Tunica Investigator Under Investigation

Charged in theft case

Dennis Turner

4:52 PM CDT, July 20, 2010

 
(Tunica, MS 7/20/2010)

A high-ranking law officer gets nabbed on a burglary charge.

But his defense attorney says it's all a misunderstanding.

It happened in Tunica County, where an investigator for the local District Attorney is in plenty of hot water.

Sources around Tunica say District Attorney's investigator Rich Cannon had as close to hero status as you can get in town.

A former football star, he went into law enforcement and was someone to look up to until talk surfaced that some items had come up missing from the home of a friend.

We're told the possible burglary happened in an apartment in the southern end of the Town of Tunica, in the past week or so.

We're told no criminal complaint was filed, but that a police report was made, which resulted in the case against District Attorney's investigator Rich Cannon.

"Rich Cannon has been charged. I certainly anticipate that this matter will be resolved and we're not going to see this go to trial I don't believe." said Defense Attorney Stan Little.

That's because Little says it's quite possible the victim will not press charges on her life-long friend.

So far there's no record of an arrest, or that Cannon had been booked into the Tunica County Jail.

We're told Rich Cannon investigated hundreds of cases for District Attorney Laurence Mellen, and never had any problems.

But Tuesday, all an Assistant District Attorney would tell us is that the man technically worked for the Tunica Sheriff's Department.

A Sheriff's spokesman says Cannon was a County employee and only commissioned through the Sheriff's Department.

We're told none of the items reported stolen were ever sold or pawned and that Cannon resigned from his job Monday, and over the weekend apologized to the friend who found the items missing from her apartment.

"They've known each other literally all their lives and some items turned up missing. There were allegations that Mr. Cannon may have been responsible for that." said Little.

During a probable cause hearing in Coahoma County Tuesday, a judge did find probable cause to prosecute Mr. Cannon. But his defense attorney says without a criminal complaint from the victim, such a case is unlikely.

An assistant District Attorney confirms what defense lawyer Stan Little told us, that this case would have no bearing on any of Cannon's current or previous investigations.

"These are two totally unrelated things from his personal life to his professaional life and there is not one shred of evidenced or even insinuation of any kind of malfeasance in the office so the people don't need to be worried that this is even something to worry about." said Little. 


LINK TO VIDEO

 http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/77d46a36-50a9-438a-ba68-2b17db4a8ec0/News/Mississippi-News-Investigator-Under-Investigation