folo

Alyssa gets her confirmation (emphasis mine):

8/19/08 – Lawsuit that felled famed attorney settled
Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

The lawsuit against former trial attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs — that led to his being incarcerated — has been settled, Oxford attorney Grady Tollison said this morning.

"We settled Thursday morning," Tollison said.

On behalf of Jackson law firm, Jones, Funderburg, Sessums, Peterson & Lee, Tollison filed a lawsuit in March 2007 against Scruggs and other former members of the now defunct Scruggs Katrina Group. Jackson attorney Johnny Jones claimed his firm was pushed out of the Scruggs Katrina Group and only offered a fraction of what was owned to them for the firm’s work on several Hurricane Katrina-related cases.

In November, Scruggs, along with his son, Zach, law partner Sidney Backstrom, former attorney Timothy Balducci and his partner and former state auditor Steven Patterson were charged with attempting to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey for a favorable ruling in the Jones v. Scruggs suit. All five men have pleaded guilty.

The elder Scruggs is serving a five-year sentence for his lead role in the scheme. Zach is serving 14 months on a lesser charge of knowing about a felony and failing to report it. Backstrom is serving 28 months in prison for his role in the attempted bribe.

Balducci and Patterson have not been sentenced.

Tollison said the amount of the settlement is confidential.

Also listed in the suit are the Barrett Law Office, Nutt & McAlister and Lovelace law firms — which were all part of the SKG when it was formed.

Tollison said his client has also settled with the Nutt & McAlister Law Firm. He said he expects to go to trial against the Barrett and Lovelace firms.

"We’re attempted to [settle] with them," Tollison said. "But my feeling is, we’re headed for trial."

In April, Circuit Court Judge William Coleman ruled Jones’ firm is entitled to fees and possibly punitive damages since the lawsuit lead to the attempted bribe.

Last week, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted a hearing to decide whether the lawsuit should go to arbitration and a temporary stay on all proceedings in the lawsuit. The trial against Barrett and Lovelace is currently set for November, but that could change due to the Supreme Court’s ruling last week.

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Gah, the things I do for you kids — like sit there for ten minutes while the Eagle loads a li’l bitty Alyssa story . . .

8/18/08 – Court to hear arguments in Scruggs lawsuit
Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

The Mississippi Supreme Court has granted Richard "Dickie" Scruggs and former Scruggs Katrina Group attorneys a hearing to decide whether a lawsuit involving Hurricane Katrina litigation should go to arbitration.

In April, Circuit Court Judge William Coleman ruled the law firm of Jones, Funderburg, Sessums, Peterson and Lee is entitled to fees and possibly punitive damages arising from their case against the Scruggs Katrina Group for $26.5 million in legal fees from Hurricane Katrina-related litigation. Coleman ruled in favor of the Jones firm because the lawsuit over legal fees led to the attempt by members of the Scruggs Law Firm to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey — the original judge presiding over the lawsuit.

Scruggs is now serving a five-year prison sentence for his involvement in the bribe attempt. His son, Zach, is serving 14 months and his former law partner, Sidney Backstrom, is serving 28 months for their roles in the scheme.

The Jones firm claims it is entitled to 20 percent of all past attorney fees collected by the Scruggs Katrina Group, of which it was once a part before being "frozen out" by Scruggs and the other attorneys in the group who are also listed in suit — the Barrett Law Office, Nutt & McAlister and Lovelace law firms.

Scruggs and the others argued the case should be sent to arbitration as set out in an agreement when the group was first formed.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court granted the Scruggs group a hearing and a temporary stay on all proceedings in the lawsuit.

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Yikes, in the rush of yesterday, I forgot to post these two stories from Alyssa (thereby earning myself a bash from the Noodly Appendages). I’m sure you’ll find them both interesting, so I sorry.

Minor fails drug test, sent to prison
By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

Katie South cried when she heard the news Monday afternoon.

