Ex-cop pleads not guilty to fondling, sexual battery

PURVIS – A former Pine Belt law enforcement officer pleaded not guilty Monday morning in 15th District Circuit Court on multiple charges that included fondling and sexual battery.

Judge Anthony Mozingo set trial for March 17 and remanded Averal “Junior” Burnett to the Pearl River County Jail, where he is being held without bond.

Burnett, 47, was indicted in August by a Lamar County grand jury on four counts of fondling, two counts of sexual battery and a count of attempted sexual battery on a female under the age of 18.

The indictment said the acts occurred in April and May.

Burnett, who had spent the bulk of his 22 years in law enforcement with the Hattiesburg Police Department, retired from the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department after less than a year’s service on May 16.

He was arrested in May by the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and because of his ties in Lamar County, jailed in Pearl River County.

While incarcerated, Burnett was charged in July with two counts of attempted capital murder relating to an alleged murder-for-hire scheme.

Burnett was accused of giving money to a former inmate at the Pearl River County Jail to kill two people tied to the Lamar County case.