Election season may have gotten physical in DeSoto Parish as police juror claims a candidate running for another Police Jury seat hit and pushed her to the ground during a confrontation Tuesday afternoon.
That allegation from Police Juror Jeri Burrell landed Joann Peoples Atkins, 55, of Mansfield, briefly behind bars Wednesday morning on a simple battery charge. She was freed after posting a $800 cash bond on the misdemeanor charge.
Burrell accused Atkins of the offense in a complaint filed with a justice of the peace. Mansfield police then served the arrest warrant on Atkins.
Atkins said it didn’t happen that way. She told KTBS she only knocked Burrell’s phone from her hand.
“I did not touch her. I didn’t touch that woman,” said Atkins.
The incident happened at a home on Church Street that’s behind Atkins’ tax business. Atkins said she was sitting in a chair under a shade tree talking to the homeowner and several other men who were gathered there.
Atkins said the men told her Burrell had been there earlier. Atkins said she was seated with her back to the driveway when Burrell pulled up with a woman that she identified as the secretary for the DeSoto district attorney.
One of the men asked Burrell why she was taking photographs of them. Atkins said that’s when she got up and turned around and Burrell had her cell phone “in my face.”
“I knocked the phone out of my face. I didn’t touch her. She didn’t go to the ground. She didn’t fall. None of that. If she had fallen somebody would have helped her up,” Atkins said.
Atkins is one of two candidates challenging District 4-D Police Juror Thomas Jones in the Oct. 12 election. Jones and Burrell typically are lock-step on issues that come before the Police Jury.
Jones last month questioned Atkins’ eligibility to run for the Police Jury seat with a challenge to her residency. A judge tossed the lawsuit.
But it wasn’t the first time Atkins’ living arrangements came under scrutiny. Her residency was challenged in 2018 when she ran for mayor. That, too, was dismissed in court.
Atkins’ involvement in Mansfield politics goes back to 2014 and 2016 when she led an unsuccessful efforts to recall the former mayor.
In the complaint, Burrell said Atkins hit her on the arm, knocking her cell phone out of her hand then pushed her twice as she tried to get her phone off the ground.