Jess Dickinson - Motion For Recusal

Case: 25CI1:22-cr-00601 Document #: 95 Filed: 01/09/2023 Page 1 of 24
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HINDS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
vs. CAUSE NO. 22cr601-JHD
TONI JOHNSON
MOTION FOR RECUSAL
COMES NOW, the Petitioner, Toni Johnson by and through the undersigned counsel of record,
and files this his motion for Judge Jess Dickinson, to recuse himself and for grounds would state the court
to the following to wit:
l. The Honorable Jess Dickinson was appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to preside over
the proceedings in State of Mississippi v. Toni Johnson.

I
t
2. In preparation for her trial, Toni Johnson sought to obtain discovery to show that she is being
selectively prosecuted on account of her race and other prohibited reasons.
3. Within the last thirty (30) days, Mississippi Today published an article in which the Honorable
Jess Dickinson's name is mentioned in a text message of individuals connected to Toni Johnson's
comparators. See, Exhibit A.
4. Petitioner believes that a reasonable person might question your Honor's impartiality in this
matter because your Honor has political connections to Toni Johnson's comparators in connection with
your Honor's appearance on the Paul Gallo Show.
5. Canon 3E( 1) of the Mississippi Code of Judicial Conduct provides that "[J)udges should
disqualifY themselves in proceedings in which their impartiality might be questioned by a reasonable
person knowing all circumstances ....... " "A judge should disclose on the record information that the
judge believes the parties or their lawyers might consider relevant to the questions of disqualification,
even zf the judge believes there is no real basis for disqualification. "
6. The question is disqualification is not whether a judge actually is biased, for a judge must be
disqualified, "withoutfindingfault ... so that even the appearance of impropriety can be avoided."
Collins v. Dixie Transport Inc., 543 So. 2d 160, (Miss. 1989) (emphasis in original) quoting Harrison v.
Harrison, 483 So. 2d 378, 380 (Miss. 1986).
7. In the instant case, a reasonable person may question the fairness of your Honor's actions based
on your Honor's relationship with Toni Johnson's comparators. Therefore, Toni Johnson requests that
your Honor recuse himself from this matter.
8. The affidavit of Lisa M. Ross is attached hereto as Exhibit 2 in support ofthis motion.
WHEREFORE PREMISES CONSIDERED, Toni Johnson respectfully requests this Court to
grant this motion for recusal and, thereafter, that the Mississippi Supreme Court appoint another judge to
preside over this action. Petitioner prays for such relief as is proper under the premises.
I
t
r
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, this the 9th day of January, 2023.
t
I
/s/ Lisa M. Ross
Lisa M. Ross, Esq.
MSB #9755 I
P.O. Box 11264
Jackson, MS 39283-1264 l
Attorney for Toni Johnson
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I
Undersigned counsel serves that she has caused a copy of this Motion for Recusal and supporting
affidavit to be served on counsel for the State of Mississippi and the Honorable Jess Dickinson through
ME C.
/s/ Lisa M. Ross

Lisa M. Ross
~ MISSISSIPPI TODAY
CONTINUING COVERAGE Legislative Guide 2023 Recap 2022 Health Crisis jackson Water Crisis The Backchannel
Credit: Photo Illustration by Zack Orsborn
THE BACK CHANNEL
SuperTalk radio was a powerful mouthpiece for

welfare fraudsters- while raking in welfare
funds itself {
Perpetrators of the Mississippi welfare scandal funneled more than $600,000 in federal funds to a
conservative talk radio station and news network, which then broadcasted glowing spots about the fraudulent
program. The state isn 't trying to recoup the money in its ongoing lawsuit. Instead, state agencies continue to
'>Ut public funds to the political machine- more than $6 million since 2009.
~!'by Anna Wolfe

~ December16,2022
EXHIBIT
I 'All l
!
l
T he state of Mississippi was entering a new day in the fight against poverty.
At least that's what conservative talk radio station SuperTalk would have you believe.
It was the summer of 2018, and radio host Paul Gallo was visiting with John Davis, then-director of the
Mississippi Department of Human Services, and nonprofit founder Nancy New on site during a government
summit at the Westin luxury hotel in downtown Jackson.
New and Davis were hyping their ill-conceived welfare delivery model, Families First for Mississippi, which
resulted in the theft or misspending of nearly $100 million. The pair would later plead guilty to several
felonies after perpetuating what officials have called the largest public fraud scheme in state history.
"Sometimes it just takes people like Nancy New and John Davis ... to say, ... 'We're going to take the lead on
this,"' Gallo boasted.
