Retired Hinds County Court Judge Melvin V. Priester Sr. died peacefully on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at his home in Jackson. He was 74.
Funeral services are incomplete. Lakeover Memorial Funeral Home in Jackson is in charge or arrangements.
Judge Priester concluded a public service career of nearly 40 years with nine and one-half years of service on the Hinds County Court. He was elected in a runoff to Sub-District 1 in November 2010 and took office on Jan. 4, 2011. He retired on June 3, 2020, due to health issues.
At the time Judge Priester retired, he said, "The time that I spent on the bench was certainly one of the most interesting and challenging periods of my life. I thank all those folks who put me on the bench. I thank all of those folks with whom I had the opportunity to work." As he looked forward to retirement, he said, "I will just lean on the Lord and He will show me the way."
Retired Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green said that Judge Priester's service reached far beyond his County Court courtroom. "He was my go-to to handle the overload." Judge Priester handled preliminary hearings and arraignments. The Circuit Court designated him as a special circuit judge to try cases in which litigants were willing to move to County Court, and he presided over felony guilty plea hearings. "That freed us (circuit judges ) in terms of being able to deal with the other matters," she said.
He was already an experienced Circuit Judge. In 2008, the Supreme Court appointed him as a Special Circuit Judge for Hinds County. He was one of several judges appointed by the Supreme Court to address violent and drug related crimes. Court, He served for more than two years.
Later, as a County Court Judge, Priester also dealt with preliminary matters in Circuit Court in many of the cases in which minors were charged as adults; the cases involved violent felony crimes. He helped the courts meet the requirement for providing a hearing before a judicial officer within 48 hours, Judge Green said. "I called upon him to make sure that was happening," she said. When COVID struck, he stepped in to help the circuit judges conduct hearings remotely for detainees at the Hinds County Detention Center. He also assisted the municipal courts by conducting some of the initial appearance hearings, she said. He had been a municipal judge for nearly three years in his earlier service.
"He provided certainly a benefit not just to the County Court," Judge Green said. "Most people didn't know how much he was doing outside his elected position. Whatever we needed him to do, he was always there. He was one of the people who was willing to do whatever it took to get things done."
Judge Green said that Judge Priester was reluctant to retire. He felt a commitment to the Court and the litigants.
Judge Priester had won re-election and had much of his term remaining when he stepped down. He said in an interview, "Due to my physical condition, I can no longer in good faith maintain my position....I think the people of Hinds County and from Sub-District 1 deserve someone who could better serve them." He suffered a stroke in March 2019. He had a heart stint, and he developed diabetes.
Judge Priester's family said in a statement, "That response was typical of Judge Melvin Priester Sr. He was a public servant who tried to guide community residents and counsel courtroom defendants so they would not be defined by past mistakes, and he encouraged young people to dream big and seek higher goals. For many years, he sponsored and/or coached football and soccer teams for young boys, and he successfully mentored older students to compete in debates and mock trial events. He coached mock trial teams at Lanier High School, Murrah High School, and Mississippi College School of Law. He also coached little league baseball and earned a black belt in karate, which he later used in teaching karate to inner city children."
Retired Hinds County Chancery Judge Patricia Wise said, "He was able to influence a lot of young people. He was very dedicated in helping with some of the mock trial competitions." She said, "There weren't many Jackson Public School predominantly black teams participating in the Mississippi mock trial competition" at that time. "He was committed to the next generation of lawyers."
"Mel really added a lot to the legal profession," Judge Wise said. "The first impression that you always got of Melvin Priester Sr. is how intelligent, how intellectual and serious minded he was about his profession."
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education in 1972 and a Master of Education degree in rehabilitation counseling in 1973 from Boston University. He earned his law degree from the University of Texas Law School in Austin in 1986. Before entering law school, he worked in the mental health field for 10 years. He was a rehabilitation counselor and program director at a residential treatment program for emotionally disturbed adolescents in Dorchester, Mass. He worked as a psychiatric social worker at a Houston, Texas, psychiatric hospital, as an assistant unit director of a Houston out-patient mental health clinic, and as unit director of a residential mental health treatment program in Houston.
After moving to Mississippi, he served as a special assistant attorney general in the office of then-Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman. Priester was assigned to health law matters from 1985 to 1987.
In 1988, he co-founded Priester Law Firm PLLC with attorney Elizabeth Charlene Stimley Priester. The firm continues under the leadership of Ms. Priester and their son, managing partner Melvin Priester Jr.
A younger son, Jonathan Priester, is employed at Google headquarters in New York City and serves on the Board of Trustees for Boston University, his father and mother's alma mater.
