Deputy Mike Hollingsworth looks at his daughter, Kristen, 8, and wife, Debbie, Friday after arriving at his house in Vicksburg.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[3/27/04]Six weeks after being hit by a car while directing traffic at a funeral, Warren County Deputy Sheriff Mike Hollingsworth was welcomed home Friday by a procession of deputy cars and saluting officers.

“I’m a walking miracle,” Hollingsworth said to the 14 uniformed deputies and staff from the Sheriff’s Department.

Hollingsworth, 38, was hit Feb. 9 by a Buick sedan driven by Ronald Vaughn, 23, who has been charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. Hollingsworth suffered from severe brain trauma that left him in a coma for two weeks with little to indicate if he would live or ever recover.

Now, needing some help to walk, Hollingsworth joked about riding one of the Sheriff’s Department’s motorcycles.

“This is a good day,” said his father, Jack Hollingsworth. “Of course we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Although his condition has greatly improved in the weeks since he was hospitalized in Jackson, Mike Hollingsworth will still have to attend outpatient rehabilitation three times a week, said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace.

Pace also said he cannot say when Hollingsworth, a 10-year law enforcement veteran, will be able to return to work.

“I am just tremendously relieved that he has survived this,” Pace said. “I really do believe that he is the walking results of prayers.”

Pace escorted Hollingsworth and his family from Jackson Friday while deputies blocked the Beechwood intersection at Clay Street and Highway 27 less than half a mile from where Hollingsworth was injured.

Hollingsworth spent weeks in the intensive care unit at University Medical Center where he was unable to speak or move on his own. He was later moved to Methodist Rehabilitation Center where he has been taking intensive therapy.

Hollingsworth had been directing traffic for a funeral going to Green Acres Memorial Park from Glenwood Funeral Home when he was run down. Witnesses said that Vaughn drove past the procession and veered back into the lane where Hollingsworth was standing outside his patrol car.

Vaughn is being held in the Warren County jail without bond and faces up to 30 years in prison. He is being held on charges of probation violation.

Although no connection has been publicly made, Jack Hollingsworth was Vaughn’s probation officer. Vaughn has made no public comments, but his lawyer, Jackson attorney Chokwe Lumumba, said the wreck was an accident and had asked for bond.

Warren County Court Judge Johnny Price denied the request for bond after a hearing earlier this month. The case is expected to be heard by the grand jury later this year.