Mistrial declared in McLeod case

Published 10:49 am Friday, April 11, 2014

After more than three hours of deliberation, a Warren County jury couldn’t reach a verdict in the sexual assault trial of a former Vicksburg police officer.

At about 7:10 p.m. the jury of 10 women and two men told Circuit Judge M. James Chaney they were hopelessly deadlocked, and Chaney declared a mistrial in the sexual assault trial of 39-year-old David D. “Bo” McLeod.

The mistrial brought to an end three-days of testimony that hinged on whether the woman who accused McLeod of sexual assault was intoxicated to the point of blacking out.

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McLeod, who is accused having sex with the woman Jan. 25, 2012, while she was too intoxicated to give consent, said the woman made aggressive sexual advances toward him.

“I’m a man. I just reacted with it,” McLeod said.

The Vicksburg Post does not identify victims of sexual assault.

The woman testified Tuesday that she drank to the point of blacking out, and a number of prosecution witnesses said she was intoxicated and passed out in her bed.

“You have four people who were at the house telling you [she] was drunk,” Assistant District Attorney Angela Turner said during closing arguments. “She could not give consent. She was too drunk to give consent.”

Prosecutors, however, lacked scientific evidence proving the woman’s blood alcohol level because a blood sample taken from her at River Region Medical Center was never tested.

“We don’t have that. That’s reasonable doubt. That’s question,” defense attorney James “Buck” Penley Jr. told jurors during closing arguments.

McLeod was employed with the Vicksburg Police Department from 1998 to 2003 and from 2009 to 2011. At the time of his arrest in February 2012 he was a member of the eight-county North Central Narcotics Task Force based in Greenwood.

The case will be tried again, District Attorney Ricky Smith said, though no date had been set this morning.