter. Nevertheless, while proceeding down Lafayette Street at a safe and reasonable rate of speed and while obeying all traffic laws, the planets were pulled over by Officer Jamie Molds with the Columbia Police Department. So Miss Upton, she's driving the vehicle and upon seeing Officer molds blue lights flashing, right, she does what we all would do. She pulls over into a nearby parking lot. It was actually a region's bank in that area. So Officer Molds he approaches the vehicle and he indicates that he pulled the vehicle over because he could not see if the occupants were wearing their seat belts. And in the lawsuit it notes, in other words, officer Molds pulled the vehicle over not because he saw a violation, but because he did not or could not see a violation. That's pretty crazy reason to pull someone over. Now that's what they say, of course, and I'm sure there's bodycam footage that's going to come out on this. He pulled us over because he couldn't see if we were breaking the law or not. I found that so funny when I read that in the
7:43 civil suit. So it moves on and it says consequently, at no point did Officer Molds have probable cause to believe a crime was being committed. And you have to if you're going to pull someone over, you have to have probable cause, otherwise you could pull any and everybody over for any and everything. Right, So, upon discovering that all occupants in the vehicle were wearing their seat belts in that no crimes or other violations were being committed. Officer Molds began further questioning the plainiffs as well as the two male occupants that were in the vehicle. Now, during this time, other officers with the Columbia Police Department were dispatched and they arrive on scene, and the planiffs and two male occupants were removed from the vehicle when that backup arrived, if you will, Once the two male occupants and the two females mother and daughter were outside of the vehicle, the police, according to what the planiffs say, conducted an illegal and unauthorized search of the vehicle. During the search, they found a very small amount of marijuana or a roach, as it stated in the lawsuit, Apparently one of the male occupants he admitted to smoking marijuana in the vehicle of the day before, but he denied having any other illegal or illicit substances on his person or in the vehicle. Upon completing the unlawful search of
9:15 the vehicle. And you notice they keep pointing to that, it's important to note, I'm just gonna say this right here. If an officer smells marijuana, he can search a vehicle. He doesn't need your permission. At that point, he has what's known as probable cause at that point because he smelled marijuana, and there's no way to know if somebody actually smell marijuana, so they could say I smell marijuana, I search the vehicle and there was none. It's kind of a weird law. Regardless of that, they did find marijuana. So he's now you can throw out the unlawful search. All he's got to say is he smelled it before he searched. It goes on to say, upon completing that unlawful search, the police felled discover any more illegal substances, contraband, or criminal violations of any kind, and he still discovered the one. So it doesn't matter if they're anymore. But it gets better, y'all. At some point during the illegal and unauthorized search, one of the females in the car, as a matter of fact, it was miss Upton. She voices her opinion that there were some bad cops at the Columbia Police Force and that she had actually had been harassed in the past something similar to that effect.
10:34 So the police officers they hear that, and one of them get you know, he figures it out and he says, okay, no matter what we do with this woman right now, she is going to say we sexually harassed her or something. So he gets on this radio and he calls a female officer to the scene. Now, it says in the lawsuit that it must be noted at all times the occupants of the vehicle they were following all the instructions given by the police, and so at that point, what it's saying in this suit is there was no need to call a female officer. Well, bullshit. So shortly thereafter, the female officer Delta Ward, she arrives on the scene after being called, and Officer Delta she approaches the occupants of the car. This is where it gets really crazy, y'all, And it says, while placing latex gloves upon her hands and popping them on her wrist in an intimidating and threatening manner, just like when you go to the doctor. Right, they pull the rubber gloves on and they pop them.
11:44 The plaineoffs. They were frightened by Officer Delta's intimidating and threatening action, but they were still unaware that soon they were going to be subjected to nothing less than a sexual assault on the side of a public roadway and broad daylight. Officer Delta then escorted miss Upton to the front passenger side of her vehicle, where she performed an illegal and unauthorized roadside body cavity search in plain view of the public and in violation of miss Upton's clearly established constitutional rights. It goes on to say, to be clear, without justification a warrant or consent, Officer Delta used excessive force on miss Upton by placing her fingers along and forcing her fingers inside of miss Upton's vagina multiple times, all in plain view of the public. Officer Delta also pulled plane of Upton's pants aside to where her vagina was exposed to public view, unbelievably, while Officer Delta was performing her illegal, invasive, humiliating, an unconstitutional search of Miss Upton.
