By Jimmie E. Gates, Therese Apel and Geoff Pender The Clarion-Ledger

The Hinds County Sheriff's Department is investigating why three people, including a high-ranking Chris McDaniel campaign official, were found locked in the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson hours after an election official says the building was closed early Wednesday morning.

Hinds County Sheriff's Department spokesman Othor Cain said investigators are trying to figure out how Janis Lane, Scott Brewster and Rob Chambers entered the courthouse. They were inside until about 3:45 a.m., Cain said.

Brewster is a former coordinator of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's Mississippi operation and is currently McDaniel's campaign coalition coordinator.

"There are conflicting stories from the three of them, which began to raise the red flag, and we're trying to get to the bottom of it," Cain said. "No official charges have been filed at this point, but we don't know where the investigation will lead us."

Brewster's name popped up during the first days after conservative political blogger Clayton Kelly was arrested and charged in a photo scandal involving U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife, Rose. Kelly was accused of sneaking into Rose Cochran's Madison nursing home and taking photos of her for a political video.

After Kelly's arrest, three other McDaniel supporters were charged with conspiracy in connection with the nursing home case. Those include state tea party leader and attorney Mark Mayfield and a former radio talk show co-host of McDaniel's.

After The Clarion-Ledger broke the news of Kelly's arrest, Brewster said he was aware of the video.

"I do remember when it came out," he said. "I think people made some calls (to have it removed). I didn't personally — nobody personally talked (to Kelly). I don't know if anybody made phone calls about it. I'm not sure. Just, I remember all of a sudden it was gone."

However, after Brewster's comment, McDaniel and other campaign leaders said they knew nothing about the video.

Later it was learned that Brewster had texted state Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef that the McDaniel campaign was doing "all we can to stop the promotion of this Thad story" and that "it didn't come from us in any way, and I'm personally making calls to scrub social media."

Brewster couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

McDaniel campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch issued a statement late Wednesday saying the campaign "sent people to the Hinds courthouse to obtain the outstanding numbers and observe the count." The statement reiterated the people were allowed in by "uniformed personnel" and then being locked inside.

"Predictably, a close Cochran ally wants to make hay out of this. Sadly, the Cochran campaign wants to make this election about anything but issues. Mississippians deserve better than this sort of distraction politics," Fritsch said in the statement.

Cochran campaign spokesman Jordan Russell said, "It is astonishing that the same people who are up to their eyeballs in four felons breaking into a nursing home are also up to their eyeballs in potentially breaking in somewhere else again."

"And this time they can't deny that a paid staffer is involved," Russell said. "At some point you got to say enough is enough. How many more arrests of allies and McDaniel team members before we can say this has gone too far?"

Lane is a member of the board of directors of the Central Mississippi Tea Party. She is among tea party leaders who claimed Nosef was supporting Cochran for the primary and called for his resignation.

Chambers is a consultant with the Mississippi Baptist Christian Action Commission who has worked with McDaniel and members of the Senate Conservative Coalition to fight Common Core.

Hinds County Republican Executive Chairman Pete Perry said he had serious concerns about the incident.

"I don't care who it is. I have a concern with someone being in the courthouse with all the election material down there," Perry said.

Perry said everyone left the courthouse by 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and locked up.

He said he got a phone call from Lane around 2 a.m. Wednesday saying two people, including her, were locked inside the courthouse and were looking for a way out.

Cain said there was never a threat to any ballots, which were already secured.

Cain initially said it was believed Lane went through a door that was propped open and closed behind her. Later Wednesday, he said officials are investigating how the three got into the courthouse.

Perry said Lane was a precinct worker and had dropped off her ballot materials about 8:30 p.m. Perry said some precinct information wasn't sealed.