After three years, she said she finally has some justice in the death of her husband, Joe.
‘It feels like a dream,’ she said through tears. ‘It just doesn’t seem real.’

Joe South was killed in February 2005 on Highway 7 in Marshall County on his way to work by Darron Lee Minor, who was under the influence of drugs at the time he ran into South’s car.

In March, Minor pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI and was given a 20-year prison sentence, but 18 years were suspended. He was to spend two of those years under house arrest. If he violated his house arrest, Circuit Court Judge Andrew Howorth told Minor he would serve the remaining sentence in prison.

On Monday, Assistant [? sic] District Attorney Ben Creekmore said Minor failed more than one drug test with the most recent one being for cocaine. His probation was violated and he was picked up on a warrant Monday and taken to the Marshall County Jail late where he awaits transportation to a state prison.

‘He deserves to spend 20 years in prison for killing Joe,’ Katie said. ‘Everyone told me it was just a matter of time.

According to court records, South was traveling north on Highway 7 a mile north of Waterford when a car, driven by Minor, slammed into him. Minor was traveling south on Highway 7, but for unknown reasons, lost control of his vehicle and crossed over the center line into South’s path, killing him.

Minor, a nephew to Northern District Transportation Commissioner Bill Minor, was charged with aggravated DUI in January 2006.

Minor changed his plea to guilty after his trial had already begun. At the time, Katie wasn’t thrilled at Minor’s sentence through the plea agreement. Neither was Creekmore, but he said he accepted the plea agreement because a crucial piece of evidence could have been contested.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol officer working the wreck ordered a blood test on Minor, but he ordered it under an old statute that was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and probably would not have been allowed to be entered as evidence into Minor’s trial.

The blood test revealed Minor was under the influence of amphetamines and methamphetamine at the time of the wreck, according to court records.

During his sentencing, Howorth warned Minor that ‘any breaks’ Minor felt he received with the plea agreement would be the last one he would receive.

‘Whatever breaks came to him, were only a matter of circumstance,’ Creekmore said. ‘Not deliberately done to give him a break. He had a chance to benefit from those circumstances, but was unable to toe the line.’

The case received national attention earlier this year when transcripts from an investigation into a judicial bribery attempt were made public.

Attorney Richard ‘Dickie’ Scruggs, his son, Zach Scruggs, Sidney Backstrom, Timothy Balducci and Steven Patterson were indicted in November for offering Circuit Judge Henry L. Lackey $40,000 for an order Scruggs wanted the judge to issue in a dispute with another law firm over $26.5 million in legal fees from Hurricane Katrina cases.

Lackey went to the FBI and began working uncover with them, allowing his office and phone line to be tapped.

During a taped conversation with Lackey during the investigation, Balducci attempted to bribe him again with $10,000 for a favorable ruling in Minor’s case. No charges were brought against Balducci for that incident. Balducci was approached by the FBI later that same day and began working with the government in its case against the others.

The elder Scruggs was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday. On the same day, Backstrom received a 28-month prison sentence. Zach Scruggs is set for sentencing Wednesday. No sentencing dates have been scheduled for Balducci and Patterson.

–alyssa@oxfordeagle.com

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Judge Lackey honored by Mississippi Bar
By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey describes himself as a ‘country bumpkin’ who loves the law.
‘The law’s been good to me,’ Lackey said Monday. ‘I’ve made a decent living, been able to help a lot of people and a lot of people have helped me.’

On Monday, the Mississippi Bar announced in a newsletter that Lackey has been honored with the Judicial Excellence Award which will be awarded to him on July 19, during the Bar’s yearly luncheon in Destin, Fla.

Lackey learned of the award a few weeks ago, he said. The award is presented by the Bar in recognition of a judge who has exceeded the call of the judicial office and is an example of judicial excellence; a leader in advancing the quality and efficiency of justice, and a person of high ideals, character and integrity, said Larry Hutchins, executive director of the Mississippi Bar.

Going over and above the call of duty is something which Lackey is familiar.