"Please pay attention," Gallo said at the same event, "because number one, this will change lives."
SuperTalk consistently boosted the work of Families First to its statewide audience, broadcasting the
organization's original ribbon cutting, the gpening of its generously renovated new center, events featuring
free homemade ice cream, massive high school rallies, "exclusive" behind-the-scenes reports on its services,
and the infamous Brett Favre radio ad that caused the athlete to be sued.
And for all its promotion over the years, SuperTalk received mgre than $630,000 in welfare funds.
The money came from MDHS, the welfare agency, which previously employed SuperTalk's own CEO Kim
Dillon and, at the time of the welfare scandal, her son.
.6 radio stations in its operation, and 45 more to which it distributes the news, Supertalk's traditionally
~rvative, older white audience is far from the population needing welfare services. But the media
company, officially called TeleSouth Communications, founded and owned by Steve Davenport, had access to
the innards of Mississippi's political machine- and therefore taxpayer funds- because of the platform it gives
GOP leaders to promote their agenda.
Now SuperTalk is at the center of two subpoenas and allegations of contract steering as lawyers in the
state's ongoing civil suit attempt to unravel the radio network's larger role in Mississippi's good ole boy club.
"Steve (Davenport) and I had drinks with the Gov (Phil Bryant) on Wed night," Kim Dillon texted Davis in
May of 2019, just one month before Davis was kicked out of office for suspected fraud. "He was very
complimentary of you. We had the best time!"
t the Westin that day, leaders including then-Gov. Bryant declared that the state did not have to
A separate families in order to prevent neglect; that neglect was a product of poverty, and it could be
eliminated by placing resources directly into the homes of needy families.
Gallo put it best: "Every single day across the state we have the justice court system tearing these kids away
from the family, and if they just had one hand to reach out. And if that's a possibility, why hasn't somebody
done this before? Because, I mean, it's one of those things that could have saved a lot of families," he said.
With a faraway stare and her mouth slightly open, Nancy New looked over to the camera, then down at her
fidgeting hands.
"Instead of taking the kids out of the house, put them in the court system, and you have to deal with them,"
Gallo continued, "and ultimately, if there's a possibility of a foster family getting some financial help, what if
that financial help went to the mom?"
Gallo was describing welfare.
Behind the scenes, though, Davis, New and others were diverting tens of millions of these dollars away from
the needy- including, notoriously, $8 million to the pet projects of former NFL legend Brett Favre.
Favre himself received $1.1 million in welfare funds from Nancy New's nonprofit to cut a radio ad 11
SuperTalk promoting Families First. The ad ran several times in the fall of2018, according to an invoice
obtained by Mississippi Today, nearly a year after he received his first payment. Favre has since returned the
funds. SuperTalk itself was one of those welfare recipients cited in State Auditor Shad White's explosive 2020
,D••ilit report. "Due to the unreasonable cost of the advertising," the audit found, " ... and the lack of any
ttion to how the advertising benefited the programmatic nature of the TANF program, these costs are
1oned."
, , , , .• " ..
1
SuperTalk Mississippi
about 4 years ago
•
Monday was a busy day at SuperTalk. Lots of amazing guests on and off the air. You
just never know who will stop by....
Families First For Mississippi Brett Favre Steve Azar
33 Comment 1
Kim Dillon, Gallo and Davenport declined or did not respond to interview requests from Mississippi Today.
Davenport, a major Gov. Tate Reeves donor, did provide a canned written statement saying his company
--:ned its contractual obligations."
He did not address the characterization of SuperTalk as a campaign tool.
I
Of the $632,388 cited in the audit, most ($435,000) was paid during fiscal year 2019, the year Gov. Reeves
ran for governor.
"It looks like they kicked their spending with TeleSouth into overdrive in FY 2019," said Logan Reeves, a
spokesperson for the auditor's office." ... They (Families First) were advertising left and right, doing all kinds
of stuff, as I think the audit makes clear."
About half of the funds came from New's nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center and the other
half came from Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, the other nonprofit helping to run Families
First.
The two nonprofits paid significantly more than any state agency paid SuperTalk in those years.
While the auditor questioned the payments, these expenditures were not listed as a fraudulent or unallowable
expense in a separate forensic audit MDHS commissioned and released in 2021. Because TeleSouth
conducted the work it was hired to do, Logan Reeves said, the auditor's office did not issue a demand for
repayment to the network.
