A potential criminal case against William Thrasher appears to be over after the Oktibbeha County grand jury declined to indict the former Starkville Police Department officer this term, the circuit clerk’s office confirmed Thursday.
The exact charge or charges presented to the grand jury are unknown, but Starkville aldermen voted this spring to forward the incident and evidence to District Attorney Scott Colom’s office for review after Thrasher allegedly struck a pedestrian with his patrol vehicle in February.
No other details about the incident, including the identity of the victim, ever surfaced after the city’s March action, and Thrasher was never arrested in connection with the case.
Officials with the city and district attorney’s office declined to comment on the matter.
Thrasher resigned his post that same month and was hired this summer by the Webster County Sheriff’s Department.
Grand juries convene in secret, hear evidence and use that information to determine whether to indict — or formally charge — a person with a felony.
Video footage from the patrol car and Thrasher’s body camera are believed to have been part of the evidence submitted by the city.
It is believed a second potential case — one involving former Starkville Sanitation and Environmental Services employee Courtney Ross — tendered to Colom’s office for review has not yet been submitted to the grand jury.
Although the specifics about the incident involving Ross are unknown, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins made multiple allusions about potential wrongdoing and the lack of city rules governing purchase controls the day aldermen voted to pass along the case.
Specifically, Perkins instructed city staff to develop a new policy regarding purchasing and asked City Clerk Lesa Hardin if all of the claims dockets associated purchases were made legally.
Perkins said he wants a proposed policy to include “strict checks and balances, strict accountability, strict oversight and ways and means that all uses of purchase orders are in accordance with state law and guidelines.”
He also asked that the draft include a penalty provision for those employees who violate it in the future.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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