For more than six months, he wore a wire for the FBI and had his phone calls monitored while helping the government in its case against five men who were involved in a conspiracy to bribe Lackey with $40,000 for a favorable ruling in a lawsuit against trial attorney, Richard ‘Dickie’ Scruggs.

But Lackey doesn’t like the term ‘hero.’ He was just doing his job.

‘I was just doing what my oath required me to do,’ he said. ‘I haven’t done anything more than a 100 other judges would have done under the circumstances.’

But Mississippi Bar president Bobby Bailess would disagree.

‘I have known Judge Lackey for just three years,’ Bailess said. ‘In that short time, it is clear to me that he is a true gentleman, a dedicated public servant and revered judge with impeccable character and the necessary judicial temperament. The courage he exhibited in dealing with the attempted bribery was overwhelming. I can think of no more deserving recipient of this prestigious award.’

Lackey said while he’s ‘ambivalent’ about why he received the award, he is appreciative that his peers perceive him in such high regards.

‘It’s difficult to put in words how I’m feeling,’ he said. ‘I’m appreciative of the award, but I’m sore it happened to begin with and glad that chapter of my life is over.’

Also receiving an award from the Bar in Oxford is out-going University of Mississippi provost and professor of law Carolyn Ellis Staton, who won the Susie Blue Buchanan Award.

–alyssa@oxfordeagle.com

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The editors of the Daily Journal note the six Northeast Mississippians who brought ignominy upon the state and its legal profession:

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.

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Standing in for the Oxford Eagle’s website, folo proudly presents . . .
Younger Scruggs to serve 14 months in jail
Zach Scruggs also ordered to pay $250,000 fine
By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

U.S. District Senior Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr. said he had a hard time believing Zach Scruggs wasn’t aware of any money being exchanged during a judicial bribery attempt, prior to sentencing Scruggs to spend 14 months in prison.

Scruggs, his father, Richard ‘Dickie’ Scruggs, former attorney Timothy Balducci, former state auditor Steve Patterson and the Scruggses’ law partner Sidney Backstrom were charged in November for attempting to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey with $40,000 for a favorable ruling in a lawsuit filed against the elder Scruggs.

In March, Zach Scruggs pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misprision of a felony, which means he had knowledge a felony had occurred but didn’t report it to authorities.

During his sentence, Zach Scruggs’ attorney, Mike Moore, said his client’s only knowledge was that Balducci was sent to talk to Lackey and use his long-time friendship with Lackey to send the lawsuit to arbitration.

‘He never had any knowledge there was a conspiracy to bribe the judge,’ said Moore, who is the former Mississippi Attorney General.

‘He isn’t being sentenced for conspiracy,’ Biggers said. ‘It’s a stretch to believe that Backstrom never mentioned there was any money involved.’

Zach Scruggs will also serve a year on supervised probation after his release and was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine.

Moore told Biggers that Zach Scrugg’s wife was expecting their third child and asked the judge if Zach Scruggs could turn himself after his child was born in October.

‘You may file a written motion and the court will consider it,’ Biggers said.

On Friday, the senior Scruggs was sentenced to five years in prison and Backstrom received a 28-month sentence. They were ordered to turn themselves into on Aug. 4 to begin their sentences. Balducci and Patterson have not yet been sentenced. No court date has been set for them.

Zach Scruggs said he was deeply sorry for his involvement in the case.

‘I wish I could go back and change what happened …,’ Zach Scruggs told the court. ‘I should have stopped what happened. I should have objected to what happened … I’m deeply sorry and remorseful and I ask this court for forgiveness.’

Biggers called Zach Scruggs’ case a ‘sad’ one, particularly since it was his own father who got him involved with the illegal activity.

Biggers chastised the junior Scruggs for not respecting Judge Lackey, despite his comments about respecting and loving the law during his plea hearing.

‘You didn’t show respect for the Circuit Court when you said, –’We need to get this signed before some other (expletive) gets the case,” Biggers said, referring to a comment Zach Scruggs made on one of the tapes.

