Former Mississippi state auditor Steve Patterson (right) with attorney Hiram Eastland as he enters U.S. District Court for sentencing this morning. Patterson appeared light-hearted before being sentenced, asking the photographers taking his photo: “Where were you when I was running for office?” Photo by Bruce Newman.

2/13/09 – Last two judicial bribery defendants sentenced
Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

The last two defendants in what’s been branded the Scruggs I judicial bribery case were sentenced to spend 24 months in federal prison for their roles in the scheme to bribe a circuit court judge.

Timothy Balducci and Steven Patterson both appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Neal B. Biggers this morning at the Federal Courthouse in Oxford.

Both men pleaded guilty a year ago to a charge of conspiring with Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, his son and attorney Zach Scruggs and his law partner Sidney Backstrom to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey with $40,000 for a favorable ruling in a lawsuit against the elder Scruggs involving legal fees in Hurricane Katrina related litigation.

During Balducci’s sentencing hearing, U.S. Assistant Attorney Bob Norman told the judge that his department had never seen such “complete cooperation” from another defendant. He said Balducci’s help has opened the doors to other investigations of corruption and that the Scruggs case got as far as it did because of Balducci’s assistance.

“His cooperation was immediate,” Norman said. “He’s doing the best he knows how to do to right the wrong he has done.”

Biggers agreed but reminded Balducci he was the “bag man” in the case.

“You carried the money,” he said. “You talked the judge into going along with what you wanted to do.”

Balducci told Biggers and the court that he was “profoundly sorry” for what he had done.

“All I can do now is try to make things as rights as I can,” Balducci said.

Norman also reported that Patterson has cooperated with the government, albeit to a lesser degree than Balducci.

Patterson was called a “minor” participant in the case, although he received the same sentence as Balducci.

Before he was sentenced, Patterson said he was embarrassed and humiliated.

“If God gave me a choice to live carefree in paradise the rest of my life, or to choose to go back two years ago and change my actions, I would not hesitate to enlist to do the latter,” he told Biggers.

Both men will report to prison on March 25. The government asked for the later reporting dates because their testimony may be needed when the grand jury meets in the March.

The saga began on Nov. 27, 2007, when FBI agents raided Scruggs’ office on the Square. The next day, the five men were indicted.

On Dec. 5, 2007, the day of his arraignment, Balducci pleaded guilty to the bribery charge.

It was later learned that Balducci had been working with the government in building its case against Scruggs and the others.

But it was also Balducci who got the ball rolling. In trying to gain favor with Scruggs, during a meeting with the other defendants in March 2006, he told the famous trial attorney that he could use his friendship to corruptly influence the judge to find in favor of Scruggs in the lawsuit Jones v. Scruggs.

After Balducci approached Lackey and suggested that if Lackey would find in favor of Scruggs, he would give Lackey a place in his law firm after Lackey retired. Appalled, Lackey told the FBI about the conversation. For six months, Lackey allowed his office and telephone to be tapped. In September 2006, in another meeting with Balducci, the subject of money came up and Balducci offered Lackey $40,000. It was later discovered Scruggs was providing the funds.

Balducci was approached by the FBI in November 2007 and he began cooperating with the government and wore a wire tap himself on the day the money was given to Lackey.

Scruggs was sentenced in June to spend five years in a federal prison in Kentucky. His son is serving a 14-month sentence in Forrest City, Ark., and Backstrom is serving 28 months in Forrest City.

Earlier this week, Scruggs was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a bribery case involving Hinds Circuit Court Judge Bobby DeLaughter, which came to light during the Lackey case and through testimony of Balducci. The sentence will run concurrent with his original five-year sentence.

The court then began his explanation of Patterson’s sentence by stating it was true that Patterson came forward early and aided the government and he would give consideration for that. He noted that the government had filed 5K motions asking for a downward departure. He stated that Patterson’s attorneys had filed objections to the presentence report on the calculation of the amount, and asked if counsel wanted to stand on the motion for downward departure or argue those issues. The court noted that if Patterson is a minor participant, the guidelines would still be at 57 months– it would not make a difference.

His lawyer (this time it was McCoy who spoke) persisted in the objection, and the court denied the objection, noting that the court has ruled that the amount involved was not what Patterson may have received (which was nothing) but the benefit the briber (Scruggs) was to get (which was upwards of $400K).

He noted that based on all these considerations, the guidelines point to level 31, which points to a guidelines sentence of more than the maximum of 60 months (the Balducci sentence produced the same calculation).

He noted the 5k1 motion and all the letters.

“You’re the only one in this case who is not a lawyer, and therefore I wonder if you realize you had a disrespect for the legal profession that would make you enter into a conspiracy to corrupt the courts.”  The judge could not decide how to weigh the issue of him not being a lawyer.

“You were in a firm that sounded like a legal firm called Patterson and Balducci.” At this point, he noted that the PSR said he was receiving $80K a month from tobacco fees, and Patterson interrupted to say, “No, it’s more like $20,000.” On pretty close questioning by the judge, Patterson’s lawyer (McCoy) clarified that the amount had gone down.

