Overview
- Lindsey Whiteside pleaded guilty to sexual battery of a child and was sentenced to three years of house arrest and seven years of supervision with no prison time, and she must register as a child sex offender.
- District Attorney Matthew Barton says the sentence is unlawful for a crime he says Mississippi classifies as a violent offense and will file a motion to reconsider or vacate it.
- Barton is urging DeSoto County school board member Michele Henley to resign over a support letter; she testified she wrote it at her daughter’s request and did not know case specifics.
- He is also seeking to unseal additional support letters he says came from nine teachers and a vice principal, as residents push a petition and the superintendent cites employee due-process limits.
- Prosecutors cited extensive evidence, including roughly 64,000 pages of text messages and handwritten notes on church stationery, and say the abuse occurred from May to November 2024 when the victim was 14 to 15 years old.