During the sentencing hearing, Biggers and Moore butted heads frequently.

‘If I want you to respond, I will ask you to,’ Biggers said at one point.

It was apparent Scruggs and his attorneys, Todd Graves and Moore, were not prepared for a sentence which included prison time since the government asked for leniency for the younger Scruggs and recommended probation.

Moore asked Biggers if he could include a request for a particular institution for Scruggs to serve his sentence in his motion.

‘We were not prepared to do that,’ Moore said. ‘We have not given any consideration about where Mr. Scruggs would go.’

According to the Mississippi Bar, the Scruggses and Backstrom will lose their licenses to practice law for pleading guilty to a felony. The Mississippi Supreme Court will consider disbarment petitions against Dickie and Zach Scruggs and Backstrom in the July-August term, according to the Associated Press. Balducci already has relinquished his law license. Patterson was not an attorney.

–alyssa@oxfordeagle.com

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From today’s Bar Briefs Mississippi Bar newsletter:

2008 MB Award Recipients To Be Recognized At annual Meeting

Recipients of the Bar’s 2008 Awards will be recognized at the Farwell Brunch at the bar’s 2008 Annual Meeting in Destin. 2008 recipients are: Lifetime Achievement Award – Fred Bush, Tupelo; Judicial Excellence Award – Judge Henry Lackey, Calhoun City; Distinguished Service Award – Karl Steinberger, Pascagoula and Jennifer Wilkinson, Hattiesburg;  Susie Blue Buchanan Award – Carolyn Ellis Staton, Oxford; Outstanding Young Lawyer – Carlos Moore, Grenada and Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project Curtis E. Coker Access to Justice Award, Melody McAnally, Memphis.

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One of my first thoughts as news of Dickie Scruggs’s sentence broke yesterday was, “I wonder how Judge Lackey’s doing today.” Happily, Paul Quinn was able to find out:

Circuit Judge Henry Lackey learned from a friend’s cell phone call Friday what punishment Dickie Scruggs had received for conspiring to bribe him.

“It was relief that this chapter of my life is over,” Lackey said. “Yet, I felt pangs of embarrassment for our state, and embarrassment for our profession.”

Well, Your Honor, since you proved the touchstone for the profession here, I hope those pangs were fleeting. For you, they should be.

Not so for Jim Hood, though, who told Paul:

“It’s a sad day for the judicial system of our state,” said state Attorney General Jim Hood, among those who have benefitted in campaign contributions from Scruggs. “No one wins in such situations, but by these sentences and the earlier convictions, justice has been served. Hopefully, our system has been strengthened, not weakened, and we can move forward to better serve the citizens of Mississippi.”

Sheesh. A sad day for the sentenced and those who love and/or depend on them, yes — but for the judicial system, yesterday brought a cleansing and a restoration (if only the first of many needed). Nobody wins? Who’s this Nobody, Brother Hood? We who depend on the rule of law? Your personal system has surely been weakened — and to the extent it ever had anything to do with standing up for the Little against the Big, yes, that hurts. But by now, some of us are pretty dubious that that was ever its true business.

Charlie Merkel spoke, as is his wont, more sensibly:

Charlie Merkel of Clarksdale, the attorney for Scruggs’ former law partners in lawsuits against Scruggs, said, “The judicial system made an eloquent statement” about what Scruggs did.

Merkel was among those in court when Scruggs was sentenced. He has been fighting Scruggs for 14 years, first representing Alwyn Luckey and now Bob Wilson in a dispute over attorney fees from asbestos litigation.

“Really, any personal feelings or opinion I had couldn’t do anything but detract from what (U.S. District Judge Neal) Biggers said,” Merkel said.

Another touch of class. But since I’m alternating between goods and bads, now it’s time to point out where Jerry Mitchell found Mike Moore:

After the hearing, Moore remarked, “This is tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. Unfortunately, there’s nothing good that comes of this.”