TeleSouth is not one of the vendors MDHS is targeting in its ongoing civil lawsuit to recoup the misspent
money. MDHS initially filed its complaint in May, mostly targeting individuals and companies that were cited
in the forensic audit, but it amended its complaint in early December to include several additional vendors.
The welfare department, an agency under the governor's office, has not provided the public a full explanation
for the standards they used to determine which of the dozens of vendors listed in the audits to target for
repayment.
Some of the entities newly added as defendants to the lawsuit, such as Lobaki Inc., a Jackson-based virtual
reality company, were added to the suit even though they completed the work for which they were hired. In
Lobaki's case, the attorneys argue that the company's agreement with the nonprofits required them to follow
MDHS grant policies and applicable state and federal law- which is why they're allegedly on the hook for
those misspent funds.
mtracts between the nonprofits and TeleSouth -which were not originally public records since they did
... ,,,:,,,..,.elude a state agency - have still not been made public, nor has a breakdown of the purchases under the
contract.
"SuperTalk entered into contracts with the Mississippi Community Education Center and the Family Resource
Center of North Mississippi to provide advertising services," SuperTalk general counsel Ashley Tullos
Fortenberry said in a short statement to Mississippi Today for this story. "The services outlined in those
contracts were performed and SuperTalk was qualified to provide the services-which were intended for a
state-wide reach-as it operates 26 radio stations (consisting ofboth talk and music formats) that cover the
state and a news network that distributes news and advertising to over 45 radio stations throughout the state."
TeleSouth isn't the only statewide radio network; both Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Mississippi
Owned Radio (MOR) Network provide statewide radio coverage. MPB, a publicly funded agency, could even
provide services to the state for free.
Within the larger political landscape of Mississippi, though, taking public funds and providing favorable
coverage to political leaders and their ideas isn't an unusual arrangement for SuperTalk.
April30, 2019
~·lll'~m~;cua•
Kim Dillon, 5:36 PM
Enjo X'C t()riight so much! We need

to do/ re often. I just checked my
$mail;t:fhd. Jess Dickinson ls in with
Gallo tblllorrow morning.
Kim Dillon, 8:54PM
Credit: Graphic by Bethany Atkinson

uperTalk's parent company TeleSouth Communications has received at least $6.2 million in public
S funds from the state since 2009, according to Mississippi Today's review of public expenditures, while
giving politicians and agency heads ample airtime for braggadocious dialogues without the risk of
facing pointed questions about the consequences of their policy decisions.
"Where they have built their little empire is access. If that's who's in charge, then that's who they want to be
next to," said longtime politico and professor Marty Wiseman." ... I guess you would describe it as a
transactional thing, you know, 'You scratch our back, we'll scratch yours."'
SuperTalk bills itself as a news program, but "I don't think the average person who listens every now and then
realizes the pipeline that SuperTalk has into government," Wiseman continued. "They just take it at face value
that who they're having on there is probably telling the truth."
Mississippi agency payments to Supertalk from 2009-
2022
According to a Mississippi Today review of state expenditures on state's transparency
website, Mississippi agencies have paid radio station Telesouth Communications Inc.,
also known as conservative talk radio station SuperTalk, about $6.2 million from fiscal
year 2009 to June 30, 2022. The agencies who have paid the most to SuperTalk are the
Department of Transportation ($2.3 million), the Department of Public Safety ($1 million)
and the state's welfare agency, the Department of Human Services ($778,670). These
payments do not include public funds the company may have received from grant-funded
entities operating as a "flow through," such as Mississippi Community Education Center
and Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, which paid Telesouth a combined
$632,318 in federal funds from 2017-2019, according to a report by the state auditor.
2022 2021 2020 2019
Grand Total $244,977.00 $149,340.95 $274,133.70 $313,599.65
Department of
$26,311.00 $2,337.50 $23,118.30
Transportation
Department of
$26,300.00 $19,999.00 $68,973.00 $139,392.20
Public Safety
Department of
Human $28,206.00
Services
Department of
Rehabilitation $74,250.00 $48,700.00 $65,000.00 $35,602.00
Services
Division of
Medicaid
Mississippi
Development $60,950.00 $33,300.00 $51,900.00 $1,900.00
Authority
Secretary of
$7,410.00 $5,928.00 $19,915.20 $21,200.00
State
Insurance
$3,375.00 $2,002.60 $160.00
Department
Service
$15,000.00 $15,000.00
ssion
':!Mf!j~'
Coh1munity
$12,600.00 $38,400.00 $27,750.00
College Board
Department of
$10,000.00
Mental Health
Bureau of
Narcotics
Department of $4,055.50 $2,800.00 $2,480.00

$13,947.00
Agriculture
Board of $10,000.00
$20,000.00
Contractors
Fair $1,805.40 $3,042.15

Commission
Mississippi
Veterans $3,900.00 $7,125.70 $6,000.00 $3,960.00
Affairs
Department of
Employment
Security
Attorney
General
Department of
Marine
$1,214.00
I
Resources
Department of
Archives and $8,534.00 $6,268.75
History
Forestry
Commission
State
Treasurer
Department of
Education
Office of the $1,789.00

Governor
Mississippi
State
·ment of
,.,~"'P"W;;'''
Wildlife
Fisheries and
Parks
Athletic
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Ellisville State
$150.00
School
Department of
Environmental
SuperTalk's tie into government is possibly best illustrated through the Families First debacle.
