Mayor dismissed from lawsuit tied to contentious Senate race

JACKSON, Miss. – A federal judge has dismissed claims against a Mississippi mayor and a police officer in a lawsuit filed by relatives of an attorney who killed himself during a 2014 U.S. Senate race.

The judge granted dismissal requests Tuesday by Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and the officer.

In 2017, Mark Mayfield’s survivors sued Hawkins-Butler and others, saying they were part of a network that pushed Mayfield to suicide.

The lawsuit said Mayfield’s life was ruined when he was charged with conspiracy to exploit a vulnerable adult after others published an online video showing Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife in the same nursing home where Mayfield’s mother lived. The video claimed Cochran was having an affair while Rose Cochran was incapacitated.

Police said Mayfield showed someone entry to the nursing home to find Rose Cochran, and that person took her photo.