Police Chief Tommy Moffett won round one in a brewing battle with District Attorney Gil Martin on Monday after which the DA essentially said Moffett needs to mind his own business.

Moffett won agreement from Circuit Judge Frank Vollor that plea deals in Warren County Circuit Court with one defendant in a drug case and three defendants in an armed robbery case should not be accepted.

“I think the chief has overstepped his boundary,” said three-term DA Martin, who has no opponent for re-election to a fourth term. “His duty is to investigate and to arrest the person.”

Moffett went to the courthouse and told Vollor the deals being made on felony indictments were too lenient. Vollor rejected the deals and said the cases would go to trial, but no earlier than May.

Defendants were Andrey Jerome Moore, 24, 902 Blossom Lane, indicted on a charge of sale of cocaine, and Chloronda Evans, 32, Baker, La.; Lafane Demont Mixon, 28, 608 Ridgeway Drive; and Anthony Lee Hill, 21, 950 Hope St., indicted on armed robbery charges.

The plea deal offered to Moore called for three years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

The deal offered to Evans, Mixon and Hill called for probation for each, but the possibility of serving five years if terms of the probations were violated.

Moffett was called on to comment and told Vollor some defendants had earlier convictions and had other charges pending.

“The police department feels if this is all that was offered, the case should go to trial,” Moffett said.

After he rejected the pleas, Vollor granted a motion by the attorneys representing all four defendants for continuances.

“My position as police chief is that just isn’t fair to the citizens,” Moffett said after Vollor adjourned court. “We need to do what is necessary to keep drug dealers off the street.”

He said when the cases go to trial and a jury decides the defendants should be set free, he and the Vicksburg Police Department can accept it.

“That’s the system. Let’s use the system,” Moffett said. Criminal trials, however, are rare. They are held for about 4 percent of people facing felony indictments nationwide. Almost all cases are disposed through negotiated pleas to which a judge must later agree.

Martin said Monday the time for Moffett to make objections about plea bargains that prosecutors work out with defendants is before when they appear in court.

He also said prosecutors have to consider how strong their case is before agreeing to accept a guilty plea in exchange for a sentence usually less severe than a jury conviction would bring.

In years past, Martin and grand juries have been highly critical of police work, citing flaws in investigative reports or missing files altogether.

Of the drug case against Moore, Martin said a confidential informant on whom the case depended heavily could not be found. In the armed robbery case, Martin said it had been determined the Taser supposedly used by the defendants is not a deadly weapon, making the case simple robbery instead of armed robbery.

“If the police would give us better cases we could get better sentences,” Martin said.

He also said his office had to dismiss 26 felony cases from the Vicksburg Police Department last week for lack of files. He said the cases came from 2000 and 2001. Moffett was hired in Vicksburg after retiring as chief in Biloxi in October 2001.

“I don’t know why the files were not sent up,” Martin said.