SuperTalk CEO Kim Dillon's son Logan Dillon, for example, worked as a lobbyist for MDHS during the
scandal while his then-wife Alyssa Dillon worked for Families First.
A former Bryant staffer and accountant executive at SuperTalk, Lynne Myers, left the radio network to
become MDHS's communication director in 2018. Right before Davis left office, she sought his permission to
extend the agency's contract with SuperTalk. Her husband, Kevin Myers, and their daughter also worked for
Families First.
SuperTalk's former digital marketing director Dawn Dugle is the one who introduced Davis to fitness
instructor Paul Lacoste, who then secured a $1.3 million contract with Families First- one of the first red
flags during the start ofthe auditor's investigation.
But SuperTalk's connections went much higher than the welfare office.
In 2020, members of Bryant's inner circle allegedly directed Austin Smith, Davis' nephew who was
overseeing a federal preschool grant for the state, to enter an expensive advertising contract with SuperTalk,
Mississippi Today first reported.
Smith, who is facing civil charges over the $430,000 in welfare contracts he received, said he refused to
contract with SuperTalk because the grant period for expending the funds had expired, he explained in a £b21
court filing. Expenditure records obtained by Mississippi Today do not reflect payments to SuperTalk under
this grant, but Smith did appear on the radio program to promote the grant.
While Smith was employed by the Mississippi Community College Board, the state agency that administered
~school grant, he was also working on a contract for Families First. Smith has not been charged
..ually.
Bryant frequently gloated about Mississippi's success in securing the $10 million grant.
"Just think, if you're a single mom in the Delta trying to pay for child care and go to school, it's nearly
impossible," SuperTalk quoted Gov. Bryant as saying. "This grant will help bridge that, and we will be able
to find more young ladies that will be able to go to work, find a job, have a career and live the American
dream right here in Mississippi."
But Bryant was unaware, when asked during an interview with Mississiupi Today in April, that the state
only ended up spending 60% of the funds, mostly on equipment and materials for the centers, not on more
vouchers for kids. About $190,000 of those funds went to New's nonprofit. The state had to give $4 million
back to the federal government. The grant didn't result in any more kids in child care. The program was a
flop.
"I could sit here and talk to you for a very long time about that grant in childhood and things that should have
been done differently," Smith told Mississippi Today in an exclusive interview in November." ... It did not
accomplish what it needed to accomplish because before we ever got the grant, it was already spent. It was
already decided where it was gonna go, who it was gonna go to, and what it was gonna go for."
Smith alleges that after the grant ended, he was the only employee working on the grant to be fired.
"Among the PDGB5 Grant employees retained were Austin Smith's secretary, the niece of SuperTalk's
prominent host, Paul Gallo," reads Smith's civil court filing.
Generally, Smith feels that in the course of the welfare case, "there's only a certain number of people that's
been handpicked and targeted."
"There's so many more people involved in this," he added.
Smith's attorney Jim Waide has subpoenaed TeleSouth for several items, including any communication
regarding receiving payment for providing interviews to Smith, New, Davis, Favre, Bryant, White and others.
The attorney MDHS originally hired to craft the civil suit, former U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott, also subpoenaed
TeleSouth back in July, but within days of that filing, Gov. Reeves' office chose to fire Pigott. The legal team
~~"'t took over the case, from the firm Jones Walker, appears to have abandoned that subpoena.
~mde similarly subpoenaed Gov. Bryant for any of his communications related to paying TeleSouth for
advertising while he was governor, as well as communication with Davenport specifically. Bryant confirmed
in a following motion that he possesses communication about paying TeleSouth, but he objected to turning it
~'citing executive privilege. Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson isn't expected to rule on
whether Bryant must comply with the subpoena for several weeks.
