Judge DeLaughter has been arraigned, and we’re about to start Scruggs II, only now one principal actor has changed sides.
Anyone coming to this story now is literally coming in medias res– in a very complex way, in the middle of an arguably tragic tale. It’s complicated because we are in the middle of two distinct narratives.
One is the narrative of the criminal cases for judicial bribery or improper influence, and the other is the narrative of the underlying cases in which the improper influence occurred. (Note that, accepting the guilty pleas of Joey Langston and Dickie Scruggs, and the testimony of Tim Balducci, I’m saying “occurred” as to both cases).
I don’t want to (re)introduce all of the players at this point, because I want to keep the length of this post in reasonable limits. For now, I’ll talk about Judge Bobby DeLaughter, who lives near Raymond in Hinds County, Mississippi, and is one of the Circuit Court judges there. Judge DeLaughter went to work for a firm that included Bill Kirksey after law school (he was graduated from law school in 1977), and in the 1980s went to work as an assistant district attorney for Ed Peters, the District Attorney for Hinds County. In 1994, he had his most famous prosecution, convicting Byron de la Beckwith of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. He used that as a platform to run (unsuccessfully) for judge, but then was appointed county court judge by Republican Governor Kirk Fordice in 1999. In 2002, Democratic Governor Ronnie Musgrove appointed him circuit court judge on the retirement of Judge Breland Hilburn. DeLaughter gained national attention for the Evers proseuction, and the public view of him was in a large sense defined by the versions of that case told in popular books and a movie about it.
By succeeding to Judge Hilburn, DeLaughter succeeded to the case of Wilson v. Scruggs, about which Dickie Scruggs (the defendant) and Joey Langston (one of DeLaughter’s lawyers) have pled guilty to illegally influencing him.
| The Underlying Case | The Prosecution |
| Asbestos Litigation: The first asbestos case filed in Mississippi was filed by Roberts Wilson, on the coast. In the 1980s, Dickie Scruggs had started a practice on the coast, and wanted to be involved in plaintiffs work on asbestos cases. He worked out a partnership with Wilson on the asbestos cases, in which they were to share work and income. One oddity of asbestos cases– the settlements paid out over time, which meant that there was a long period in which a lawyer would be administering payments, paying his share, and splitting the fee with whoever else was involved in the case, requiring administration over a period of time. | There is not a criminal prosecution parallel with these cases. |
| Asbestos Fee Litigation: Scruggs was involved in joint ventures with more than one lawyer doing asbestos cases– Roberts Wilson and additionally a younger lawyer, Alwyn Luckey. Luckey and Wilson both ended up in litigation over payment of asbestos fees by Scruggs. This litigation started in the early 1990s, and was ongoing throughout the period that Scruggs was embarking on his next big project: The Tobacco Litigation.There is little question that Scruggs was cash-strapped during the tobacco cases. The tobacco companies had always used a strategy of wearing the other side down, and these cases pushed resources to the wall for plaintiff’s counsel.
While the asbestos fee litigation was going on, both Roberts Wilson and Alwyn Luckey (and their legal teams) came to the conclusion that, instead of paying them from the income stream from asbestos settlements (and rather than accounting for that money), Scruggs was using the money both for his own needs (or desires), and using the substantial amounts of the money to cover expenses in the tobacco litigation. Wilson and Luckey filed claims that this use of their money gave them a claim in the asset Scruggs spent it on– the tobacco fees. Basically, they were arguing that Scruggs had wrongfully made them investors in the tobacco litigation, and they should benefit from it. The Wilson case ended up before Judge Bobby DeLaughter. Two of Scruggs’s lawyers, Joey Langston and Tim Balducci, and Scruggs himself have all pled guilty to using Judge DeLaughter’s mentor, Ed Peters, as an off-the-record contact with the judge, using Peters’s relationship to improperly influence DeLaughter, and dangling before DeLaughter the possibility of a federal judge appointment in order to get him to make a series of rulings that carved Scruggs exposure down (and contained and eliminated the risk that Wilson would have a claim to a share of the tobacco fees). |
