Video: Turner Back on District 5 Ballot, Circuit Court Hearing Will Be Cancelled

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LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) — Marty Turner is back in the District 5 Lowndes County supervisor’s race.

The Lowndes County Democratic Committee Monday night reinstated Turner to the August 4 primary ballot after incumbent Leroy Brooks dropped his challenge to Turner’s residency.

The Executive Committee had removed Turner’s name from the ballot following a March 17 hearing where Brooks and Turner debated whether Turner lived with his girlfriend at her home in District 4 or at Turner’s address in District 5.

Turner, the Ward 4 City Councilman in Columbus, had appealed that decision and special Circuit Court Judge Breland Hilburn, who has been retired from Hinds County for more than a decade, had set an April 8 hearing in Lowndes County Circuit Court to hear the case.

Brooks said he dropped the challenge because he thought the court would reinstate Turner anyway. “It’s difficult to win a residency challenge,” Brooks said. “I just decided to get this out of the way and lets move on.”

The court hearing will not be cancelled and the appeal dismissed.

Ricky Hill Sr., former boys basketball coach at West Lowndes, is the third person in the Democratic primary.

Meanwhile, on March 19, two days after the executive committee heard Brooks’ Challenge to Turner’s residency, Turner filed a complaint with the Columbus Police Department claiming Brooks had threatened him numerous times in public and private and had followed him and taken pictures. But no criminal affidavits have been filed, just the police report.

Turner says he doesn’t plan to withdraw it because he can’t allow threats to go unreported.