Jackson Free Press

The Sun-Herald is reporting that the feds have arrested Scruggs and others for trying to bribe a judge:

A grand jury in North Mississippi has indicted Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, his son, Zach Scruggs, Scruggs Law Firm attorney Sidney A. Backstrom, attorney Timothy Balducci and former State Auditor Steve Patterson for conspiring to bribe a state court judge in North Mississippi over a case that involved funds from a settlement with State Farm insurance companies.

Previous Commentsshow

No wonder they didn't indict Melton yet!

pikersam

Nov 28 2007

Geez!!! Does this mean that we now know the REAL reason behind Trent Lott's resignation? Given Lott's crusade against State Farm, announcing his planned resignation yesterday in more than coincidental, IMHO.

Kacy

Nov 28 2007

is = in

Kacy

Nov 28 2007

Well WLBT just announced that Trent Lott is Scruggs brother-in-law so I suppose you are right Kacy.

classy

Nov 28 2007

I'm sure this will be justification for those who voted against Gary Anderson for Insurance Comm because Dickie Scruggs was his Sugar Daddy.

Jeff Lucas

Nov 29 2007

Well, Scruggs is a bipartisan contributor. Remember this piece we ran recently?

DonnaLadd

Nov 29 2007

You know, you can believe I am a "secret racist" or whatever you want to believe about my not voting for Gary Anderson, BUT I believe the "lap dog advertisement" was the worst attempted political smear I have ever seen. It lost my vote. The one Dickie Scruggs placed in the Clarion-Ledger and probably other places regarding "lipstick on a pig" and George Dale was almost equally as bad. My instincts regarding people who do these type of smears tell me that their moral character is lacking and if the Federal Indictment is proved true, then my instincts are correct. I am proud of the Judge who valued the law and his oath of office more than he valued selling his integrity. We should all be proud of him.

ChrisCavanaugh

Nov 29 2007

If we assume that Lott's stepping down is no coincidence, then it follows he caught wind of what the Grand Jury was discussing about his brother-in-law, Scruggs. Grand Jury proceedings are by law a secret, at least for the first 6 months. Whoever tipped off Senator Lott should be charged with violating the secrecy of the Grand Jury.

Randy Harris

Nov 29 2007

ChrisCavanaugh, I'm not so shure that the Judge was totally on the up-and-up, initially. It is my understanding that after finding out that this was about to go down, he turned state's evidence to save self. When I heard about Lott's resignation from the Senate, I blogged that there was an article in the Washington Post featuring Lott and the now indited Senator from Alaska. I've tried to find the article with no luck at this point. It is not by accident that Lott would resign his post, without the knowledge of people who are close to him, two days before his brother-in-law is indicted on bribery charges.

justjess

Nov 29 2007

Maybe the judge was offended that a piddling $40,000 was dangled before him in exchange for saving Scruggs $28 million! If Scruggs had upped the ante, we might not be discussing this today. :-)

Kacy

Nov 29 2007

Somewhere I heard, I believe on the radio, that the Judge went to the FBI when bribery was first mentioned and then wore a wire when dealing with those who have been arrested. Perhaps what I heard was not true but I'm not going to be quick to judge the judge wrongly.

ChrisCavanaugh

Nov 29 2007

ChrisCavanaugh, I'm not so shure that the Judge was totally on the up-and-up, initially. It is my understanding that after finding out that this was about to go down, he turned state's evidence to save self. According to the articles, the Judge initiated the investigation as soon as the bribe was mentioned. Co-defendant Balducci is the one who turned state's evidence once he was already caught up in the investigation. He wore a wire for the final part of the investigation.

Droite

Nov 30 2007

This case will pull down a large part of the power structure in this state; and none too soon in my opinion. Mark my words.

Willezurmacht

Nov 30 2007

I agree with you, Wille. And it'll be bipartisan; there are rats in every party. Maybe we'll finally get real judicial reform in this state.

DonnaLadd

Nov 30 2007

Check out the link to a Slate.com article on the indictments I included in a post on Mr. Fleming's article.

Willezurmacht

Nov 30 2007

Here's the link to the PDF, Scruggs seems to be caught in the crosshairs pretty well by the feds. What I find amazing is that 40K is the going rate for a judge, that seems cheap, especially on a case involving 26 million. Props to the judge for turning them in. Hopefully the feds will get this mess cleaned up.

GLewis

Nov 30 2007

Whoops forgot link. http://www.insurancecoverageblog.com/Scruggs%20indictment.pdf

GLewis

Nov 30 2007

The clarion ledger is reporting that Balducci (sic), the lawyer who allegedly passed the money from Scruggs to the judge, has plead guilty and will help the feds get Scruggs. I can't believe this turn of events. I thought all lawyers were honest and above board. Bribery, cheating and lying are things lawyers rarely engage in, if ever. Someboby needs to correct me if I'm wrong.

Ray Carter

Dec 5 2007

As the Scruggs case continues to grow, will the JFP cover it? It is truly a huge case with far reaching implications. It's my hope the paper will pursue it with the same vigor it did with Frank Melton. You've done some quality reporting, and it should continue with this.

Cliff Cargill

Jan 14 2008

Cliff, we'd love to dig into it more. But it's a story that would take all the time of one reporter full-time (at least to do anything different than is in the corporate media), and I don't have a person to devote to it right now. It's getting immense coverage elsewhere, in the state and nationally, it's a statewide story, and it's not our top priority as a result. Melton was very different because no media were covering him well. None. Ka-put. And as Jackson is our target area, it was our responsibility as the only newspaper devoted to covering this city thoroughly to cover it. The Scruggs mess is a different situation. That said, I'm very interested in components of it that I don't believe are being covered well and have direct Jackson connections. So if I can find a good freelancer or a national reporter here working on it to do stuff for us, I will. I am looking. But Adam won't become a full-time Scruggs reporter, nor will I. That would be a disservice to our city.

DonnaLadd

Jan 14 2008

Oh, and y'all are welcome to start threads and discuss deveopments on the site all you want. But you know that. ;-) If there is information someone has that is not being covered by other media, let us know. Those would be entry points for us to do some work on it, but we won't be repeating the work of the corporate media just because it's the latest scandal du jour.

DonnaLadd

Jan 14 2008