JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Madison County’s board attorney attended at least two events funded by former CMU engineer Rudy Warnock.
That’s according to testimony given by a former employee of Warnock on Wednesday in federal court.
Warnock and Cleveland Anderson are facing multiple public corruption charges in connection with a 2016-17 bribery scheme.
According to prosecutors, Warnock allegedly bribed Anderson and others in exchange for lucrative contracts with CMU.
During that time, Warnock’s firm was said to have received $6 million in emergency sewer work, of which he profited more than $1 million.
On Wednesday, the court heard from several witnesses, including Calvin Harris, a former high-ranking employee with Warnock’s engineering firm at the time.
He told the court that Mike Espy, now the attorney for the Madison County Board of Supervisors, watched a New Orleans Saints-Atlanta Falcons football game in Warnock’s skybox back in 2016.
Harris testified that Espy, along with other Canton city officials, attended a Beyoncé concert, also at the engineer’s expense.
“Mr. Espy and I were sitting together,” he said. “We were here, the next step off of that was on to the main floor. We were not in a seat way up to the top.”
Court records indicate Espy was the attorney for CMU at the time the bribery scheme occurred. However, he has not been charged with a crime.
The Madison County Journal reported he was appointed CMU attorney in September 2016, replacing Lisa Ross.
According to ESPN, the Saints played the Falcons on September 26, two weeks after Espy’s appointment.
Eric Gilkey and Andrew Grant, two former Canton aldermen, also attended that game. They also attended a Beyoncé concert at the Superdome two days earlier, also on Warnock’s dime.
Gilkey and Grant were indicted along with Warnock and Anderson back in 2021 in connection with the same scheme. They later accepted plea deals in exchange for their testimony.
Harris, who is now in a wheelchair following a spinal cord injury, said Warnock and Anderson were in New Orleans for that year’s WEFTEC conference.
WEFTEC is the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference.
According to its website, the event is the “largest annual water quality exhibition in North America.”
Warnock and Anderson were both attending in their capacities with CMU.
Harris said Gilkey and Grant later joined them, with Warnock directing Harris to rent a room for Gilkey at the Sheraton Hotel on Warnock’s company credit card.
It was the second trip to the Crescent City that the former aldermen were treated to at the engineer’s expense.
Earlier that year, Harris said the four flew to New Orleans on Warnock’s private plane for a two-day fishing excursion in the Gulf.
When they arrived, the four were met by a Mercedes Sprinter van, which took them on a ride around the French Quarter.
“Me and Mr. Gilkey went to a bar, and Mr. Grant and Mr. Warnock went another way,” he said. “It was a strip club.”
The two eventually joined Grant and Warnock at that club before they were taken via a sprinter van to the house where they would stay ahead of the fishing trip.
The following morning, the four men and a guide headed out on the boat.
“It was in excess of 21, 22 feet. Probably a 25-foot boat,” Harris said. All four of us fished, and everybody was comfortable.”
The four returned back to shore after a few hours and flew back via Warnock’s plane later that afternoon.
That trip was in April 2016. Warnock funded other trips that same year, including a fishing trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama, and a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with Congressman Bennie Thompson about funding for Canton projects.
Grant testified they never met with Thompson and instead met with attorney Mike Espy before having lunch, getting massages, and returning home.
According to court records, Espy later flew back to Jackson on Warnock’s plane.
The trial resumes Thursday at 9 a.m. in the federal courthouse in downtown Jackson.
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