Judge sentences Scruggs to five years
As of yore, Alyssa Schnugg and the Eagle give us permission to publish the following:
Powerful attorney almost collapses during sentencing
By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer
Richard Scruggs walked into the courtroom with a smile and a handshake for many in the room. His smile quickly faded as U.S. District Senior Judge Neal Biggers Jr. berated the powerful trial attorney for his actions before sentencing him to five years in prison.
Scruggs began to cry, and his body shook as he leaned against his attorney John Keker. A chair was brought over for him to sit while Biggers finished sentencing him.
‘I couldn’t be more ashamed to be where I am today, to be mixed up in a judicial bribery scheme,’ Scruggs said to the court prior to his sentencing. ‘I disappointed everyone — my wife, my family, my son, my friends … I deeply regret my conduct … There’s a scar and a stain on my soul forever.’
Scruggs was charged in November for attempting to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey with $40,000 for a favorable ruling in a lawsuit against him. He pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to bribe a judge in March. Four others — his son Zach Scruggs, Timothy Balducci, Steven Patterson, and his former law partner Sidney Backstrom — were also charged and have since pleaded guilty. Backstrom’s sentencing was set for 2 this afternoon at the U.S. District Courthouse in Oxford.
Biggers spoke to Scruggs for almost 10 minutes, reading parts of the oath lawyers take before becoming a lawyer and calling his crime ‘one of the worst crimes a lawyer could commit.’
‘This is very unpleasant for me,’ Biggers said. ‘You not only attempted to bribe the court, but you violated the oath. … You found out Judge Lackey is not a man to bribe. The justice system made you a rich man, yet you attempted to corrupt it.’
Scruggs was given a $250,000 fine and must report to prison by Aug. 4. He will then serve three years of supervised probation. Keker asked Biggers to recommend Scruggs serve his time at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Fla., since they have family there and it would make it easier for Scruggs’ wife, Diane, to visit him. Biggers obliged.
‘Best of luck to you,’ were Biggers’ final words to Scruggs.
Part of Scruggs’ plea agreement he signed in March capped the possible prison sentence at 60 months. Backstrom is expected to receive a 30-month sentence, since his plea agreement stated he could receive up to half of whatever sentence Scruggs received.
The younger Scruggs is set for sentencing on July 2. Balducci and Patterson have not yet received sentencing dates.
End of a career
After establishing his small practice in Pascagoula, Scruggs gained national attention for earning millions of dollars from asbestos litigation and for his role in a multibillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s.
His meteoric rise in the legal profession and his sudden wealth was a story that could have been scripted by Hollywood — a fact emphasized when his case against the tobacco companies was made a central part of the 1999 movie ‘The Insider,’ starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. An actor portrayed Scruggs in the movie, and some scenes were filmed at Scruggs’ home in Pascagoula.
Scruggs, whose brother-in-law is former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, moved his home and his practice from the Gulf Coast to Oxford about three years ago. He invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations to his office over looking the Square and in the new home he is building around the corner from William Faulkner’s Rowan Oak.
Scruggs sued State Farm Insurance on behalf of hundreds of policyholders whose claims had been denied by insurance companies after their homes were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.
Scruggs put together a legal team, called the Scruggs Katrina Group, to represent the policyholders in the court battle against the insurance companies. One of the firms brought in to work with Scruggs was Jones, Funderburg, Sessums, Peterson & Lee, a law firm based in Jackson.
After the legal team reached a settlement with State Farm Insurance Cos. in January 2007, a dispute over how the $26.5 million in legal fees would be distributed to the firms erupted between the Jones law firm and the other members of the Scruggs Katrina Group. The Jones firm was kicked out of the legal team and, after attempts to resolve the compensation dispute failed, the Jones firm took the unusual step of filing a lawsuit against the other members of the legal team.
The Jones firm, led by attorney John G. Jones, filed a civil lawsuit, Jones, et all. v. Scruggs, et al, in the Lafayette County Circuit Court in March 2007. The Jackson firm hired the Tollison Law Firm in Oxford to represent them in the litigation.
