The council meeting
The Mississippi Court of Appeals recorded that Giles was granted permission to speak about Stokes. A shouting match followed, the council recessed and Giles was removed from City Hall.
Public Speech and Public Power
Jimmy Giles, Kenneth Stokes and the Jackson City Council
The surviving video, the criminal charges that were dismissed and the civil case that followed.
The Original Recording
March 6, 2001: Jackson City Council
I requested and received permission to address the council about Councilman Kenneth I. Stokes. This approximately five-minute archival recording shows part of my remarks, the escalating exchange, the recess and my removal from the chamber.
Source: archival recording supplied by Jimmy D. Giles. The original WMV was converted to MP4 for browser compatibility; its content was not altered.
My position is that I was removed and later arrested because I attempted to speak critically about Councilman Stokes at a public meeting. The independently verifiable court record establishes the sequence of events and the charges, but the appellate court did not decide that First Amendment claim on its merits.
Documented Chronology
The legal matters involving Giles and Stokes
The public appellate record reveals one connected course of criminal and civil proceedings. I found no separate reported case between the two men beyond the matters listed here.
Giles filed an affidavit
Giles alleged that Stokes disturbed the peace and prevented him from speaking by repeatedly interrupting him. Giles voluntarily dismissed that affidavit on April 3.
Stokes filed charges; the case was dismissed
Stokes filed an affidavit charging Giles with breach of the peace and disruption of a public meeting. The matter was transferred to Hinds County Justice Court on April 4. The justice court dismissed the case on June 8, 2001.
Giles filed a civil lawsuit
Giles sued Stokes pro se in Hinds County Circuit Court, alleging malicious prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel and slander. The lower-court case number was 251-02-616CIV.
The proposed free-speech claim and dismissal
After counsel acknowledged defects in the original claims under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, Giles sought to amend the complaint to add a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging a violation of his constitutional right to free speech. The circuit court denied amendment and dismissed the case.
The Court of Appeals affirmed
In Giles v. Stokes, No. 2007-CP-01075-COA, 988 So. 2d 926, the court held that the proposed § 1983 claim was filed after Mississippi's three-year limitations period and did not relate back to the original complaint. It also held that Giles had not challenged the dismissal of the common-law claims on appeal.
Rehearing was denied
The Mississippi appellate docket records that the motion for rehearing was denied. I located no later reported ruling changing the result.
What the Decisions Mean
Dismissed charges are different from a dismissed civil claim.
The criminal matter
Stokes charged Giles with breach of the peace and disruption of a public meeting. The Hinds County Justice Court dismissed that case. The reported opinion does not state that Giles was convicted of either charge.
The civil matter
The courts did not adjudicate whether Stokes violated Giles's right to free speech. The appellate ruling concerned whether Giles could add that claim after the limitations period and whether it related back to the original pleading.
Accuracy matters: the record supports saying that Stokes filed charges after the council meeting, that Giles was arrested, that the charges were dismissed and that Giles later sued. Saying that the arrest was because of protected speech expresses Giles's position; it was not a judicial finding in the reported case.
Sources
The published record
- Jimmy D. Giles v. Kenneth I. Stokes, No. 2007-CP-01075-COA, 988 So. 2d 926 (Miss. Ct. App. 2008).
- Appellee's brief filed in the Mississippi appellate proceeding.
- Mississippi Court of Appeals case history for No. 2007-CP-01075-COA, including the November 25, 2008 denial of rehearing.
This page identifies the legal matters located in published and searchable sources. Municipal- and justice-court files are not necessarily available online; obtaining every underlying affidavit, arrest record, docket entry and disposition would require records requests to the City of Jackson, Hinds County Justice Court and Hinds County Circuit Court.
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