Case ongoing against current county prosecutor
Published 7:00 am Tuesday, September 25, 2018
More than four years after his indictment and arrest, the case against the current Pearl River County Prosecutor Aaron Russell Jr. is ongoing.
Aaron Russell Jr., was arrested in February of 2014 after a grand jury indicted him for “making false entries in or altering public records and fraud committed in public office,” according to previous coverage.
In that previous coverage, representatives with the State Auditor’s Office said the indictment was based off of evidence that alleges Russell conducted a “pretrial diversion program,” where Russell would accept cash in exchange for dropping charges against the defendant.
Attempts by the Item this month to determine the current status of the case revealed that it has been turned over to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office. Margaret Ann Morgan, Communications Director for the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, said that the case is currently in “plea negotiations,” but could not comment further.
She could not give a date for an outcome of the negotiations, since “the timeline is different for every case,” Morgan said.
Previous coverage states that Russell was also arrested in October of 2012 for similar charges, but was never indicted or prosecuted.