A federal court jury in Jackson rendered a $600,000 verdict on October 2, 2014 in Hewitt v. City of Jackson. Here is the Clarion-Ledger article on the verdict. Here is the verdict form.
From the Clarion-Ledger article:
Don Hewitt, whose Advanced Technology Building Solutions group was looking to take on the two projects, this week was awarded $600,000 by a jury that found city officials serving under former mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. violated Hewitt’s free-speech rights by blocking his effort to convert the bank building into a development featuring a 120-room hotel, 33 apartments and 32,000 square feet of retail space. Those plans later were changed by Hewitt to place greater emphasis on multifamily housing.
As those plans were taking shape in 2011, ATBS also partnered with a Texas company that year to bid on building the convention center hotel. That bid and a second one each were rejected, and the hotel has yet to be built. The lawsuit contended Johnson abruptly withdrew his conceptual support of the Deposit Guaranty redevelopment shortly after the hotel project bid.
Nick Norris and Louis Watson, Jr. of Jackson represented the plaintiff. Claire Barker and Gail Lowery represented the City.
District Judge Louis Guirola presided in the case.