Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a lawyer who made millions suing corporations, was sentenced to five years in prison today for his part in a scheme to bribe a state judge with $40,000.
According to press reports, Scruggs, 62, seemed to become faint during the sentencing in Oxford, Miss., at a point when U.S. District Court Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr. was mentioning Scruggs’ family.
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Scruggs’ attorney, San Francisco lawyer John W. Keker, held him up until the slumping defendant could sit.
Biggers also fined Scruggs $250,000 and ordered him to receive treatment for mental health and drug issues in prison.
According to the SunHerald.com, Scruggs has been found to have a drug dependency problem.
Biggers gave Scruggs the maximum prison sentence recommended by prosecutors, despite more than 400 letters written on Scruggs’ behalf by friends and colleagues.
“There is no question in the court’s mind that Mr. Scruggs … was a leader and a planner (of the conspiracy),” Biggers said. “He has said he came into the scheme late. Regardless, he was the leader, he was the money man.”
Before Biggers handed down the sentence, Scruggs said that he “could not be more ashamed” of where he was today.
“I deeply regret my conduct,” he added. “It is a scar and a stain on my soul.”
Scruggs, the brother-in-law of former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., must begin serving his sentence on or before Aug. 4.
He pleaded guilty on March 14, conceding that he had attempted to bribe Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey of Mississippi.
The case began last November when Timothy R. Balducci, a lawyer acting on Scruggs’ behalf, offered Lackey $40,000 to rule in Scruggs’ favor in a case involving a dispute over legal fees.
Lackey had turned to the FBI when Balducci first approached him and his conversations with Balducci were secretly recorded.
Balducci subsequently entered a guilty plea, as did Sidney A. Backstrom, a law partner of Mr. Scruggs; Steven A. Patterson, the former Mississippi state auditor; and Scruggs’ son, David Zachary Scruggs, a partner in his father’s firm. On Friday, Backstrom was sentenced to two years and four months in prison and a $250,000 fine. The other defendants have not been sentenced.
Dickie Scruggs, who is a native of the Gulfport community of Pascagoula, Miss., first made millions in asbestos-related suits filed on behalf of workers in the shipbuilding industry.
In the 1990s, he led a suit against tobacco companies that gained almost $250 billion in a 1998 settlement. Scruggs’ firm was said to have received $1 billion.
The movie, The Insider, looked at the tobacco case and the involvement of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand.
Scruggs gave millions of dollars to the University of Mississippi, his law school alma mater, and other causes.
The news of his arrest stunned many Mississippians including John Grisham, the novelist and 1981 graduate of the law school.
“This doesn’t sound like the Dickie Scruggs that I know,” Grisham told The Wall Street Journal in December. “When you know Dickie and how successful he has been you could not believe he would be involved in such a boneheaded bribery scam. … I don’t believe it. I hope it’s all proven to be wrong.”
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