A former federal attorney is accused of setting fire to a place used as a meeting spot for Alcoholics Anonymous in Jackson.
Capitol Police officers took George McDowell Yoder III into custody. He is charged with two counts of arson in connection with a blaze that broke out at Yana Club in the Fondren District early Friday morning. Yoder is said to have set fire to Yana Club’s building and a nearby dumpster. No injuries were reported at the scene.
Yoder was a special assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2009-11 before launching an unsuccessful bid as a Mississippi Court of Appeals candidate five years later.
No stranger to legal trouble, Yoder is alleged to have taken money from clients despite not working their cases. This yielded a three-year ban on him practicing law in Mississippi. He is also linked to a 2021 residential burglary in Jones County, along with other alleged crimes.
Currently, no motive has been established for his alleged burning of Yana Club.