folo

Gather and surmise, chirren: the Daily Journal reports this morning that Ken Coghlan has withdrawn as Steve Patterson’s defense counsel.

OXFORD … Local attorney Kenneth H. Coghlan won’t be representing former state auditor Steven A. Patterson in his defense of federal judicial bribery charges, court records show Monday. …

Coghlan represented Patterson at his arraignment, but on Dec. 10 attorney Hiram Eastland Jr. of Greenwood informed the court he will be counsel for Patterson.

“In light of these developments,” Coghlan’s motion states, he asks the court to allow him to withdraw as counsel because Patterson’s attorney now is Eastland.

Okay, y’all dig in: Who said “Over my dead body!” about whom or what here?

[Read more →]

[AMENDED X 3]
“KEKER” UPDATED BELOW

Welcome to Week Three in the Dickie Scruggs saga. According to U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers, Jr.’s scheduling order (pdf) in United States v. Richard F. “Dickie” Scruggs et al., today we learn the names of all counsel of record for defendants Dickie, Zach Scruggs, Sid Backstrom, and Steve Patterson.

Here, I’d like to ask folo’s clued-in (especially Mississippi-clued-in) readers to help the rest of us understand more about the attorneys that roster will include. So: NMC, MS Atty, Alyssa, and/or anyone else who’d like to dip an oar into this water, will you please share with us your local knowledge of the names we’ve already heard and any new ones we’ll hear today? We’ll be particularly interested your appraisals of their crim-def strengths and weaknesses, potential conflicts of interest, and any other interesting twists of their histories with and among this set of clients. I’ll get it started, updating as y’all and others around the Web help fill in the ur-post’s spaces . . .

(more…)

[Read more →]