June 12,2019
John Davis, 5:29PM

Would you want it :to remain
the same as last year?
Lynne Myers, 5:32 PM I think so.
John Davis, 5:32 PM
June 14, 2019
Lynne Myers, 9:56 AM
June 15, 2019
Graphic by Bethany Atkinson
w hile Gallo used his show to elevate the anti-poverty programs he said would "change lives,"
Mississippi was actually turning away most poor applicants for the cash assistance, formally called
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
Only about 4,000 families were receiving the benefit, a monthly check of, at the time, no more than $170 for a
family of three.
When pressed in April about the lack of resources reaching families during his administration, Bryant told
Mississippi Today, "I did not know that was not happening. John reported to me one time that a number of
people had dropped off, and I said, 'Tell me why.' And he told me that they had not reapplied."
The low approval rate was publicly known and reported on by news outlets as early as 2017 - but not on
SuperTalk's website.
" ... (W)hat if that financial help went to the mom?" Gallo asked the welfare officials.
Ignoring the progressive logic in the host's rhetorical question, Davis responded with a winding answer about
his boss Gov. Bryant's desire to create a "holistic collaborative approach" to delivering social services in the
challenging environment of "siloed" government bureaucracies.
Few impoverished families were actually helped by the services Families First advertised, sometimes at
lavish events with sophisticated commercials and an abundance of branded swag.
But Supertalk helped prop up the facade.
"I'll tell you, the governor never stops. I think he's up from daylight 'til way after dark making things happen
for Mississippi," radio host JT Williamson said during a 2018 interview with New and then-first lady
Deborah Bryant at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, where a Families First "Healthy Teens Rally" was taking
place.
The rallies, which happened a few times a year in different areas across the state, were a cornerstone of the
Families First for Mississippi initiative and reportedly spearheaded by Gov. Bryant.
"We're trying to encourage them to make healthy choices- mentally, physically and every other way,"
Deborah Bryant told SuperTalk, "so that they can handle the hard knocks when they come that they don't have
·l10ice over, to stay away from drugs, to have children in a timely manner and not when, you know, just
1em, just because it just, 'oops by the way,' you know? These children deserve better lives than that."
The conference brought thousands of high school students together to hear lectures that bordered on self-
promotion from sports celebrities like retired WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. -who received $3 million in
welfare funds - and former running back Marcus Dupree. Both athletes anpeared on SuperTalk during this
time to promote the welfare programs. DiBiase and Dupree are targets in the welfare agency's ongoing
lawsuit that attempts to claw back the funds.
"In talking about the governor ... like this thing right here, to put back into these kids," Williamson said as the
crowd of teens roared in the background. "And we all know that this is the future of Mississippi, and when
you see the future is here, and we see these young people that are here today that are listening right now to
Ted DiBiase Jr., who are taking all this in, and soaking in all this information, and to understand this is where
it starts. And this is where we have to go back and fix things, with education and employment opportunities
and different things to keep people from going down the wrong path."
Mississippi lawmakers, including under Bryant's leadership as lieutenant governor from 2008-2012, have
underfunded public schools almost every year since they created the funding formula in 1997 to determine
how much money schools need to provide adequate education to Mississippi children. Mississippi also
typically maintains the lowest workforce participation rate in the nation and the lowest median earnings.
Emma Briant, a British author and research fellow at Bard College specializing in propaganda and political
communication, likened Mississippi's relationship with SuperTalk to the tactics of Cambridge Analytica, the
British data-mining firm accused of manipulating multiple elections across the globe. Briant was the expert
called to testify in Fair Vote Project's lawsuit in Hinds County against architects of the Brexit movement, who
attempted to launch a data firm in Mississippi.
"Using state resources or government resources to essentially, by proxy, finance your own political
advertisement and reputational enhancement is something you see in a weak democracy," Briant said. "It's the
sort of thing that we saw in some of Cambridge Analytica 's campaigns in Africa, and it's not the sort of thing
you would wish to be happening in the U.S. in 2022."
Davenport, who introduced Bryant at his election night party in 2007, donated a total of $10,800 to Bryant
from 2007-2015, according to FollowTheMoney.org. He donated a couple grand to current Gov. Tate Reeves
in his previous campaigns, but a few months before the 2019 gubernatorial election, Davenport and his wife
each gave Tate Reeves $15,000.
"I told him (Bryant) he needed to help Tate with his commercials," Dillon texted Davis in May of2019 .