The judge concluded he was not going to consider his non-lawyer status as a big factor. He then sentenced Patterson to 24 months with a $150k fine to cover the costs of incarceration, which the court acknowledged was a downward departure.

He noted that the government said they would continue to need his cooperation, and that he was not charged in the other illegal bribery case, that this sentence was about this case only and he didn’t know the government’s other plans as to the case involving Judge DeLaughter.

They then discussed the report date and Patterson’s future grand jury testimony.

The other two mentioned are the immigration raid on Howard Industries and the economic meltdown with its accompanying factory closings.  I’m slightly surprised it didn’t mention the Debate in Oxford, or anything about the election.  I’d have also considered the First Congressional District Election and the defeat of three Supreme Court incumbents (actually, has that story been given the play it deserves?  3 of 4 incumbents were defeated.  Has that ever occurred in Mississippi history?).

Anyone have others they’d propose?

A federal grand jury in Oxford is expected to hear testimony this month or next on whether imprisoned former trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs influenced Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter – a case prosecutors already are calling “Scruggs II.”

Scruggs’ prosecution earlier this year in an unrelated judicial bribery case received plenty of national media attention, but Matt Steffey, professor at Mississippi College School of Law, expects this new case to attract more. DeLaughter is known nationally for his successful prosecution in 1994 of Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers. “I expect a media feeding frenzy,” Steffey said. …

Joey’s Langston’s lawyer, Tony Farese, wouldn’t discuss the case because it’s under seal, but that didn’t stop Hiram Eastland, Jr., Steve Patterson’s attorney.

“Steve has been a cooperating witness, so it’s not unusual to see sentencing postponed. We haven’t heard anything on sentencing that would lead us to believe sentencing is imminent, but it’s totally discretionary with (U.S. District) Judge (Neal) Biggers.”

Well, this time we’ve been warned. Lay in your popcorn and clear your cache.

Politics has been a constant from the start of the blog, and the election has dominated lately. Two other major topics are food/cooking (particularly southern food), and southern music. You can look at the food posts by clicking on the category Sunday Dinnah (and you can look at the recipe page), and the music posts by clicking on the category Music.

I hope that whoever is vetting this one is asking some hard questions and doing a little (or maybe a lot) of digging around.

Really regular readers of the blog may wonder if a partial return of contributions connected to the bribery case is really coming clean. Recall as early as December, Lotus was posting about the fund raiser for Biden in August of last year (right in the warm up to the actual exchange of cash in the bribery plot…) co-hosted by Tim Balducci and Scruggs. I did not see the money from Balducci (or several others very connected to all that) in the list of money being “returned.” Later on, excerpts of transcripts in which the reception was being planned were part of the exhibits to a motion.

A month later, as the bribery scheme rocks along, Tim Balducci talks (into a federal wire) to Steve Patterson and says "I’ve been on the phone with Biden this mornin’, that would be Jim Biden. I’m not tryin’ to be like Joey." That would be Joe’s brother Jim.

Reliable sources suggest that there are some pretty big payments directed Jim’s way in the tobacco expenses that Scruggs was compelled to give up as a part of the Wilson v. Scruggs litigation.

And recall that when we asked “a dozen questions about Scruggsiana,” number 6 from Lotus was: “How did Joe Biden get so chummy with these Mississippi boys, and how has that worked for him over the years?”

While I’m on the subject of vulnerabilities to opposition research, I’ll ask this: McCain trumpets his role in “taking on big tobacco” (or something like that). I’m curious if anyone’s poked around that much…

In the Sun Herald, Anita Lee writes:

Now that judgments have been entered in a judicial bribery case, the Mississippi Bar has renewed its request that the Mississippi Supreme Court disbar or indefinitely suspend attorneys Dickie Scruggs, his son, Zach Scruggs, and Sidney Backstrom. …

And up at the DJournal, Patsy Brumfield has it:

… On July 9, the Mississippi Bar Association asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to disbar them, meaning they lose their law licenses.

“Sidney A. Backstrom consents to the Bar’s requested relief,” Backstrom’s attorney, Frank Trapp of Jackson, said in a motion filed two days after the Bar’s disbarment motion.

The same day, the court received nearly identical disbarment requests for the Scruggses.

The Bar tried to disbar them after their pleas a few months ago, but the state’s highest court apparently decided to wait until the proceedings were complete. …

To which Anita adds:

Backstrom is the son of a former Coast Circuit Court judge, James Backstrom, who is deceased. In a letter to the judge before he was sentenced, Backstrom’s wife said her husband is devastated because he fears that he harmed his father’s legacy.

Makes you wonder about whether MSSC’s had quite all the plumbing repair it may need, hm?

Judge Neal Biggers, Jr., underscored on Wednesday the severity and repugnance of crimes committed in the Scruggs judicial bribery cases when he sentenced Zach Scruggs, son of now-infamous attorney Richard Scruggs, to 14 months in prison for hiding his father’s and others’ attempt to buy a favorable ruling from Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City. …

Biggers’ order on Wednesday, which observers said visibly stunned many in the courtroom as Scruggs stood expressionless, is appropriately punitive.

