Former Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Former Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps has pleaded guilty to two counts in a federal corruption case.
Epps entered the pleas Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate in Jackson.
Epps and businessman Cecil McCrory had pleaded not guilty to charges that McCrory gave Epps hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes starting in 2007 in exchange for Epps steering prison contracts to companies McCrory owned or consulted for.
Epps was commissioner for 12 years. He resigned the $132,700-a-year job Nov. 5, and federal prosecutors the next day released the indictment charging him and McCrory, who’s a former state lawmaker.
The 49-count indictment, sealed since August, charged Epps with 35 felony counts and McCrory with 15 felony counts.
McCrory is still scheduled for trial April 6.