Scruggs II. One of the asbestos fee cases, Wilson v. Scruggs, is the subject of the Scruggs II criminal prosecution. The Wilson case ended up before Judge Bobby DeLaughter. Two of Scruggs’s lawyers, Joey Langston and Tim Balducci, and Scruggs himself have all pled guilty to using Judge DeLaughter’s mentor, Ed Peters, as an off-the-record contact with the judge, using Peters’s relationship to improperly influence DeLaughter, and dangling before DeLaughter the possibility of a federal judge appointment in order to get him to make a series of rulings that carved Scruggs’s exposure down (and contained and eliminated the risk that Wilson would have a claim to a share of the tobacco fees). |
| Tobacco litigation: This is where Scruggs defined himself as a national figure and set up all the elements of the picture of Scruggs-as-heroic-plaintiff’s lawyer. Important elements of the story included the use of “insider” witnesses and the bringing of cases in jurisdictions where judges could be depended on to rule in ways that shut down the prospects for defendants. Scruggs led the way with tobacco litigation in the Chancery Court on the Gulf Coast, and a standard part of accounts of the tobacco cases is the home-town judge’s rulings shooting down defense positions. Ultimately, Scruggs worked settlements that resulted in spectacular fees for the plaintiffs’ lawyers. The ways in which those fees were shared– who got paid and how the money was used– became a big question in the part of the asbestos-fee litigation that raised questions about how Scruggs used that money. Basically, there are mysterious payments to intermediaries like P.L. Blake (a long-term ally of Scruggs with shadowy connections in Mississippi politics going back years) that have never been adequately explained. | There is not (yet?) a prosecution relating to the dividing up of the immense proceeds from the tobacco litigation. Speculation has swirled around P.L. Blake, a mysterious ally of Dickie Scruggs, who both received and apparently distributed massive amounts of money from the tobacco cases. |
| Katrina Litigation. After Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Scruggs immediately set about attempting (at least from the standpoint of public narrative) to replicate his experience in the tobacco litigation, including the public relations war and the use of former employees of defendants as insider-whistleblowers. A lot of this strategy blew up spectacularly, resulting in satellite litigation over the main insider witnesses, the Rigsby sisters, who had been insurance adjusters for a company working for State Farm on the coast. | Scruggs was unsuccessfully prosecuted for criminal contempt in relation to the Rigsby sisters and the documents they took from State Farm. |
| Katrina Fees Litigation: Note the parallel here? As large blocks of Katrina cases began to settle, Scruggs got into a fee dispute with Johnny Jones, a lawyer who had represented him in part of the Wilson case, and who he’d invited to join the Katrina litigation. When Scruggs demanded Jones take a very small portion of the Katrina fees, Jones sued him in the circuit court in Oxford, where Scruggs had then moved. In the Jones case, Tim Balducci volunteered to take the Ed Peters role, going to the judge, Henry Lackey, and attempting to influence him for Scruggs. After Balducci’s contact, Judge Lackey contacted the federal authorities. | This is the source of Scruggs I. When Balducci attempted to approach Lackey off the record, Judge Lackey became a government witness. Balducci sought to bribe Judge Lackey with money from Scruggs, and Scruggs was indicted. Last summer, he entered a guilty plea on those charges. |
Nifty summary, NMC. Thanks.
Nice summary,
Now to continue if I may. The Luckey-Wilson team (They had separate lawyers and Merkel was Luckey’s attorney and Wilson had various other counsel including Vicki Slater, Kersey Nix etc through the decade of litigation.), discovered that Dickie had in fact, not just speculation but through douments taken the fees owed to Luckey and Wilson and put them into Tobacco litigation with the Tobacco team which included Paul Minor, David Nutt, and various other lawyers and the mega plaintiff’s firm Ness Motley out of South Carolina)There were actually two Tobacco case Mississippi vs Tobacco in Pascagoula chancery court in front of Judge Oswald and the Barbour case in front of Judge Landrum in Jones County. The Barbour case is lead bu Shane and Cindy Langston with Team Tobaccos help. This becomes important latter. (see prior post about Joey Langston)
Now, Judge Hilburn ruled that they brought up the constructive trust argument too late for some reason, so they filed another lawsuit solely on this argument in Federal Court, which was assigned to Judge Lee. Hilburn retires and Delaughter gets the case.
Judge Lee has a hearing on this which was defendants Scruggs MSD or MSJ on this theory which is denied and from his comments seems Lee is inclined to go with Wilson. He reserves his final ruling after the outcome of the underlying state trial to see what % they may/are entitled too.
Scruggs and Alwyn reach agreement on Arbitration and agree to use Judge Davis. Alwyn wins the arbritration ruling. Hence, his litigation with Scruggs may be concluded. David Nutt may have paid the judgment.