13:07 A group of construction workers and I'm not laughing at this, y'all, but I mean, if this is true, it's absolutely horrible. But it's almost like something in a movie. A group of construction workers were using a nearby atm and witnessed the entire incident. Obviously, not only was miss Upton subjected to a sexual assault and battery by Officer Delta on the side of the road in broad daylight. She was also subjected to public humiliation as the construction workers began to stare, point and laugh upon witnessing the illegal search.
13:50 To be certain, at no time to Miss Upton consent to such a search, and Officer Delta did not obtain any warrant prior to performing this. Once Officer Delta completed the illegal roadside body cavity search of Miss Upton, she accompanied her back to the area where Miss Beach was waiting. Officer Delta then asked Miss Beach to come with her. Dejectively, Miss Upton tried to explain to her daughter what was about to happen, but could not compose herself enough to warn Miss Beach she was about to be sexually assaulted on the side of a public roadway in broad daylight.
14:30 Officer Delta led Miss Beach to the same area where she had just performed the unauthorized search of her mother. Miss Upton. Then Officer Delta used excessive force on Miss Beach by performing yet another unconstitutional body cavity search. Just as with playing if Upton, Officer Delta placed her fingers along and forced her fingers inside of Miss Beach's vagina multiple times, and yet again, Officer Delta exposed plaintiff beaches vagina to public view, thereby subjecting Miss Beach to public humiliation. Miss Upton was forced to stand by helplessly and watch his officer Delta sexually assaulted her daughter on the side of a public road, in broad daylight and in plain view of the public. Based upon information and belief defendit, Delta used the same gloves that she performed Miss Upton's search with and did not change gloves before performing miss Upton's search. It must be noted that neither illegal searches produced any drugs or illegal substances. So there you have it.
15:40 That's the gist of it. They get pulled over, and according to the plainiffs, they both got fingered essentially by the officer. And if that is true, it's horrible. With these lawsuits, they sue everybody. They sue to the chief of police because he didn't train him correctly. They'll sue the other officers because maybe they saw it and they didn't stop it. Now, there's a lot of moving parts in this case. You know, it should be pretty easy to dismiss this. If there's body camera footage, but not all the time are body cameras turned on, and maybe they weren't on in this case. I don't know what the policies are in Columbia, Mississippi. This is pretty breaking.
16:33 So what happens at this point, Well, all of the officers I named at the beginning of that lawsuit, they received a summons to appear in court and answer to that lawsuit. Now, it's also interesting to note that on the twenty sixth of August twenty twenty four, the plaintiffs did offer what's done as a voluntary dismissal against one of the officers, a god by the name of Seth Blackman. They came back and said, we're not gonna sue that particular officer. I'm not really sure why, but that is what it is. So we'll move on. Because guess what the female officer, Miss Delta in this case. She answered, she came out and spoke out on this lawsuit, and of course she says it was bullshit. And I'll read you that article. It says a former Columbia police officer speaking out after two women filed a lawsuit alleging the officer and their colleagues violated their rights during a routine traffic stop. Playing this Ginger Upton and Sarah Beach filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday, August twenty second at the US District Court in Hattiesburg sent Blue Boom. The suit stems from a traffic stop on January twentieth of twenty
18:06 twenty four on Lafayette Street in Columbia. In the suit, Upton and Beach claimed that officers with the Columbia Police Department violated their constitutional rights through the use of excessive force in illegal search and seizure Planiffs also accused former death sergeant Dealt To Ward of conducting an illegal body cavity search. The lawsuit compares the search to nothing less than sexual assault on the side of a public roadway in broad daylight. Ward, however, is now speaking out against those accusations. The former officer released a statement to The Colombian Progress on Monday, August twenty six she denied the claims made by Upton and Beach in the lawsuit. She later released the same statement to Michael Clark of the w Damn News, which is the article on referencing some recent social media posts have made false statements and have slandered my name over this matter. Since affording people there right to innocence until proven guilty seems to be a thing of the past, please allow me to interject some facts about this incident, and then Ward details the January thirtieth traffic stop. So I'm going to read you Miss Delta Ward's full statement. She says. I am Officer Delta Ward, formerly of the City of Columbia Police Department. I feel compelled to make a statement regarding a recent lawsuit alleging
19:37 misconduct on my part. To start, I want everyone to know that I was cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation in review by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen. Some recent social media posts have made false statements and have slandered my name over this matter. Since affording people their right to innocence until proven guilty seems to be a thing of the past, Please allow me to interject some facts about this incident. On the day in question, the subject was pulled over in a routine traffic stop that I was not present for. This is when I was first notified of the traffic stop and was called to the scene to search the female occupants At the time of my employment at the police Department, I was a certified police officer performing desk sergeant duties only in all capital letters, but as all the officers are required, I was doing what my superiors asked me to do.
