Greg Davis’ retrial moved to Oxford

Attorney: Trial was moved due to schedule conflict

Former Southaven Mayor Greg Davis will be retried on felony fraud and embezzlement charges in Oxford, rather than Grenada as previously announced.

Steve Farese, Davis' attorney, said Wednesday the case was moved to Oxford because of a scheduling conflict in Grenada. The trial is still set to begin June 19.

Davis is charged with illegally purchasing a city-owned SUV without approval from aldermen and of being reimbursed for mileage that was also billed to a city-issued card. A DeSoto County Circuit Court jury in Hernando convicted Davis in 2014, but the Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed the ruling on the grounds Davis should have been granted a change of venue due to intense publicity.

If the conviction had been upheld, Davis was to serve 2 years concurrently on each of the charges.

Farese said Wednesday he could not discuss strategy for the new trial. The appeals court did not rule on potential errors during the original trial, saying the venue issue made other points irrelevant.

Farese had hoped to avoid a retrial after the original conviction was thrown out, hoping District Attorney John Champion would agree to a settlement. But Champion was intent on retrying the case.

Davis was mayor of Southaven from 1997 to 2013, before losing a re-election bid to Darren Musselwhite.

In a separate civil case, Davis was ordered to repay more than $70,000 to Southaven for improper charges billed to the city, including at a sex shop in Canada. Davis has repaid about $96,000 of more than $170,000 he was ordered to repay by state Auditor Stacey Pickering.