Jackson, MS—Attorney General Jim Hood today announced that Larry Mitchell, former Assistant Chief of Police of Ruleville, Mississippi was sentenced on Monday, October 29, 2007, in Sunflower County by Circuit Court Judge Margaret Cary-McCray on two counts of extortion and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion while acting in his official capacity as Assistant Chief. Mitchell pled guilty to the three felonies on June 18, 2007, and admitted that as Assistant Chief of Police he received a monetary fee in exchange for the dismissal of drug charges against a person who was stopped for a traffic violation in Sunflower County. Mitchell also admitted that he had conspired with then Ruleville Police Chief Ronald Robinson to extort the money from the victim who was stopped on a traffic violation.
Mitchell was sentenced to serve a term incarceration in MDOC of 15 months on Count I (extortion) and to serve 15 months on Count II ( extortion), each of the two counts of extortion to run consecutively. Mitchell was sentenced to serve a term of 15 months on the conspiracy conviction, to run concurrently with the sentence in Count II of the indictment. Mitchell was also ordered to pay a fine of $2,000 to the Clerk of the Sunflower Circuit Court and to pay $1,000 to the Crime Victim s’ Compensation Fund, plus court costs and bond fee.

“It is disappointing to know that there has been an abuse of power in this way but it is a good feeling to know that the justice system works,” said Attorney General Jim Hood. “You break the law, you will pay.”  Mitchell’s co-defendant, Ronald Robinson is currently serving a term of thirty months incarceration on two counts of extortion while acting under color of law, having pled guilty to the felonies before Sunflower County Circuit Judge Cary-McCray on March 16, 2007. Both cases were investigated and prosecuted by the Public Integrity Division of the Office of the Attorney General.