Public Complaint No. 1718845026 - 1778919737

Mark Mcgairty

Lowndes County Sheriff's Office

527 South Martin Luther King Jr Drive

Columbus, Mississippi 39701

(662) 328-6788

https://www.lowndes…

Date of Offense

August 24, 2022

Complaint

Statement

Mark mcgairty conducted a traffic stop based on a fabricated reason and violated the bane act by removing rebecca Bumgardner's recording device from her hand while conducting a false arrest. He also conspired with Jeff Edmonson to plant non-existent drugs (a bottle of pills) on Rebecca during the traffic stop. Rebecca's phone was ultimately stolen by the sting unit on this traffic stop and was never returned. Mark mcgairty's dash cam footage was requested by Rebecca via public records request after this incident but it was denied/withheld by the department. Please refer to the links provided for video footage of this incident. https://youtu.be/2oHf71VVFE0?si=U3wxR9je2PC7APJr https://www.youtube.com/live/YwMlAxGrXBo?si=0PUvB_RoHVYWcKST

Location

Columbus, MS, USA

33.4956744, -88.4272627

Mississippi Public Records Act

Miss. Code Ann. 25-61-1 et seq.

The Mississippi Public Records Act is a series of laws designed to guarantee that the public has access to public records of government bodies at all levels. Records are defined as "all books, records, papers, accounts, letters, maps, photographs, films, cards, tapes, recordings or reproductions thereof, and any other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been used, being in use, or prepared, possessed or retained for use in the conduct, transaction or performance of any business, transaction, work, duty or function of any public body, or required to be maintained by any public body."

Anyone can request access to Mississippi’s public records and no state of purpose is required. There are no restrictions placed on the use of records.The Mississippi Public Records Act states that, if not decided upon by the individual department, departments have one working day to respond to PRA requests. However, departments may establish their own time limits of up to fourteen working days.