Tim Balducci represented himself at his sentencing, and during the sentencing hearing, it became clear that he had asked for no letters on his behalf, and that he had cooperated more than any cooperating witness in the memory of the Northern District U.S. Attorneys office.
When he was called before the bench, he spoke first. He said:
I am profoundly sorry for what I have done and I accept full responsibility for what I have done and the consequences. I apologize to all the innocent people who have been hurt by my conduct. I intend to make things as right as I can…
Bob Norman then spoke:
I wake up some mornings and look at where we are and I look at how far we have gone in these cases and where we are going. Not because of me, Tom Dawson, or Chad Lamar, but because of Tim Balducci we are were we are in this case. His cooperation was immediate, unrelenting, and continuing. He asked people not to write letters on his behalf, and made no objections to the Presentence Report. He doesn’t contest anything in it. He is trying to right the wrong he has done. At the beginning, I thought there was considerable risk to him and his family.
He has literally been digging ditches to support his family.
I don’t want to presume to speak for everyone in the office, but I have made some inquiries, and our office has never seen substantial cooperation like this.
If you go to the C-L’s homepage, look to the right side and scroll down about a third of the way. You’ll see a row of buttons, one of which says “video.” Click that and then the image of Judge Lackey to get just over a minute’s snippet of his conversation with Paul Quinn about the bribery that started this whole thing.
How’d he look, NMC? I was hoping the Eagle‘s website might have changed by now, but it’s still stuck on Thursday.
I believe, Balducci is the only one that is truly sorry for his actions. I may be wrong, but sure seems that way.
I will never, ever be able to reconcile the Tim Balducci that I have known with the person who personally hand-delivered a $40,000 cash bribe to Henry Lackey. Throughout this whole thing I have continually been praying for comfort for Tim’s children. Tim and Bobby DeLaughter stand as proof that anyone is subject to being corrupted at some point under the right circumstances.
Thanks, Lotus-1. I hadn’t seen The Judge before. Kinda has that Tip O’Neill thing going on.
lay down with dogs, get up with fleas. he’s just a mutt bound for the pound.
sorry he was caught maybe….
kind of hard to tell where Norman ends and Tim’s head begins…
He’s the first one to evoke sympathy from me. I admire the way he’s done this.
Observer 4, anyone on the make, that is.
Phantom 5, yuh-huh, he does.
I don’t want to rain on the sweet potato sympathy parade but spare me such. The guy was ivolved in the Delaughter bribe and the initiator of the Lackey bribe and was trying to bribe Lackey in a DUI fatality case when he was arrested.
ADH @ 10: Thank you for injecting a bit of reality into the room.
You’ve got to be kidding me — sympathy for Balducci none zero nadda!! His wife and children yes, him no. If it were just the Scruggs mess, I might have thought like some of you he just got in with folks he shouldn’t have — BUT when he then progressed so easily to attempting bribe Judge Lackey over that DUI death case that was it for me, no sympathy whatsoever. It was like once he realized bribery was so easy, and profitable, he thought hey lets do it again. Makes me ill!!!
Sorry guys and gals I got no sympathy for him or Patterson, who is apparently the one who first suggested in Wilson, lets go get Ed Peters to help us. I hope Peters doesn’t dodge the bullet either, all of them deserve some prison time.
I guess what I meant to say was that he seems to be the only one “coming clean” and truly admitting what he did in a manner that rings sincere. By sympathy I didn’t mean to suggest he shouldn’t go to prison and shouldn’t be denied a right to ever practice law again. Forgive me for this expression, ladies, but he’s the only one who seems to “be a man” about this sentencing phase — no horseshit, no counsel, no letters pleading for mercy. That’s what I was talking about. And maybe he benefits, comparatively, by his co-defendant, Patterson, giving me a near terminal case of the willies.
Ok, I understand and agree, but still think he’s lower than a snake butt.
I think he is doing what his good buddy Bob Norman is telling him to so that they can take it easy on him. they have been friends for a while.
but make no mistake- he is in it up to his bull wacky color eyeballs-
I agree with the sentiment of TS @ 13.
Over the years Langston had employed quite a few young Lawyers who moved on after time there, Tim just got sucked to far into the hole, after all Joey was always hanging with the big boys as in Moore and Hood.
I was thinking about the Scruggs affair and remembered a conversation I had with a Booneville local shortly after I moved here in 2004. He was extolling the legal ability of Joey L. and told me a story of his brother being charged with murder. His mother went to Joey to save her boy and was given three prices for a fee. As I recall 10 year plus was $5000, 2 years was $15,000 and no time for $25,000. At the time I did not think much about it other than it being a quote for the amount of legal effort to be expended. Now with the bribery and chicanery that has been exposed I wonder if those figures included gifts to the bench. I also ponder if this is common practice in some jurisdictions?
Ask Joey. He should be willing to explain it. He’s already cut his deal, and there shouldn’t be any consequences for the hard, cold truth.
Kycol, I recall a local, Tupelo-area attorney telling me about a client they had started working with that had a case that looked promising for a large judgment or settlement. Somehow Joey got wind of it, contacted the client and mysteriously the client switched to Joey for representation. A large judgment/settlement resulted with big payoff for Joey.
Years later the Tupelo attorney saw the client and found out how Joey had bought the client a new car in the beginning to get the case. I wouldn’t call any of Joey’s practices common or honorable when compared to the attorneys I know.
Long before today, I did hear that a couple of folks offered to write letters on Tim’s behalf, but that he would not hear of it and sent word that his friends should not “embarrass themselves” by writing letters. I think I posted about that earlier. One thing is clear, you would never see Steve Patterson digging a ditch to support his family.
AIG @ 20, that is true. Cars, funerals, boob jobs, house payments, motorcycles, Joey and his Daddy bought anything they needed to buy to “run” a case. It was common practice. So much so that members of the local Bar Association went to him about the practice and told him to knock it off. It didn’t work.
Call me crazy for asking, but…it seems to me that Balducci was somewhat comfortable with corruptly approaching Judge Lackey (Al D Huez @ 10). Does anyone else think that Balducci had previously done this…like it wasn’t his/their first rodeo? Am I totally nuts to wonder if this had happened before?
Oh fer petey’s sakes — don’t tell me bellesouth’s taken over ccvz’s identity!
18 Kycol. A contingency fee in a criminal case is unethical, but doesn’t surprise me in light of circumstances and other comments that Langston would do something unethical.
Kycol in 18, Tim in 25: Not only is a contingent fee unethical, guaranteed results are unethical.
Criminal commit crimes. Thai is what they do. There is no telling how many Dickie and Joey and Stevie and Timmie and the Zachster have committed.