Former Jackson, Mississippi Police Department Officer Is Sentenced for Civil Rights Violation

Jonathan Haynes, a former police officer with the Jackson, Miss., Police Department, was sentenced today for a civil rights violation for stealing money from a citizen during an off-duty encounter.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Sumner of the Southern District of Mississippi sentenced Haynes to a term of three years probation and six months home confinement with electronic monitoring (employment and employment training permitted). Haynes was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and $100 restitution for this offense. The judge also ordered Haynes to pay $100 in restitution to the victim. As part of his plea agreement, Haynes, who was fired from the Jackson Police Department, has agreed not to work as a law enforcement officer for any federal, state or local law enforcement agency for three years.

Haynes previously pleaded guilty and admitted during his April 2, 2009, plea hearing that he abused his authority as a law enforcement officer on June 21, 2008, when, while off-duty, but in uniform, he stopped and searched two men without cause or legal justification and stole $100 from one of the men. Haynes agreed that his conduct violated federal law and the constitutional rights of the two men.

The case was investigated by the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Erin Aslan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda Haynes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi. The defendant is not related to and has no known relationship to AUSA Haynes.