Merkel formally joins the legal team of Wilson and Delaughter sends the case to mediation and Bobby Sneed rules almost indentical to Judge Davis. However, Scruggs will not settle the case, instead he goes to plan “B”.
You know the rest. The litigation was “scorch and burn” by team scruggs from the beginning. They even sued Merkel. (See reported decision to get him off the case), tried to have Bob indicted by Scruggs, Police were called into depositions at least once, and it was outragerous expensive. Dickie had been a defense lawyer first remember. The fees to defend this case were paid by all Mississippi Tobacco lawyers apparently so Dickie was not getting hit with the full cost.
In the end, hopefully Justice will be done but as they say Justice delayed is Justice denied, and this has been delayed by a decade.
Thanks for the summary, NMC. Some of us newer arrivals to MS need a primer. Just keeping track of the cast of characters can fill more time than I’ve got for that sort of thing.
To be called a Mississippi Tobacco Lawyer what would one have received in funds, and just where might this elite group be listed. Thinking of sending them a Valentine’s Card seeing most have had a bad week just wondering about those sealed indictments of old friends and mentor’s.
injustice@2: The case in Jones county, Butler, (the plaintiff was a barber) was a second hand smoke case. The case started out with much promise. Frazer’s firm represented the ailing barber. They teamed up with Barrett, Scruggs and the rest of the tobacco team. However they parted ways when it looked like the Medicaid cases were going to settle. The second hand case went downhill for many reasons. Frazer was left holding the bag, tried the case, and lost. However, that is not the end of the story. Frazer successfully sued the Medicaid team, arguing that the Mississippi settlement prejudiced his client’s (the Medicaid team’s former client) case on appeal. The case was settled.
One other tid bit: who was Judge Lee’s law clerk when Dick’s case was in Lee’s court?
Butler the Barber, that is right sorry, But Tortfeasor that is the case where the “smoking gun” documents were first produced. It was not the case in Goula as I remember it. That got them the leverage to do the deal, but they left the damn Butler case hanging.
The tobacco team settled the case without them and took the “smoking gun” docs out with them as part of the deal leaving Roe & crew with nothing. They then tried the case and lost.
Guess who brokered the settlement between Roe Frazier team and team tobacco for 500 pts?
What three Mississipip lawyers actually ever saw the documents for 5000?
I could tell you but would have to kill you. (LOL)
That should have been posted on here before for the most part. I am not naming this guys beacause it is not fair to imply that they knowingly participated in all this crap.
For funds start at about 20 million (over time) and work your way up
Twenty Million, my whole County is not worth that, yet probably the volume of cigs is as great here as they are anywhere in the State of Mississippi. We border two other States who have legal alcohol, yet we are dry and the number of alcoholic’s are as great, also, even with 250 Churches to provide moral leadership for about 18K people.
You think the political/religious right are not well and alive here. Amen Brother.
All I can say is those “smoking gun” docs must have been really hot. Something they could never allow to be seen by the public or the Government. It is my understanding is that they show they manipulated the levels of tar and ingredents to make more people get addicted, and had an elaborate scheme to target kids as young as 8. It must have been really bad…criminal to pay this much.
I agree with everyone that Wilson and Luckey deserve a just result. My question is why would they want to get their hands into this tobacco fee pot when it’s apparently tainted to the core with graft, bribery, judicial corruption and political sculduggery. It seems to me that Merkel, Wilson, Slater, et al. would not want to dirty themselves with a tobacco fee payout.
I bet they had no idea how dirty it was until they lifted the lid and peeked-
rogerwilco @11: To quote Judge Davidson, ““The Romans had a proverb that money was like sea water. The more you drink the thirstier you become.”
I just think they want what should have been given to them freely years ago. However, you can not blame Bob Wilson for being mad. Dickie forced him into bankruptcy, had him indicated by Peters, (Thrown out eventually,), talked bad about him to everyone he could find, bribed a judge, and harassed him at every opportunity, adopted a scorched earth policy in the litigation and did everything he could to make him miserable for over a decade. Most all of it completely spiteful and unnessary. And got away with it until recently……
I4A @14 – And don’t forget Dickie sicced the revenuers on Mr. Wilson (from your post yesterday). Was it just Mississippi, or was it the IRS too? I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy, and I gots a few o’ dem.