OXFORD, Miss. – William C. Martin, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Sheriff Jim H. Johnson of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, announced that:

Michael Shane Minich, former Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy, was sentenced today before United States District Judge Sharion Aycock, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, following his guilty plea entered in April to a four-count Information, charging him with depriving citizens of their civil rights under color of law, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242.

Judge Aycock ordered Minich to serve twelve (12) months for each count of the Information, with his sentences to run concurrently. Minich was also ordered to pay $2810.00 in restitution to his victims and to serve a period of one year supervised release following incarceration.

The Information alleged that Mr. Minich deprived four different individuals of their Constitutional right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by secretly removing cash from the individuals’ wallets during traffic stops. As a part of his guilty plea, Mr. Minich agreed to make no attempt at any time to regain his Mississippi Law Enforcement Professional Certification.

This case was investigated by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Tupelo, Mississippi, office and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert W. Coleman, II.

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