Jerry Mitchell tracks the change in Dickie Scruggs:
AP – Rogelio M. Solis
“When Scruggs was sentenced on the first corruption charge on June 27, he appeared badly shaken, at one point needing help sitting down, in response to getting a five-year sentence. This time a shackled Scruggs calmly accepted his fate.” And after court, he changed out of his nice suit into something more uncomfortable.
Bruce Newman – Oxford Eagle
Elsewhere, Jerry predicts that Dickie isn’t the only one in for change:
That’s because Dickie Scruggs could become a key witness in future corruption cases. … Scruggs originally was charged with the wrongdoing in a still-sealed indictment, and prosecutors said Tuesday that others are named in that indictment. … Scruggs’ cooperation could lead from the legal world into Mississippi’s political world.
Into Mississippi’s political world? Where feed such creatures as Trent Lott, Mike Moore, and Jim Hood?
“The system needs purging,” Bob Wilson’s lawyer Charlie Merkel told Jerry. “I would hope any leads developed through Scruggs’ cooperation that implicate other public officials or others who tried to influence public officials will be followed up and prosecuted to the fullest.”
Starting with whom? Jerry focuses on P.L. Blake, “the man who bizarrely earned $50 million from the state’s tobacco settlement by clipping newspapers and assessing political activity for Scruggs, who championed that settlement. …” Dickie has had and will continue to have much to explain about P.L. and his errands, no doubt.
Because of his continuing cooperation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Norman asked that Scruggs be moved from the federal prison in Ashland, Ky., to one much closer so that prosecutors can talk more readily to him. Scruggs’ lead counsel, John Keker of San Francisco, asked U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson to recommend the prison in Forrest City, Ark., because of its proximity.
Under the plea bargain, prosecutors have promised Scruggs immunity in exchange for the incriminating information he divulges. Prosecutors also have promised not to have Scruggs turn over any other money.
Forrest City’s prison camp, you’ll recall, counts Zach Scruggs and Sid Backstrom among its inmates. Maybe the three of them can help refresh each other’s memories . . . say, of jokes about filing briefs on cocktail napkins before one of the smaller fish in this net. Of him, Sid Salter writes,
The questions are rather obvious: Was Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter the innocent target of a judicial bribe like Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey? Or was he somehow a player in a backroom scheme to protect Dickie Scruggs’ money? …
While DeLaughter hasn’t been charged with anything, the parade of plea bargains and subsequent cooperating witnesses can’t bode well for the Hinds County jurist.
Player or pawn? DeLaughter’s judicial career now depends on the answer to that key question.
I rather doubt that, don’t you? For a year now, Hinds County has seen the name “Bobby DeLaughter” only in company with “Ed Peters,” “Dickie Scruggs,” “Trent Lott.” For him, the ch-ch-ch-change has already come.
Now to see who else risks walking with a clank . . .
UPDATE: Patsy Brumfield just filed U.S. ATTORNEY: EXPECT ‘SCRUGGS II’ INDICTMENT SOON:
Answers may be public by the end of this week about whether anyone else will be indicted in the judicial bribery scandal named “Scruggs II.” …
Specifically, the shadow falls on scheme participants as described Tuesday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Norman: former New Albany attorney Timothy Balducci and former state Auditor Steven Patterson, plus DeLaughter, former Hinds District Attorney Ed Peters and former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott. …
Coincidentally, Balducci and Patterson will be sentenced Friday for their guilty pleas in “Scruggs I,” the conspiracy to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City. …
At Norman’s request, Davidson also dismissed the indictment in this case, but only for Scruggs – clearly indicating at least one other person is named in the sealed document.
Details of the indictment will be revealed “very shortly,” U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee said at a news conference outside the Aberdeen federal courthouse.
UPDATE II: From a second Brumfield story:
… Although Scruggs entered the downtown courthouse wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, he wore a business suit and tie for the afternoon hearing. He also wore metal shackles.
But he appeared more physically fit than at his June sentencing, and he smiled broadly when he saw his wife, Diane, in the courtroom.
Also in the courtroom with media and the curious was W. Roberts Wilson Jr. and his family, who have attended many of the proceedings related to Scruggs.
Davidson declined to order Scruggs to make restitution in this case, saying Wilson’s civil lawsuit seeks to settle that score.
