The mayor of Mississippi’s largest city has pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from a sledgehammer attack on a suspected crack house in 2006.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton and two police bodyguards entered their pleas Wednesday in federal court and were released on bond.

They are awaiting trial Aug. 18 on charges they conspired to violate the civil rights of the owner of the house and a man living there.

Melton has said he will continue to fight to rid the city of illegal narcotics despite the indictment for leading young men to a house in a drug-ridden neighborhood and using sticks and a sledgehammer to knock out walls and windows.

Last year, Melton and his bodyguards where acquitted of state felony charges in the August 2006 incident.