.mth has contributed at least $3,000 to Bryant from 2011-2015, according to FollowTheMoney.org, and
$();000 to Tate Reeves from 2004-2011.
eleSouth has received advertising work from Mississippi Department of Human Services for many years, and
T even caught heat from PEER, the legislative watchdog committee, during the 2000s for raking in
hundreds of thousands under sole-source, no-bid contracts.
Criticisms about using public funds to prop up a political apparatus are nothing new.
"Supertalk and Paul Gallo and JT & Dave and all that pounded me into the ground every single day during the
lieutenant governor elections," former Democratic Rep. Jamie Franks of Mooreville told the Jackson Free
Press in 2008. "They've basically used these advertising dollars to make TeleSouth Communications a tool of
Gov. Haley Barbour and the Republican Party."
The relationship continued into Gov. Bryant's administration.
The welfare agency continued to contract with the radio network, such as in 2016 to advertise things like
iPax, the program that allows fathers to pay child support online, or in 20 18 to tell people how to apply for the
federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The contracts at this time went through a Request
for Proposal, or RFP process, according to records obtained by Mississippi Today.
MDHS directly paid TeleSouth almost $780,000 from 2009 to 2019, with amounts varying greatly from year
to year, according to Mississippi Today's review of public expenditures on the state's Transparency website.
While the spending mostly declined over the decade, it did spike to $141 ,290 in 2016, John Davis' first year
as director.
A Mississippi Today review of MDHS expenditures labeled under the TANF Work Program shows the
department did not use welfare money to pay for its TeleSouth contracts, except for $15,262 in 2018. This
payment has not been analyzed in any audit.
The Division of Medicaid - the agency that provides health insurance to very poor Mississippians, including
many pregnant people, and often fails to get the word out about their services - has also spent at least
$380,000 over the years advertising with SuperTalk.
"T '''Ould assume that if you're out here advertising for Medicaid benefits or for mothers of dependent children,
iience of SuperTalk- which usually advocates for cutting Medicaid- is probably not the place you
/_.d be advertising," Franks told the JFP.
It seems to have taken a scandal for this long-running trend to end. The Mississippi Department of Human
Services, which experienced a vast leadership turnover after the arrests in 2020, has not paid the radio
network since the arrests. Medicaid's last payments to SuperTalk were in 2018.
When asked why MDHS ended its advertising with SuperTalk, the agency plainly said in a statement that
"MDHS is committed to utilizing taxpayer funds in matters guided by and in compliance with all federal and
state policies ... MDHS takes seriously the stewardship of the message and resources entrusted to the agency
by the taxpayer."
The agency also said its current strategy is to focus on "earned media," a term that refers to promotion it can
acquire for free, such as traditional news articles or social media mentions.
The Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services recently contracted with SuperTalk to run ads about
prom safety. Though, Gallo once admitted on his show, "I do understand that we don't have a large audience
of 13- to 18-year-olds in talk radio and that's a shame and that's their loss."
The state agencies that have paid SuperTalk the most since 2009 are Mississippi Department of Transportation
($2.3 million), Mississippi Department of Public Safety ($1 million) and Mississippi Department of Human
Services ($780,000).
Public service announcements are one thing, but in some cases, public agencies are actually paying for the
talk radio interviews themselves. That was true in the case of a package SuperTalk put together in 2020 with
the Mississippi Community College Board, which included three interviews with Gallo as part of the
contract. In broadcasting, these promotional deals are called "remotes" because the radio hosts visit the
paying client on site, but in the case of SuperTalk, it's not always clear the station is getting paid for the
coverage.
Ironically, the community college board is located inside the same complex as Mississippi Public
Broadcasting.
Bob Sawyer, a financial advisor in Gulfport and former chairman of Mississippi Public Broadcasting's board,
has long lamented that the advertising TeleSouth has provided could be done for free at the publicly funded
station.
'f said state leadership only had one issue. "The only thing they had issues with is they felt like it (MPB)
little too liberal," he said.
s tate agency payments to Supertalk have steadily declined since the 2000's, from $831,637 in 2009 to
$609,473 in 2016 to $228,722 in 2022. This does not account for money SuperTalk receives through
state contracts with other ad agencies that buy placements at the network.
These figures also do not include the public funds SuperTalk may receive through other passthroughs, such as
it did through Families First.
The private nonprofit structure of Families First, plus a breakdown of internal controls at the welfare agency,
meant that much of the public TANF money they spent, including at SuperTalk, was not public record until
the auditor included it in his audit report.