According to Confounded (though I’ve been unable to locate this online), on WLBT “Mike Moore contradicted Biggers and said this was just one isolated incident. Nothing good could come of all this (referring to the sentence I presume).”

What to make of Mike Moore? Does he still think all this criminality made good sense and effective policy? ”Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy” got concocted inside Scruggs Law Firm and, having scarred and stained countless innocents’ lives for years, finally returned to it. If Mike Moore thinks putting a stop to that was “nothing good” . . . well, what do we make of him?

How I’d love it if some reporter/photographer could have snagged Tim Balducci’s, Steve Patterson’s, Joey Langston’s, Ed Peters’, Bobby DeLaughter’s, P.L. Blake’s, Trent Lott’s, and a few others’ reactions as they received the news (more than one person emailed me, “I hope DeLaughter’s reading the blog today”) — but alas, no.

Finally, whether that gang numbered among them I can’t confirm, but our head techie reports that folo had 4,758 different visitors and 42,877 page views yesterday, and the server didn’t blink. Can we say W00T?!

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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

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I practice law with my father, and have since I clerked for a federal judge. It can be a major strain, and having to insist on being treated as a peer by one’s father and law partner is a bridge that has to be crossed every single day.

Being a lawyer is a profession and a profession is imparted through connections back to the lawyers who molded you. One lesson I learned was that you could expect whoever formed a lawyer to put their stamp on them– you could expect as much, or as little, as they’d learned from their mentors.

Through practicing with my father, I felt the impact of lessons from him, and reaching back through him lawyers that were his mentors– Phil Stone (his first partner), Glen Fant (a lawyer in Holly Springs, who went to Harvard law school, taught wills for decades, and retired as a chancery judge), Bill Murphy, Dean Farley. There was also the impact of dad’s peers, including Henry Lackey, Jimmy Robertson, and George Cochran, the latter two both as law professors and lawyers, and Jimmy as a judge. One of the reasons I had such a personal and visceral reaction to the Scruggs case was my long and substantial connection to Judge Lackey.

These men defined a deep tradition of the profession of being a lawyer, particularly in the South, and what it meant. No one could always live up to it, but it was something to aspire to throughout one’s career. It is clear that this sense of profession and responsibility to both the profession and (as a part of it) to one’s community has been at risk throughout my time as a lawyer; one conservative impulse I have is the wish to preserve that sense of profession that has been imparted me from the people who taught me what it meant to be a lawyer.

This tradition that my father was a part of goes back pretty far– to Phil Stone’s family firm directly to Edward Mayes, L.Q.C. Lamar and Judge Robert Anderson (a cousin of ours who clerked for the Stones in the 1890s). So my father’s day note is in part a hope for the continuation of the traditions that are part of being a southern lawyer that my father helped impart to me.

Happy Father’s Day.

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The Daily Journal reports that Sid Backstrom wants to be punished on the basis of his financial benefit and participation in the Lackey bribery case, rather than how the prosecution thinks he should be.

In a 16-page objection, Backstrom’s attorneys say the government is wrong to claim:

- Backstrom supervised or had control over co-defendants, former New Albany attorney Timothy Balducci and former state Auditor Steven Patterson.

- The “benefit” of the bribe is about $5.3 million – “benefit” being what the co-defendants would have gained with a successful bribe of Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City.

- Backstrom was more than a “roll up the sleeves worker” for Scruggs, a leader in the conspiracy and that he drafted an e-mail order for Balducci to give to Lackey.

The short AP report adds, “Backstrom claims he merely answered to Scruggs and performed tasks at the direction of Balducci.” (And the C-L’s version, linked here, reruns that photo of the careworn look on Sid’s face the day he pled.)

Now Dickie being Dickie, the immediate question that pops into my mind is whether Sid would have seen a whole $5 of the eventual haul, had not a certain wiretapping taken place . . .

Thanks to It’s All Good for the heads-up.

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