NOTE: A copy of the lawsuit is attached to this story.
McCOMB, Miss. — One of 22 lawsuits filed against Pike County alleging improper criminal justice treatment claims that a man arrested on a drug charge spent 450 days in jail in 2020 and 2021 — even though a lab test said the suspected contraband was not a narcotic.
Michael Noworyta sued the county, the district attorney’s office and two law enforcement officers in February 2023 in U.S. District Court. He alleges there was no probable cause that he committed a crime, and that the defendants withheld information about the negative lab test to keep him in the Pike County jail.
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He was out on bond after having been arrested in May 2019 for possession of less than 2 grams of methamphetamine, but was arrested again on Jan. 9, 2020 by Pike County sheriff’s deputy Timothy Moore and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agent Martez Simpson.
The charge in the second arrest was possession of meth with intent to distribute. The lawsuit said Noworyta was homeless when arrested in 2020, and was carrying some table salt in a plastic bag.
The lawsuit alleged that the second meth charge got filed “despite the obvious difference in smell and appearance between methamphetamine and table salt.”
Noworyta’s bond was revoked after the arrest. State law permits that when there is probable cause to believe that while on bail a defendant commited a crime punishable by more than five years in prison.
About a month after Noworyta’s second arrest, the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory analyzed the substance he had when taken into custody. The lab’s analysis said, “No controlled substances were detected.”
That meant the January 2020 meth charge should have been dismissed, and Noworyta should have been released on the bail he posted from the first arrest.
The lawsuit claims Simpson — the Bureau of Narcotics agent — and the DA’s office were among those receiving copies of the lab report. It claims Simpson told Moore, the sheriff’s deputy, about the lab results.
“Despite this knowledge, all defendants worked together and separately to keep (Noworyta) subjected to criminal charges ... until approximately May 5, 2021,” the lawsuit said. It said that was 450 days after the lab test.
The lawsuit alleged that the county, the sheriff’s department and the district attorney’s office “has an official policy or custom of not producing exculpatory evidence in its possession until after indictment.”
Exculpatory evidence is information favorable to a criminal defendant that tends to show he is not guilty.
The lawsuit also claims the county has an official policy or custom of failing to review the status of prisoners in its custody. If such a policy of review does exist, it is not followed, the suit says.
The lawsuit alleges that the DA’s office “has an official policy or custom of not timely presenting cases to the grand jury for consideration,” and it also does not monitor the progress of felony cases against people held in jail before they are indicted.
It said none of the defendants told a judge that the test came back negative for drugs, and added that Noworyta was never assigned a court-appointed lawyer.
Noworyta’s case is the second one that calls the county to task for holding someone in jail without charges.
One of nine Pike County jail inmates ordered released last week by Circuit Judge Mike Taylor had been held for eight months after a grand jury decided not to indict him for a fatal shooting.
Kentrail Magee was one of two people arrested shortly after the November 2022 shooting of Ricardo Weathersby. Lawmen upgraded the charge to murder two weeks later, when Weathersby died.
The grand jury did not return an indictment on June 13, 2023, according to records. But Magee remained in jail until last week.