20:35 An officer that was at the scene picked me up from the precinct where I was working as a desk sergeant. The officer then drove me to the scene. When I arrived at the scene, I politely introduced myself to the female subjects and asked them if I could search them. They consented to that search, and I proceeded to ask a female driver to step with me to a private location. That location was on the left side of a patrol unit. Between the driver and passenger side doors. We were facing away from everyone in all traffic, so that I could perform the search of her body in private. She was completely out of sight from the mail officers at the scene and all civilians that may have been passing by.
21:18 I then placed a set of latex gloves on before performing what's known as a palm down search of the undergarments. And that's where y'all. She would use the backside of her hands so that she can't grab. This is a standard technique used by law enforcement to minimize these type of accusations. This is the only technique I have ever used capital letters in that after asking the subject to loosen her clothing, the subject at no time dropped her pants. She had three layers of pants on. I conducted the search with the palm down technique. Her vagina was in fact never exposed. Once I determined she did not have contraband, I was then instructed to perform the same search on the other female. At that time, I discarded the used gloves and got a new set to search the second female with her consent, using the same palm down technique, and again no contraband was found. So for anyone who doubts these facts, there is available camera footage to coroborate my statement. Like I said before, this is a matter that has been investigated and reviewed by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen. I was told that I was in compliance with the law and was cleared of her own doing. Anyone who assumes that I acted outside of the professionalism is misinformed. I am an officer of integrity and I have served my community well. And that is
22:50 the statement from desk Sergeant Delta Ward. Ward also says there is camera footage available to coroborate her statement, although that footage as of this recording has not been available, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. With the police officer offering up in her statement that camera footage exists that is going to coroborate everything she's saying. It sounds to me like she may be telling the truth and these people may be full of shit. Now, the problem with these lawsuits when they come out, these civil suaits is that the people accused, they really dig into them, and these lawyers they're looking for whatever they can find that is not right in the past of whoever it is they're chasing.
23:40 And I'm going to reference this article for you, and this is from the Colombian Progress, which is a local news source in Columbia, and it says former Columbia Police Department officer Jamie Molds, who is named in the lawsuit alleging misconduct and sexual assault and legally worked for the Columbia Police Department. After his certification lapsed during the time of the incident, Molds completed self sponsored training at the Southern Regional Public Safety Institute in twenty thirteen and received his certification as officer. Certification however, Molds was out of law enforcement for more than five years, so that basically rendered his certification invalid. He would have needed to complete a two hundred hour refresher course is what it's known as to validate that certification again, so he gets hired after those five years off on January second of twenty twenty four, this incident having occurred on January thirtieth of twenty twenty four. Michael Kelly, his chief, was notified on February second of twenty twenty four that Molds needed to complete a refresher course and it never occurred. Kelly was notified by the of course people suing him that that, hey, this dude was not certified this officer. So that has created an issue as well, because you know, honestly, he
25:10 should have been certified. Now that has nothing to do with any sort of sexual assault. I mean, the procedures in this case. You know, whether you're a police officer or not, let's be honest. And he had nothing to do with the search of these people. But you know, anything they can find to say this whole thing is invalid. These lawyers are going to find and that was something that they indeed did find. I've searched everywhere. There is no body camera footage. It has been released yet, as I said, but I can promise you if it is, I will definitely upload it to the Patreon for the Patreon subscribers, so you could look for that if it surfaces.
25:57 But that is a crazy story that is just trending the internet right now. Another scandal involving a Mississippi police department, in this case multiple officers in the chief in Columbia. I'll keep you updated on that. I want to thank all of the patron members for supporting. If you can't be a patron, I totally get it. Thank you so much for just listening. But we can't tell you how much we appreciate those on Patreon. Look, the murd All series is on fire. Thank you for sharing it. Continue please to share it. And I'm begging you for your reviews.
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