Mississippi Tea Party Leader Commits Suicide After Arrest In Senate Campaign Scandal

A Mississippi Tea Party official arrested as part of a U.S. Senate campaign scandal has committed suicide, Roy Nicholson, the former chair of the Mississippi Tea Party, told Business Insider.

The Clarion-Ledger first reported the news.

Mayfield was one of three people arrested in connection with investigation into an alleged break-in at a nursing home to film the unsuspecting wife of Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran.

The arrest of Mayfield, the Mississippi Tea Party's vice chair, came days after the arrest of Clayton Thomas Kelly, a local activist and blogger who allegedly snuck into Rose Cochran's nursing home and videotaped her.

John Reeves, an attorney representing Mayfield, on the day of the arrest that Mayfield "maintains his innocence." He also said Mayfield had "no connection whatsoever" to Kelly.

"This is politics at its worst," Reeves told Business Insider.

The nursing-home scandal stunned the state's political world weeks before the heated Republican primary between Cochran and Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel. Mayfield was an ardent supporter of McDaniel, who ended up losing to Cochran in a runoff earlier this week.

A spokesman for the Ridgeland, Mississippi, police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for McDaniel's campaign also did not respond to a request for comment.