Outside, Wilson’s attorney, Charlie Merkel of Clarksdale, predicted Scruggs’ plea will move their civil case along.
“The question about whether or not a bribe took place has been laid to rest,” he said.
When’s the soonest the civil case could get started?
Dunno, ceece, but I imagine not before the feds visibly nail down a few more facts-&-perps.
Here’s WSJLawBlog’s quick dish of ketchup (linking NMC’s summary/Part 1).
Has Scruggs ever admitted WHY he committed these crimes? It can’t have been for money, though it looks that way to those of us who are not sitting on a pile of it. He didn’t need any more money. Was this a game he’s been playing for decades that he just fell back into by habit, after he didnt need money anymore? Has he said “that’s all” to the question of many more times he’s done this? What makes this story so fascinating is him not needing the money. It’s like Winona Ryder’s shoplifting. Loose screw, but in Dickie’s case a mean, crafty, conniving one.
“Loose screw” is probably the basic answer, 3dS: some raging (also mean, crafty, conniving) mania for control and dominance.
Meanwhile, I’m putting on my bellesouth mask to think more about Jim Hood’s exposure (as opposed to Mike Moore’s and Trent Lott’s, probably in the thick of Dickie-doin’s for years) . . .
Is it possible or likely, or at least has anybody seen any indication, that some deal exists between the feds and Hood, as a matter of MS/Fed cooperation, for no state prosecution? So that Hood’s staying out of this wouldn’t really be the default of his duties that it appears?
Has anybody caught a whiff of something like that? NMC?
I truly believe it had nothing to do with money, but more to do with control. That is “I can do what I want, you will do what I say or get nothing.” When another attorney (so far as we know both instances involve fees disputes with other attorneys-Wilson, then Jones) opposed him, then he did everything to show them what would happen for doing so. He was blinded by that need to show them who was boss and apparently did anything to do so including bribery. Having known and liked Dickie, I am disappointed, sad by the events, angry at him and others at same time BUT despite all, I am proud that our justice system prevailed, caught them and punished them. You can’t say that for all professions. The system finally worked. If only others had the integrity that Judge Lackey had it would have worked sooner not later. Hopefully we will be a better profession for such.
I can truly say that DeLaughter’s (alleged) involvement in this whole thing has been a blow to my general naivety. When in law school, an internship with the D.A.’s office placed me in his courtroom for nearly an entire summer. I was so impressed with the way he handled cases. He was efficient and fair. He held both the State and the defense accountable. I never got any sight of his civil stuff, but I saw the way he handled his criminal docket and I, a young law student, had aspirations to be like him. He was a legal celebrity to me, worthy of the cover of “Legal Tiger Beat” magazine in my head (I kid).
Now, it appears he wasn’t above the fray… I’ve dedicated my life to public service, much as he did. I can only hope that I can become a beacon of fairness and justice that DeLaughter was to me when I first fell head over heels for the law.
Meh.
you will do what I say or get nothing
Or sometimes “you will do what I say and get nothing.”
the oblivion haha:
It is a sickening feeling when our heroes fall, but i’m glad to see that you can learn from his wretched dishonesty and do not plan to follow in his footsteps. It will probably make you work even harder and keep a watchful eye out to try to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. I know it has opened my eyes. Good luck to you! and i hope you have a propserous career.
I’m happy to say that my heroes have been vindicated by this whole process and it’s an incredible feeling.
Cheers to honesty!
Looks like we might learn what P.L. Blake really did to earn that $50 million. And maybe why he was hired in the first place. If he was to have been consulted in the bribery of of Judge Lackey, one might reasonably wonder whether he had been consulted on other similar such matters. Which leads one to wonder whether he had some deeper knowledge of judges and the judiciary in Mississippi.
I have followed this from day one and can not for the life of me figure out why it is so damn drawn out, the secrecy of sealed indictments, unless it’s to catch a much bigger fish than Scruggs which could pay for all the millions it’s costing to get from one part to another.
This is high dollar drama, as is in The Tobacco Settlement.
It appears Dickie’s spirit has NOW been broken, and when hope is lost we human’s tend to be broken souls and cry out for answers. So in his answers do we find what we really really want to know, what got Dickie to Aberdeen yesterday.
May I offer a video for this thread?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9NgXIkyiwk&NR=1