Tempers flared up again Friday between a downtown Vicksburg property owner and various parts of city government — a brouhaha spiced by passive aggression and a pledge of a renewed legal fight.
Professionally-printed signs covered the windows of 1221 Washington St. that blasted Lisa and Randy Ashcraft’s latest anti-Vicksburg sentiments. The white lettering on the red backgrounds of each asked for the impeachment of Police Chief Walter Armstrong and for residents to take the city back.
Eagle-eyed downtowners noticed the signs early in the day between vehicles parallel-parked in front of the building, notable the past few years not for redevelopment into a bakery but for reams of controversy. Randy Ashcraft indicated Fri day the couple would take full advantage of what they say is freedom of expression and, apparently, their right to sue.
“The signs speak for themselves,” he said when reached by phone. “My attorney has advised me to state it’s our First Amendment right to have the signs.”
Ashcraft added the couple is mulling an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of a wide-ranging lawsuit first filed in circuit court in 2011 against the city, former Mayor Paul Winfield and several city police officers. The case was dismissed from federal court in Jackson in July 2013, a decision upheld this past April by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Details pre-dated the current administration, which last fall had dealt with the couple’s request to demolish the building because they didn’t want to pay taxes on it any longer. The couple parked junked cars, painted graffiti on boards that blotted out the exterior windows and hung underwear from the balcony. In October, Randy Ashcraft dropped the application to tear it down amid intense public scrutiny. This past week, the couple had received the OK from the city to block parts of the Washington/Clay intersection to remove a downed I-beam from behind the building.
On Friday, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. expressed exasperation on the topic.
“I’ve done everything humanly possible to extend the olive branch to the Ashcrafts,” he said, adding the couple won’t let go of beefs with the prior administration. “I will work with them as best I can, but I can’t do it on emotion. He has to present to me something of concrete evidence as to why he has a problem with the Vicksburg Police Department and the city, and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.”
Flaggs said recent conversations with the Ashcrafts centered on late-night noise from nightspots in buildings that have resort status from the Mississippi Department of Revenue. The designation allows businesses to remain open past 2 a.m. Efforts continue to police downtown as best as possible to “ensure they and everyone else can sleep.”
Armstrong’s job is appointed by the city board, as is the case with nearly all municipal police chiefs in Mississippi. Cities elect police chiefs by popular vote when they are governed by charters specifically written to do so, such as Tallulah, La.
“I’m supportive of Chief Armstrong 100 percent,” Flaggs said.
The Ashcrafts, originally from Pensacola, Fla., had planned a bakery in the building they own when they purchased it in 2008. Built in the 1960s, it was home to First Federal Savings & Loan and the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau before it was deemed unsafe in 2006 after the neighboring building collapsed during renovations.
In 2011, the couple sued the city and the other defendants, claiming various forms of harassment that dated to 2009. They sought unspecified damages and claimed violations of their constitutional rights. The district court in Jackson ruled the claims, though significant, didn’t pass legal test to constitute a violation of constitutional rights.
The Fifth Circuit backed up the district court ruling on several points, including arguments from Winfield and former deputy police chief John Dolan that each was entitled to qualified immunity, as they were both public officials.
The appeals bench ruled the couple failed to demonstrate a 2011 traffic stop of one of the Ashcrafts’ vehicles for having an out-of-state car tag, which went to trial in municipal court and dismissed, rose to the level of a constitutional violation because Dolan had, in the court’s words, “reasonable suspicion” that they were Mississippi residents. The Ashcrafts claim the stop was politically motivated for their support for former Mayor Laurence Leyens in the ’09 city elections, among other things, was not completely discounted in either court. However, the appellate court ruled that, “without a resulting violation of Ms. Ashcraft’s constitutional rights, (Winfield) does not abrogate his qualified immunity under these circumstances.” The Ashcrafts were held liable for the defendants’ court costs, the judges ruled. The bill of costs came to $38.40, according to court briefs.
No case event has been recorded since the appellate bench ruled. The next term of the U.S. Supreme Court begins Oct. 6.
Winfield is about halfway through a 25-month sentence in federal prison on a bribery charge unrelated to the Ashcraft case. His release date is Oct. 28, 2015, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. Dolan, also a former sheriff’s deputy, was not retained by the Flaggs administration when the city board appointed a new slate of municipal officers after city elections in July 2013.