Video: Case Dismissed Against Former Noxubee Resource Officer, School District Partially Blamed

Earnest Harmon
Source: City of Macon

MACON, Miss. (WCBI) – The case against a Macon alderman indicted on a sexual battery charge is dismissed.

The district attorney’s office says it’s, in part, because of the way the Noxubee County School District handled the investigation.

Earnest Harmon was a school resource officer and basketball coach at a middle school when a teenage girl made the accusation.

He is no longer employed with the school district but remains on the board of aldermen.

The alleged incident happened in November of 2009.

Seven years later, prosecutors say the alleged victim has a vague recollection or faulty memory of the alleged incident.

In court documents, the DA’s office says the school district waited three days to report anything to the department of human services, did not take the alleged victim to a forensic interviewer and sent school officials to the victims home asking her parents not to press charges against Harmon.

Prosecutors also say the district failed to properly report the incident.

District Attorney Scott Colom declined to comment on whether the school district was being investigated for allegedly failing to properly report the incident.

The Mississippi Department of Education says it only becomes involved when a licensed professional is involved in such allegations.

The school district declined to comment on the allegations on Monday.

Motion to dismiss

Motion to dismiss