Thompson Federal Trial Set To Start- (Involving Public Corruption)
by Johnny Gunter - News Star (excerpt)

Former Poverty Point Reservoir District Executive Director Mike Thompson of Delhi will be in federal court Monday to begin his trial on charges of violating federal law by using district employees to perform work on his private property.

Thompson was indicted by a federal grand jury in Shreveport in June 2007 on one count of violating the Hobbs Act. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Hobbs Act prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce. The Hobbs Act was created to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes but is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption, commercial disputes and corruption directed at members of labor unions.

In a bill of particulars filed into the record October 2007, the U.S. Attorney's Office provided an itemized list showing more than 150 instances from 1997 to 2002 in which an employee purportedly billed the district for performing personal work for Thompson. The services ranged from an hour spent repairing Thompson's chain saw in March 1998 to installing two fans and cable television for four hours in April 1999 to 11 hours in May 2002 traveling to New Orleans with Thompson to transport a door.