Trial for sexual battery reset for July 29

An embattled attorney has made numerous enemies in local courtrooms over the last several years — and chatrooms in recent years — so his defense team requested that his upcoming trial for sexual battery be moved out of Jones County.

Brandon Brooks, 46, of Moselle practiced law in the Pine Belt for 17 years and has had “hundreds of cases in Jones County ... involving highly contentious and emotional issues such as divorce and child custody,” defense attorney John Piazza wrote in the motion to change venue.

Family members, close friends and even the client can have “negative sentiment” toward the attorney based on the outcome of a single chancery court case, “even if the attorney provides excellent representation,” the motion continued. “To even come close to ensuring a fair and impartial jury, the Defendant would need to voire dire the venire as to each litigant, witness, family member and close friend involved in his past domestic cases in Jones County and in the Pine Belt. Due to the sheer volume alone of these people, such a voire dire would be practically impossible to conduct in the current jurisdiction.”

Also, “numerous” residents from Jones County and the Pine Belt have filed complaints against Brooks in Jones County Justice Court and with the Mississippi Bar Association, “further exacerbating the impracticality” of trying him here, according to the motion.

Pretrial publicity of the case was secondary in the motion, but it was mentioned as a reason to move the case. The Leader-Call’s coverage was noted, as were various social-media sites, including a Facebook page called “We The People Against Brandon Brooks,” which was started by a Jones Countian, Piazza told the court.

Piazza and co-counsel Matt Sherman put a witness on the stand, Tyler Robertson of Ovett, who said he didn’t believe Brooks could get a fair trial in Jones County. A handful of others signed affidavits making the same claim, but “seven or eight declined to get involved because they didn’t want any affiliation with Brandon Brooks ... in any form or fashion tied to the case,” Robertson said.

The final point in the motion echoed that: “It is well known these days that any person can make any other person part of media coverage simply through posts on social media. These potential witnesses believed that having their name associated in any way with this case could result in them losing their jobs and/or in damaging their reputation.”

Brooks represented Robertson in at least two cases — one for dealing methamphetamine and one involving an auto accident, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Martin confirmed in her cross examination. She filed a handful of affidavits from other Jones Countians who said that Brooks could get a fair trial in Jones County.

In another motion, Piazza asked the court to include the diary of the young cousin of his client’s accuser. A diary entry from July 2020 is in evidence for the prosecution, he said.

“We want to see the entirety of the diary for context,” Piazza said.

Martin argued, “I do have a problem presenting a child’s diary to the defense.”

Judge Dal Williamson agreed, saying that the court will go through it “to see if there are any relevant entries.”

The trial was set to begin this week, but Pizza and Sherman were granted a motion for a continuance and the new trial date was set for July 29, but that could change if the case is moved to another county that can’t accommodate that date.

Brooks was charged with two counts of sexual battery after a family member accused him of making her watch pornography and perform sex acts with him numerous times over a span of approximately six years, according to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department report. He is also facing one count of sexual battery in Forrest County.

The JCSD investigation was launched in August 2021. The young accuser underwent a forensic interview with a child specialist in Gulfport in September 2021. She reportedly told the interviewer that the sexual activity began when she was 7 and it “happened a lot” until she was 13 or so. She described all sorts of sex acts that took place in his bedroom, her bedroom and the living room, giving some graphic descriptions.

Brooks spent a couple of days in the Jones County Adult Detention Center last March after he was charged with trespassing on his ex-wife’s property and failing to appear in Jones County Justice Court for a scheduled hearing in February.

Failing to appear or take care of business in court is something a dozen or so clients have accused Brooks of in formal complaints to the Mississippi Bar Association. There were 12 complaints filed against him for allegations ranging from not providing services that had been paid for to impersonating a former client with a fake Facebook account.

Brooks, who used to have a law office in Jones County and often handled cases in Jones County Chancery Court, had been practicing law out of a West Pine Street office in Hattiesburg. He was convicted in Lamar County Justice Court of impersonation and harassment after being accused of paying people to write false reviews of an opposing law firm. He was ordered to pay $3,500 in restitution to Chris Lott, whose name he used to create a fake Facebook account.

Brooks has been placed on “inactive disability status” by the state Supreme Court.