Editor’s note: After this news story was published, the charge of sexual battery against Scott Michael, for which the defendant was indicted on Aug. 25, 2023, was dismissed in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County on April 9, 2024, due to the lack of prosecution on the part of the affiant. The charge of kidnapping, for which Michael was not indicted, had been dismissed on May 11, 2023. Expungement of Michael’s records on all dismissed charges was ordered and adjudged by Circuit Court Judge Kent E. Smith on April 9, 2024, pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated 99-19-71 (1).
John Scott Michael, 52, of Oxford was arrested Monday on charges of kidnapping and sexual battery. Micheal is the owner of a popular Oxford bar, Rooster’s Blues House, and a former candidate for a seat on the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors.
According to a release from the Oxford Police Department, officers responded to Courthouse Square for a report of a person needing assistance on April 12.
The person who filed the report claimed that a male sexually assaulted them. A detective was notified and carried out an investigation.
In a sworn affidavit from April 17 obtained by The Daily Mississippian, the victim, an Ole Miss student, alleges that Michael locked them in his office while they were intoxicated and would not let them leave. According to the Mississippi Code, this constitutes kidnapping.
Michael’s bond was set at $50,000 dollars by a Lafayette County Justice Court judge on April 24. According to the Lafayette County Detention center, Michael is not in their custody as of April 26.
Michael is also the author of a book, “Mississippi Killer Blues.”
According to the Square Books website, the book tells the story of a fictional man named Rooster Feathers, owner of Rooster’s Blues House and a licensed private investigator, as he attempts to solve a series of disappearances of women on the backroads of Lafayette County, Miss.