Zach Scruggs’ conduct demonstrated cynical disregard for his oath as an attorney, for the judicial system, and for simple honesty and personal integrity. …

But the editors aren’t at all convinced that this outbreak of civic disease is either isolated or cured. In fact, they think it’s time the justice community step up to serious reform:

The Mississippi bar should undertake an expansive self-examination of the full sweep of attorneys’ and judges’ behavior:

The financial influences in play within the defense and plaintiff sectors of the bar; and, in a separate issue,

The risks inherent in electing judges who become dependent on increasingly large sums of special-interest donations – across the political spectrum – for financing campaigns.

The damage and consequences of the judicial bribery cases are not confined to the guilty, their families, the courts, or the judges.

Our state’s national standing has taken a direct hit, and a unified public response should demand accountability and measures to minimize further erosion of credibility.

Worth a full read, especially if you’d like to know a bit more about Judge Biggers’ career.

As one of the very early public critics of the all-too-cozy relationship between Dickie Scruggs and Mississippi’s last two attorneys general, I don’t question Judge Neal Biggers’ sentencing of Scruggs in the Lackey judicial bribery case. The jail time and the fines were appropriate for the crime and so was the fact that it was a relatively harsh sentence.

As it was during the Pretense scandal and other public corruption cases, it’s a sad commentary that the feds usually have to come in and clean up our messes in Mississippi rather than having state officials step up to the plate and prosecute corruption. But that’s another blog for another day.

One rather curious development in the wake of Scruggs’ downfall is the criticism of the Oxford lawyer’s friends who tried to stand by him after his arrest and conviction. While the attention paid to who wrote letters of support for Scruggs and what those letters said was justified and the information newsworthy, the reactions have been strange. I can’t help but think about Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat.

Khayat hasn’t excused or defended Scruggs’ actions, but neither has he thrown Scruggs under the bus.

Scruggs has lost his ability to practice law, tainted his career and life’s work, lost his freedom, seen his son’s career tainted and his son’s freedom threatened, and volunteered to remove his name from an Ole Miss building after donating more than $25 million to the school. It’s like reading Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which the fall from grace is “headlong flaming”.

Khayat refused to play safe politics and disown Scruggs or shun him. He treated Scruggs like a human being. For that, he’s catching Hell in some quarters.

As a parent of a recent Ole Miss graduate, I’d a lot rather have a chancellor at a Mississippi university who stands by people when they make terrible mistakes than one who teaches them the early reality of fair weather friends or whose loyalty only extends to those who haven’t made mistakes.

It took a lot more character for Scruggs’ friends to stand by him through this ordeal than it did to turn their backs on him.

Oh, yes, and there’s the issue from some of my MSU and USM brethren that perhaps Ole Miss should “give back” Scruggs’ dirty old money. Hmmm. Interesting theory.

But if that’s the case, then every man, woman and child in Mississippi will have to pony up, too, to “give back” the hundreds of millions of dollars that we as taxpayers have spent from the tobacco settlement Scruggs brokered to pay for government services. After all, the Legislature has raided those funds frequently and spent them on our behalf year after year after year.

Chancellor Khayat’s letter is quoted here. Chancellor Khayat has stated that in “each instance” of his practice, Scruggs’s “involvement was morally based.” He stated that “throughout his adult life he has been a model citizen…”

As Salter imples, loyalty is an important virtue. It has its limits.

h/t to YallPolitics for the heads-up.

• I wrote a large chronology of the Scruggs cases (including the Katrina cases and attorneys fee disputes that lead up to them), based on documents then available.
• The Jones case was the one in which the bribery scheme took place. There was a hearing about sanctions in which Judge Lackey testified (it was riveting). I posted seven posts: Scruggs’s testimony, Judge Lackey’s testimony (part one and part two), SKG joint venture David Nutt’s testimony, SKG joint venturer Lovelace’s testimony, closing argument and another post with commentary. Judge Lackey’s testimony may be the most dramatic I have seen in a courtroom; I hope I captured it, and highly recommend those posts.

• From the courtroom the day Dickie Scruggs and Sid Backstrom plead guilty (and the day the server blew up on the blog); Zach Scrugg’s guilty plea.

• Narrative of the bribery case from March to November, 2006: March-May, 5/29-9/11; 9/18-9/21; 9/24-10/10, 10/18-10/31, November.

• Events in the Scruggs prosecution 11/1/07 to 1/15/08.

• Later, some additional information about the conversations in that period turned up. Here’s some posts about that: May 29^th: Judge Lackey and Balducci on Judge Lackey’s recusal; May 3^rd: Judge Lackey and Balducci (FBI 302).

• An overview of the Scruggs motions hearings, which include links to posts with accounts of testimony by Tim Balducci and FBI agent Delaney.

There are also detailed accounts of an earlier hearing in the Jones case, and extensive posts about the running war over disqualification of SKG lawyers and their friends in the State Farm Katrina cases. Additionally, there have been extensive posts with documents about cases involving Ed Peters and Judge DeLaughter in Hinds County.   In some ways, these links just scratch the surface, but they should any reader a notion of what this mess is all about.