City sees no tax increase.

A Vicksburg man charged Friday with seven business burglaries had a police record dating to June 2004, charging him with a residential burglary and a business burglary.

Records show the 2004 charge against Joe G. Howard, 39, 1923 Baldwin Ferry Road, was dropped to misdemeanor trespassing when witness identification conflicted and a grand jury found that not enough evidence existed to convict. An August 2005 charge for business burglary and possession of burglary tools was dropped to misdemeanor malicious mischief.

On Friday, Howard was charged with seven counts of business burglary after being arrested early that morning while breaking into Jones and Upchurch Real Estate at 1803 Clay St., Vicksburg police said.

Howard was arrested just after 2 a.m. when police responded to an alarm. From there, authorities obtained a warrant to search Howard’s home, where they found a television and VCR set and a satellite receiver they said was stolen from Lee’s Body Shop, along with checks believed stolen from Firestone Tire and Service Center a few blocks away on Clay Street earlier in the morning and other equipment whose origins could not be determined.

On Friday, Howard was charged with four burglaries since March 2005 at the Dermatology and Skin Cancer Clinic at 1202 Mission Park Drive, the early Friday break-ins at Jones and Upchurch and Firestone and a burglary at Lee’s Body Shop, 2417 Clay St.

Howard was in the Warren County Jail Friday night on $175,000 bond – $25,000 for each count. He is expected to be arraigned in municipal court Monday.

Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett said Howard’s case proves District Attorney Gil Martin isn’t doing his job.

&#8220It’s absolutely frustrating,” Moffett said. &#8220Criminals are getting deals of a lifetime because the DA doesn’t want to prosecute. Cases are being given away.”

But Martin said Friday he wasn’t familiar with Howard’s case file, and shrugged off Moffett’s criticism.

&#8220I don’t know about this case at this point,” he said. &#8220But it’s always easy to put the blame on somebody else to cover up your own inefficiency. If the other cases were reduced, it was because they had problems with them. He’s not happy with us about a lot of things.”

Police were aided by Dr. Wayne Petri, a dermatologist at the Dermatlogy and Skin Care Clinic, who rigged a secret camera after last year’s break-ins that captured a man who resembles Howard in a white baseball cap in the clinic during a burglary June 26. Petri sent the tape to police, who matched the video image to Howard following Friday’s arrest.

As many as 10 more burglary charges could be brought against Howard, Capt. Mark Culbertson said, including a second break-in at Lee’s Body Shop, three burglaries at Unique Audio at 2840 Clay St., two at Winters Family Dentistry at 1002 Mission Park Drive and burglaries at TD’s Tires and Accessories, 2600 Clay St., and Grove Street Baptist Church in the 700 block of Pierce Street, both reported July 30.

&#8220It’s obvious we have a lot of work to do on these business burglaries,” Culbertson said. &#8220This makes a big dent in it.”

According to police records, 31 business burglaries since May remain unsolved.

&#8220You may only charge them with two or three burglaries, but they may have committed 25 or 30 in a week’s time and you don’t have proof,” he said. &#8220It’ll give a bad appearance to your stats because you don’t have closure on all of them. But at the same time, you’re convinced you have the perpetrator.”

Police hit another suspect with multiple felony arrests with burglary charges earlier this year, when Darrah Williams, 38, 742 Dabney Ave., was arrested on a weapons charge Feb. 1 and later accused of committing five of the city’s 38 business burglaries in January.

Williams’ arrest came just more than five months after he finished serving a 10-year prison sentence for a string of burglaries dating to 1988.

He was charged in October 1995 with 13 business burglaries and spent nearly a decade in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman before being released last summer.

Burglaries like these could be prevented if the DA’s office would be held accountable, Moffett said.

&#8220The citizens suffer,” he said. &#8220I should be held accountable as police chief, and the DA should be held accountable. Seventy-five to 80 percent of the people we deal with are already criminals. I’m not saying to take my word for it. Look at the rap sheets and closed dockets and see the kind of deals people are getting.”

Authorities made six other arrests for burglaries in February and March. Three of those – Johnny Ailes, 25, 901 Speed St. Apt. 2, Lewis Yates, 36, 712 Speed St. and Christopher Galloway, 32, 4720 Benard Drive – were charged with the burglary of Dykes Furniture on Washington Street on Feb. 6.

Yates was one of 10 people arrested in a drug sweep by Vicksburg police and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department July 28.

Another, Douglas Howard, 40, 1603 Military Ave., was on probation from the Mississippi Department of Corrections when he was arrested Jan. 27 and charged with possession of burglary tools after running when police spotted him near a home on Halls Ferry Road with a bag of equipment. Howard has a history of burglary and grand larceny dating to 1988, according to police records, including arrests on four counts of business burglary in 1995, one in 1998 and a conviction for burglary in 2000.

Also charged with a January break-in was Charles Lomax, 49, 3116 Second St., arrested Feb. 6 and charged with stealing $900 in boneless chuck steak from Ergon Marine on Jan. 8.

Two other men with rap sheets – Lash Rogers, 27, 2615 Letitia St., and Lee Edward Yates, 41, who shares an address with his brother, Lewis Yates – were arrested in February for a residential burglary in the 700 block of Speed Street. Rogers was also hit with drug charges.

&#8220I will say, with the individuals we’ve arrested, it is my belief there will be a significant decrease in the number of burglaries,” Moffett said.

The January tally was about triple the 2005 monthly average for businesses burglaries. More than half were in a square-mile area near Interstate 20, encompassing Mission 66, Indiana Avenue, North and South Frontage roads and Halls Ferry Road.

Three businesses – CDS Home Care, CitiFinancial on Indiana Avenue and CompUDoc Inc. on Clay Street – had multiple break-ins or attempted break-ins during the month. Several doctors’ offices and other health-related businesses near each other on Mission 66 and Mission Park Drive were also targeted on different nights.

Thus far, Williams remains a primary suspect in many of those cases, though he has been charged with only five during the month. Four of those – Toney’s Restaurant, the dental office of Dr. Robert Sadler and CDS Home Care, all within blocks on Mission 66, and The Ivy Place on South Frontage Road, less than a block from Indiana Avenue – were reported early Jan. 31, the day before his arrest. Williams was also charged with breaking into River Outfitters on Halls Ferry Road Jan. 12.