Any connection between the late pop musician Warren Zevon and soon-to-be-jailed former Warren County circuit clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree would have been tough to see before a hearing Friday to show cause in a civil matter in normally mundane county court.
It had all the elements of Zevon’s 1978 hit — lawyers, guns and money.
Warren County Judge Johnny Price ordered the ex-clerk to pay $17,459 of a $36,000 settlement of sorts that apparently went missing sometime before the Board of Supervisors removed Palmertree from office May 19. The money stemmed from funds ordered into the court registry after a 2013 lawsuit involving proceeds from what case files note as the sale of fully automatic weapons from the late Dr. Hildon H. Sessums Jr.
In September 2013, money from selling the weapons, not fully described in court documents, was held in a trust account of local law firm Varner, Parker & Sessums, according to court records. A pending divorce with his wife, Lisa, produced a claim by his widow on the couple’s assets, which complicated the gun sale money since no funds could be released without mutual consent, case records show. The amount left in the account represented the balance after money was withdrawn to pay for their son’s college expenses.
Sessums died last November and the money later ordered by Price to an interest-bearing account. When it was time to disburse the money, things got interesting. It wasn’t there anymore. Palmertree’s office being declared vacant by county supervisors in a separate quest to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in fishy payments complicated it further for the widow and the incoming county-appointed clerk, Greg Peltz.
Friday’s hearing to show cause why the judge should or shouldn’t order the county to pay Lisa Sessums turned on testimony from County Administrator John Smith, tasked by the elected supervisors to look into the matter. Smith testified a check for precisely the amount to be paid to Sessums amount was written on May 8 from the office’s criminal account — which is supposed to hold fines, fees and restitution paid in criminal cases such as violent crimes and burglary — to the office’s civil account, which holds fines and fees paid in civil matters like land and money disputes.
“This money went into the wrong account and came out in the hands of Shelly Ashley-Palmertree,” said county board attorney Marcie Southerland, who represented the county’s interests in the case that nearly packed the county court with members of the Sessums family, other lawyers and interested observers. Attorney David Sessums, the late doctor’s cousin, represented Lisa Sessums. Palmertree, in what might be her last public appearance before reporting to state custody Oct. 15, was advised Friday to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights by her counsel, Sam Brand.
Both the civil and criminal accounts were frozen the day Palmertree was ousted from office. Smith said the criminal account had $32,640.99 at the time; the civil account contained $18,915.21. Peltz started new accounts on his first full day on the job, both with a zero balance.
Price’s judgment spared taxpayers any additional expense and Palmertree an early trip to jail. His judgment adjusted found her in civil contempt, but, with a sheriff’s deputy already moved into position to arrest her, allowed her to turn over $17,459 to Peltz to purge herself of the contempt charge. The judge ordered the remaining $18,541 from the civil account to Peltz, with all to be paid to Lisa Sessums within 30 days provided no motions to retry the case are made.
“This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve made as judge,” Price said from the bench before ruling in the hour-long proceeding. “I know (the money) was co-mingled. That’s an odd number.
“It’s not about friendships or politics, it’s about the rule of law,” Price said. “That money belonged to Mrs. Sessums.”
Palmertree was sentenced Monday to five years in jail for embezzling $12,000 from the two holding accounts on two occasions in 2012. A civil case involving more than $1.04 million in payments above the state’s salary cap for circuit clerks and questionable amounts paid to her predecessor in office, Larry Ashley, is expected to continue in January in Hinds County Chancery Court. The amount covers activity from 2006 to 2011 and includes interest and investigative costs.