"The funneling of this kind of money that was taxpayer funded for welfare, for helping the most marginalized
and vulnerable people," Briant said, "the fact that that was being funneled into a political campaign that was
all about image management and branding and trying to sell these elected officials to their own audience, not
to the people who most need this welfare is just very blatantly a disgusting misuse of resources to fuel
political propaganda."
Compared to other vendors providing advertising services to the state from 20 15 to 2022, according to
Mississippi Today's analysis of public expenditures, Supertalk is the fifth highest paid, behind Maris West &
Baker ($24.3 million), Mann Agency ($4.1 million), Godwin Advertising Agency ($4.1 million) and Frontier
Strategies ($3.5 million)- owned by Bryant's close ally Josh Gregory.
But the $2.2 million TeleSouth received in that same time period dwarfed what the state paid other radio
broadcasters, some of which have broader audiences, such as iHeart Media ($110,000), New South Radio or
MIX 98.7 ($111,000), The Radio People orY101 ($3,000), or even American Family Association ($31,000).
The state also paid nearly $700,000 to Snapshot Publishing, the ad firm owned by Gov. Reeves' sister-in-law
Leigh Reeves.
Top 15 firms receiving public advertising funds in
Mississippi since 2015
Here are the 15 f1rms that have received the most public advertising from the state of
Mississippi since 2015. Mississippi Today calculated these figures by adding up all
expense items labeled Advertising & Public Information on the state's Transparency
website from the beginning of 2015 to June 30, 2022 (there could be advertising f1rms
that receive funding from purchases labeled under a different item name).
MARIS WEST & BAKER /,8Bb.U8
MANN AGENCY $4,119,103.58
FRONTIER STRATEGIES $3,528,875.40

GODWIN ADVERTISING
$3,050,599.26
AGENCY
TELESOUTH
$2,214,585.58
COMMUNICATIONS
ALABAMA MEDIA GROUP $1,310,680.35
LAMAR COMPANIES $1,254,078.11
GODWIN ADVERTISING
$1,082,206.98
AGENCY
TRAVEL SOUTH USA $963,711.69
MSTOURISM
$804,000.00
ASSOCIATION
IMG COLLEGE LLC $762,486.00
GANNETT RIVER STATES
$715,453.71
PUB CORP
C::7n1 (l(l(l (l(l
State agency payments to Snapshot Publishing LLC
State agencies paid Snapshot Publishing, the ad f1rm owned by Gov. Tate Reeves' sister-
in-law Leigh Reeves, $687,698 from 2015 to 2022.
2022 2021 2020 2019 21
TOTAL $68,800.00 $76,148.90 $100,359.35 $71,833.45 $1
Dept Wildlife
Fisheries & $1,900.00 $1,706.00 $20,400.85 $11,233.45 $~
Prks
Dept of
Archives and $26,750.00 $20,950.00 $25,800.00 $40,100.00 $1
History
Department of
Marine $17,500.00 $17,500.00 $17,500.00 $17,500.00 $1
Resources
MS Dept of
$14,000.00 $18,000.00 $16,000.00 $1
Transportation
MS
Development $10,742.90 $13,208.50 $1
Authority
Dept of
Agriculture & $8,650.00 $7,250.00 $6,350.00 $3,000.00 $~
Commerce
Department of
Health
Legislative
Joint $~
Operations
Finance &
$1,100.00
Administration
tl agencies continue to pay SuperTalk in the current fiscal year, including the Board of Contractors
"'· ,.JOO), Department of Rehabilitation Services ($1 0,500) and the Mississippi Development Authority
~~~
($12,500).
SuperTalk is not a cheerleader for every state agency, though. In mid-2019, the network interviewed State
Superintendent of Education Carey Wright, blasting the Mississippi Department of Education for not being
able to calculate how many teachers would receive a proposed pay raise.
"Her interview on Gallo was a train wreck. She blamed it on their computer system," Dillon remarked to
Davis, referring to Wright." ... Gallo compared her to Hillary."
Wright, who was appointed by the department's board, not the governor, often found herself in the crosshairs
of Republican politicians.
And the Mississippi Department of Education hadn't paid SuperTalk since 2009.
exts gathered so far in the welfare case make SuperTalk seem like the water cooler for Mississippi's
T most powerful.
And like many government programs, Families First was infected by gossip, backstabbing and politics.
In the last months leading up to Davis' ousting, the welfare program was consumed by infighting between the
two nonprofits selected to run the initiative.
