Investigations

On January 19, 2011, Joseph Rigby, a retired Mississippi Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Colonel Trooper, and Rene Morris, a former Mississippi  Department of Public Safety employee, were charged with a superseding indictment in U.S. District Court, Jackson, Mississippi, for conspiracy and false statements relating to commercial driver's licenses.

This investigation was predicated as a result of a request for assistance from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) regarding allegations that State troopers had aided and abetted others in creating false commercial driver's license (CDL) test scores to obtain CDLs, and operational enhancements, such as HAZMAT and passenger endorsements, without going through the mandated state and Federal testing requirements.  The troopers were also alleged to have aided and abetted others in altering CDL driver records to reduce speeding infractions to lesser charges and altered the guilty judicial dispositions of driver records to aid and abet others from receiving judgments in accordance with the State of Mississippi's due process of law.

This investigation is being conducted jointly with the FBI and MBI.  The assistance garnered from the FMCSA Southern Service Center and their Headquarters has been instrumental to the progress of the investigation.

Note: Indictments, informations, and criminal complaints are only accusations by the government, all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.