By CLAY CHANDLER
MBJ Staff Writer
clay.chandler@msbusiness.com
Seventeen days before his trial on charges of judicial bribery was set to begin, Dickie Scruggs entered a plea of guilty Friday morning in Federal District Court in Oxford.
Scruggs and his law partner, Sidney Backstrom, admitted their involvement in a conspiracy to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey.
Prosecutors recommended Scruggs be sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary; they recommended Backstrom receive two and a half years. Scruggs’ son, Zach, also indicted in connection to the same case, did not enter a plea today.
Scruggs’ admission brings an end to three months of legal posturing and rampant speculation that began when he and members of his law firm were first indicted in late November.
Three men — attorneys Timothy Balducci and Joey Langston and former state auditor Steve Patterson — pleaded guilty earlier this year, and have been cooperating with the government ever since.
Immense pressure
The offices of federal prosecutors are well funded, well staffed and have a reputation for being ferocious once a target is identified. Matt Steffey, a professor of law at Mississippi College, said the pressure they can exert on a defendant is immense.
“You’re not going to win a war of attrition with the federal government,” Steffey said.
Mix that in with the opportunity for a defendant to greatly lessen his punishment by pleading guilty, and Scruggs and Backstrom — like Balducci, Patterson and Langston — were most likely left with little choice, Steffey said.
“If (Scruggs) would have been found guilty by a jury, he would have had absolutely no control over his sentence, where he would serve it or the dollar amount of his fine,” Steffey said.
Business community reacts
Since the indictments were first handed down, Mississippi’s legal community has been turned on its head. The Wall Street Journal has resumed its editorials calling for reform in the state, much the same way the newspaper did before the Mississippi Legislature passed tort reform in the 2004 session.
One of the groups who pushed hardest back then for tort reform was Mississippians for Economic Progress. The group’s president, Lex Taylor, was out of the state Friday morning and did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
As for the long-term effects of this case’s indictments and subsequent guilty pleas, Steffey said there are two schools of thought: If the cooperation of those who have already pleaded guilty lead prosecutors to indict a large number of additional people, the aftermath will reach far and wide. If it turns out this is an isolated incident in which a handful of wealthy, rogue lawyers tried to rig the system in their favor, little in the way of lasting effects will be felt.
“Judicial bribery undermines everybody’s sense of fairness when it comes to the judicial system,” Steffey said.
