GULFPORT, Miss. — The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) records that were being kept from you will finally be turned over to the Sun Herald Newspaper. A federal judge made that decision last Friday.
The Sun Herald took the state auditor’s office to court earlier this year because they would not hand those public records over while they were investigating the DMR for corruption.
A Harrison County Chancery Court judge ordered those DMR records to be released, but the auditor’s office had those records subpoenaed by a federal attorney before they could be turned over to the Sun Herald. Stacey Pickering was then held in contempt of court for not obeying the Chancery Court’s ruling.
Federal prosecutors argued the DMR records could not be made public because they were part of grand jury proceedings. District Judge Keith Starrett thought otherwise and gave the U.S. Attorney’s office 10 days to turn over the records.
