County administrator: Price hike hits insurance for Lee County sheriff's office [Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo]

Dec. 22—TUPELO — Liability insurance for the sheriff's office is going to be more expensive in the coming year, something county administrator Bill Benson attributes to national trends.

The county's premiums for law enforcement liability insurance coverage are rising from an annual price of about $134,000 to an annual price of about $177,000.

That's an increase of roughly 32%.

The increase in premiums would have been even higher had Benson not instead requested a higher deductible, which will double, from $25,000 to $50,000.

"Nationwide, it is hard to get someone to write a policy for law enforcement," Benson said. "People are very jittery about law enforcement policies."

Pointing to the recent history of litigation involving the sheriff, Benson said he was confident that the increase is driven by factors beyond local control.

Benson presented the new rates to the Lee County Board of Supervisors during a meeting earlier this month, along with other liability policies covering county government.

With relatively minor increases and decreases taken together across all the other policies, Benson said the county's insurance costs are holding nearly flat except for law enforcement coverage.

There are currently multiple pending lawsuits against the Lee County Sheriff's Office. Several have been filed by prisoners representing themselves, but a pair of lawsuits filed this year were brought by well-known plaintiff's attorneys.

Those suits are as follows:

—Havana Maria Wade alleges in a June 2021 complaint that she was imprisoned by a corrections officer without a valid warrant and without the opportunity for bail until she was finally released. The suit also alleges that "harsh, arbitrary and inhuman" conditions exist at the Lee County Jail. She also alleges dangerous conditions linked to insufficient efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the jail.

—Former deputy Mike Mayhew alleges in an October 2021 lawsuit that Sheriff Jim Johnson wrongfully harassed with him false criminal charges. Mayhew claims he was forced to resign and was later criminally over false allegations of falsely reporting the number of hours he work. He was criminally charged by the Attorney General's office, and those charges were later dropped.

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