That’s when Scruggs and the other four men indicted in November 2007 allegedly hatched a plan to bribe Lackey to issue a ruling in this legal dispute in their favor, according to the indictment.
Not over yet
Scruggs is still being investigated in the alleged attempted bribing of Hinds County Court Judge Bobby DeLaughter.
According to court records, Scruggs used his influence with Lott to dangle the possibility of a federal judge appointment in front of DeLaughter if he ruled favorably in a lawsuit against Scruggs — Wilson v. Scruggs. Attorney Joey Langston has been indicted in that case and has pleaded guilty. He is awaiting sentencing. No other charges have been filed in that case thus far.
–alyssa@oxfordeagle.com
Last night when it occurred to me that the sentencings would be today, it occurred to me that Dickie Scruggs should have fallen on the grenade for Zach and Backstrom.
Scruggs had to know that he had become the face of the legal profession in Mississippi and that, because he was the face of Mississippi lawyers, he was going to get the max, no matter what he did or said.
Scruggs could have acted selflessly and told Judge Biggers that he was the one responsible for anything that Backstrom or Zach did — that they acted solely at his instruction. Of course, this adds points to the assinine sentencing guidelines, but once you max out you max out. Scruggs could have — and SHOULD HAVE — asked for mercy for Backstrom and for Zach and could have thereby begun to remove some of the “stain on his soul.”
I hear all these stories about people Scruggs has helped. Then I read about how nasty and greedy he was. Very, very complex man.
Again, he SHOULD have fallen on the grenade for Backstrom. But he didn’t. So I guess Scruggs was just one greedy selfish self-serving SOB all the way through.
He certainly ignored his son…if not completely turn his back on him.
If Mr. Scruggs spills the beans so to speak on Judge Bobby DeLaughter what will happen then? Just curious about that and @ 1 there is alot of self-serving SOB’s that get away with what they do.
Alyssa – Great job / article(s)!
Hon it aint “alleged” if they pled guilty to it.
I confess that I have personally delighted in Scruggs finally getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He will never know the personal pain he has caused me and my family. I regret my harbored resentment, and wish it weren’t so. Today I feel otherwise.
I used to practice law, and come from a line of fine attorneys who taught me truth, honesty, and the honor it is to protect and guard the law.
I have now spent more time as a client and defendant than I spent as an attorney. My dealings with Scruggs and other lawyers over the last 16 years has soured me on the the profession – one that I have admired and loved since childhood. I grieve again today for the profession.
But, like that first ray of sunshine in the morning, Judge Biggers and Judge Lackey have given me a spark of hope that honor will be restored in the court system, and that there are attorneys and judges out there that hold to the honor and duty we are called to in the greatest legal system the world has ever known.
When this first surfaced, I was surprised at the scabs it raked to expose old wounds. I expect this to be my last post on all things Scruggs, as I allow them to heal and move forward and release all bitterness I have had for Scruggs and related parties.
shaking and sobbing and needing a chair and leaning on his attorney and a month to report to the prison of his choice. Even a 15 year old being given life for something he didn’t do, acted like more of a man than that. No chair, no leaning, no goodbye to his Mom & Pop. Escorted immediately to Rankin County. It makes me proud.
End of an era ? Scruggs was almost an obsession here at one time. I knew you’d be on top of this story.
Just so you hang around and yak with us on other stuff, Curly. For your sense of release and hope, I’m very glad.
opit, I don’t think it’s anywhere NEAR the end yet.
Hello, pam, and best to your friend Brett.
The Chamber of Commerce is feasting.
“Congress must investigate this scandal so that our civil justice system returns to aiding people who have been wronged, not helping wealthy trial lawyers become wealthier.”
I notice they did not mention the oil and drug companies needing to be investigated for price gouging.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/scruggs-sentence-exposes-trial-bar-abuses,449994.shtml
Oh, you can’t get rid of me that easily!
thanks Lotus, I can’t help but think what a brave little man Brett was that day and has been every day since.