A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming a Mississippi city was at fault in the death of a lawyer who killed himself in the wake of a political scandal that defined Mississippi’s bitter 2014 U.S. Senate race. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled Wednesday that relatives of late Ridgeland lawyer Mark Mayfield had not proven that the city of Madison had improperly retaliated against Mayfield for constitutionally protected speech or political activity. Mayfield was charged with a crime after police accused him of helping others trespass at a Madison nursing home to take a picture of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife.
