Maximum fines, jail, and cleanup fees will be requested from judges

County attorney Gaines Baker said Monday he will ask the judges and clerks of Panola County Justice Courts to stop accepting guilty pleas and fines before court dates, giving him an opportunity to push for higher fines and jail time for people ticketed for littering and illegal dumping.

“I will be asking for jail time for first offenders if the judges will do it,” Baker told the Board of Supervisors at their regular meeting at the Batesville Courthouse. He made the announcement following the monthly report from Hunter Lawrence, who works in the county’s Code Enforcement office.

“I will respectively request that the clerks of the court and the Justice Court judges not accept any guilty pleas so I can be there for sentencing,” Baker said. “I’m going to be asking for maximum fines, jail time, and clean up fees.”

Lawrence had reported that of the 12 illegal dumps he identified and scheduled for cleanup in the month of July, he was able to capture one person on video. Lawrence said the offender pled guilty before court and paid less than $400 in fines.

“I tried to make him clean it up, but he said he wasn’t going to and I  had no way to make him,” Lawrence said,

District 4 Supervisor Chad Weaver said steeper fines and threat of jail would be a deterrent, and agreed with Baker’s plan to seek the courts’ cooperation.

“That’s what you are going to have to do,” Weaver said. “If you hit them hard enough they will spread the word to the others.”

“Lock one of them up and the rest will think hard about throwing out a McDonald’s bag,” Baker said.

For the month, Lawrence reported, six illegal campers were identified and occupants told to find other lodging. Those were on Landfill Rd., Lee Master Rd., two on Sardis Lake Dr., S. Pine Lake Dr., and on Bethlehem Cove.

Twelve illegal dumps sites were found and addressed. Those were on Northwood Dr., Travis Rd., Abe Chapel Rd., two on Old Panola Rd., Vance Bottom Rd., Westbrook Rd., Pocahontas Ext., Macedonia Rd., and on one private road.

Lawrence said he also stopped a resident in the process of burying a number of 50-gallon drums he intended to use for a septic system.