We now have a transcript of that 90 minute consensual conversation. Lots to talk about there.
It must have been nervewracking for the FBI to send Balducci in, because Balducci is a man who has some serious issues with verbal tells. He announces near the start of the conversation (remember, it’s 11/1) , “No trick or treat for me.”
Zach tells Joey, “I just hate how bad your Kentucky thing turned out.” Balducci at one point notes that, “I know Joey’s been dumpin’ on me a lot about that.”
Balducci starts drawing Backstrom into a long conversation about the order from Lackey, and, just in time, Zach comes in. Zach at one point goes into how State Farm is using discovery that Grady Tollison is turning up against the Scruggses. Just you wait, Zach! Moment of greatest gall (more gall than Caesar ever dreamed of!) is from Zach:
Zach: Well, shit, you know, this is the proper thing to do, uh, it’s just, uh, you know, it’s just so unprofessional, what these guys have been up to, and unethical. Attaching all these, uh, things that they’re ciphering through and God knows what Grady’s talkin’ to State Farm lawyers about.
They debate the terms of the order, with Zach worrying that if the case is not dismissed and Judge Lackey leaves the bench, they will be dealing with a new judge.
Then Balducci introduces the kicker. Grady has filed new motions, and, because of this:
Balducci: Um, the other piece of this puzzle I hadn’t told you yet is, uh, get it how you want it because I’ve got to, uh, I’ve gotta go back for another delivery of, uh, another bushel of sweet potatoes down there. So because of all this that has come up. So get it right. Get it how you want it ’cause we’re paying for it and get it done right.
Backstrom starts reading the order and says: “That’s good enough for me. I wouldn’t change anything. I’d just get ‘er done.” Balducci then says he’s going to take it down and see that it gets done quickly.
At page 37 they laugh about a political cartoon showing Jim Hood as a Pez dispenser dispensing million dollar cases. Backstrom says he’d sent it to Joey.
Balducci solves a mystery — he says he’s stumbled on “Richard Iube, who I think you probably know, former Attorney General in Louisiana, buddy of Scruggs back from tobacco days, and all, he’s joined us of counsel now, and Steve and he go back a long way, too….” (Even in this fix, Balducci can’t stop bullshitting.)
You know when this story first broke, I had a certain degree of sympathy for Zach Scruggs as a young lawyer who was sadly led astray by his father. I realize now that that sympathy, tempered though it was, was profoundly misplaced.
I still have it for Zach’s wife and children… but no longer for him.
I feel sorry slightly for the fact that he was raised by a man that is morally inept. In that situation, Zach had the cards stacked against him. But with this evidence, I think he is just as bad, if not worse than his father; If he can rationalize this, I shudder to think of all the things he would do in the future.
But it will be tough going in front of a judge with the “some other a$$hole ” comment on the record.
And along with them, I’ll add Balducci’s wife. Remember those ridiculous statements that Patterson’s wife made to the press? Have zero sympathy for her. I think she’s known about how her lifestyle has been funded for years.
But with Balducci’s wife (from Monroe county, as you known Lotus), I understood that she wanted to immediately leave him and take the children, she was dev-as-ta-ted. But she didn’t have any choice—they were all immediately put into some sort of custody and if she went back home to her family, as she wished, she would they would all be jeapordized. Until I’m told differently, I feel for her.
yes i feel sorry for these women sitting back eating bon-bons never asking where the money comes from as long as it keeps pouring in. hang on — i gotta run for kleenex.
You know that to be the case Confounded? Let me know if so, but so far, Patterson’s wife is the only one who has put that sort of characterization about herself out there.
let’s just say; uh, yeah!
Nevermind – got it. – sorry, wrong thread for this comment