Bryant allegedly directed Davis to cut funding to the nonprofit in the northern part of the state, Family
Resource Center of North Mississippi, Mississiggi Today first regorted, because its director Christi Webb
supported Democratic candidate Jim Hood for governor.
"Kim just called and said to hold firm," Davis texted a colleague in March of2019. "Also had a lot to say
about Christi and what the Gov said when he was in to talk to Gallo. CRAZY WORLD."
© 1023 Nonprofit Mississippi News.

·powered by News pack by Automattic
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HINDS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
vs. CAUSE NO. 22cr601-JHD
TONI JOHNSON
COUNTY OF HINDS
LISA M. ROSS, after being after first being duly sworn deposes and says as follows:
I am the counselor for the Defendant and above case and burst style case. I make this affidavit in
support at Defendant's motion for recusal of Judge Jess Dickinson in the below referenced case.
I. The Honorable Jess Dickinson was appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to preside over
the proceedings in State ofMississippi v. Toni Johnson.
2. Within the past 30 days, Judge Dickinson's name has appeared in an article that included a text
message of individuals connected to Toni Johnson's comparators. See, Exhibit A.
4. Defendant believes that a reasonable person might question your Honor's impartiality in this
matter because your Honor has political connections to Toni Johnson's comparators in connection with
your Honor's appearance on the Paul Gallo Show.
5. A reasonable person may question the fairness of your Honor's actions based on your Honor's
relation OK finish it on my way made a bag we can go over there like thatship with Toni Johnson's
comparators. Therefore, Toni Johnson requests that your Honor recuse himself from this matter.
6. Every litigant is entitled to nothing less than the cold neutrality have an impartial judge, however,
under these newly discovered circumstances, Defendant harbors doubt that Judge Dickerson can promptly
and fairly bring to this court's proceedings, the appearance of cold neutrality. Defendant further believes
EXHIBIT
J rJ rl
that it might be difficult for Judge Dickinson to impartially preside over this criminal case without
reflecting on his own personal integrity. The appearance of partiality is just too great.
7. Defendant incorporates the assertion made in the attached Motion for Recusal and asserts that
this motion is filed in good faith and that the affiant believes that the facts to be true.
day of January 2023.

CLERK

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Case: 25CI1:22-cr-00601 Document #: 95 Filed: 01/09/2023 Page 1 of 24

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HINDS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

vs. CAUSE NO. 22cr601-JHD

MOTION FOR RECUSAL

to the following to wit:

the proceedings in State of Mississippi v. Toni Johnson.

selectively prosecuted on account of her race and other prohibited reasons.

comparators. See, Exhibit A.

your Honor's appearance on the Paul Gallo Show.

disqualifY themselves in proceedings in which their impartiality might be questioned by a reasonable

Harrison, 483 So. 2d 378, 380 (Miss. 1986).

your Honor recuse himself from this matter.

WHEREFORE PREMISES CONSIDERED, Toni Johnson respectfully requests this Court to

/s/ Lisa M. Ross

Credit: Photo Illustration by Zack Orsborn

THE BACK CHANNEL

SuperTalk radio was a powerful mouthpiece for

~!'by Anna Wolfe

Gallo was describing welfare.

He did not address the characterization of SuperTalk as a campaign tool.

Enjo X'C t()riight so much! We need

Credit: Graphic by Bethany Atkinson

2022 2021 2020 2019

Grand Total $244,977.00 $149,340.95 $274,133.70 $313,599.65

Department of $4,055.50 $2,800.00 $2,480.00

Fair $1,805.40 $3,042.15

Office of the $1,789.00

"There's so many more people involved in this," he added.

John Davis, 5:29PM

June 14, 2019

Lynne Myers, 9:56 AM

June 15, 2019

Graphic by Bethany Atkinson

But Supertalk helped prop up the facade.

The relationship continued into Gov. Bryant's administration.

MARIS WEST & BAKER /,8Bb.U8

MANN AGENCY $4,119,103.58

FRONTIER STRATEGIES $3,528,875.40

2022 2021 2020 2019 21

TOTAL $68,800.00 $76,148.90 $100,359.35 $71,833.45 $1

© 1023 Nonprofit Mississippi News.

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HINDS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

vs. CAUSE NO. 22cr601-JHD

the proceedings in State ofMississippi v. Toni Johnson.

message of individuals connected to Toni Johnson's comparators. See, Exhibit A.

your Honor's appearance on the Paul Gallo Show.

day of January 2023.

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