Scruggs sentencing approaches, letters to be released
As the world turns. It had almost completely slipped my mind that Dickie Scruggs was to be sentenced this Friday, until I talked with Alan Lange of Y'All Politics yesterday. With Katrina cases winding down and the Scruggster getting measured for a tailored orange jumpsuit, I admit my attention has begun to wander, but it's been difficult to find something as interesting to talk about. Last time I had this feeling was when the Soviet Union fell. You remember that? Everyone was just standing around looking at each other. They're gone? Dang, who do we oppose now?
Thanks to readers for sending along stories about the upcoming sentencing. Sorry that my time has been so restricted, responding to emails has been hit and miss lately, I know.
As you might have heard, on Friday Judge Biggers granted the motion by the Sun Herald newspaper to get access to the pre-sentencing letters written by folks. Not all were fan letters begging for leniency, I know. One reader sent me a copy of a letter he wrote to the judge recommending harshness. Here's a copy of the judge's order. Just after the judge granted the order, Sid Backstrom, also to be sentenced in the Scruggs Earwigging Scandal, filed an objection/motion for reconsideration. Always it's a good idea in federal court to file your objections before the judge decides, and the batting average for motions for reconsideration is -- this is just a rough estimate here you understand -- probably something like 0.0 percent. Here's a copy of the motion for reconsideration, made on grounds that the contents of these letters may be intended to be private. Private? Who sends a letter to a federal judge in a high profile case and expects to remain anonymous? I mean, what would be in these letters that someone would expect to remain private: "Judge, please don't pass this on to anyone else because it's a little embarrassing, but here's a little story I thought you mind find amusing and enlightening about Sid. Well, one time in gym class in high school he was doing calisthenics, and some guys pantsed him . . . ." Here's a copy of the motion.
Judge Biggers, of course, denied the motion yesterday.
David, can you think of any way we might obtain all of them, in pdf format, when they are released (I doubt the Sun Herald is going to publish them all)? If someone would retrieve them, scan them, and post them (even for a price) I believe there would be many takers.
Man, thanks for coming back! I was going thru withdrawals!!!
David,
You're starting to sound like Michael Corleone. "Just when I thought I was out, they PULL ME BACK IN!".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKR3QU3dB0M
The slow-down in activity on the Scruggs 'n Pals front is really depressing. If you're me, and you spend 9/10 of your time researching arcane points of law and then trying to write digestible arguments in briefs based on them, then you simply NEED some comic relief from time to time. And there ain't been no better place to get it than right here, at the good ole ICB (TM, of course). Partly it's because Mr. Rossmiller is a comic in lawyer's clothing, and partly it's because the material he's had to work with here is, well, incredibly rich. I've never read so many jaw-dropping court filings in my life. So, what I'm thinking is, do we really have to give it all up? Why can't we have the Scruggies (awards for the year's most laughable court filings), and maybe a new reality show, So You Think You Can Earwig (I'm not sure what the concept would be, but we'd come up with something)? I can't go cold turkey! I want my, I want my, I want my ScruggsTV!
THe slowdown may be short-lived. I hear indictments may be forthcoming shortly in the Delaughter affair...
With the sentencing fast approaching, I suppose it's time for some entrepreneur to print up a bunch of "Free Dickie" t-shirts and sell them in Oxford....
I don't wish indictments on anyone; but if the Delaughter situation produces more material for Rossmiller, then that's some wonderful upside.
Wasn't there an agreement between the US Attorney and Dickie's lawyer that the second indictment would not come out until after sentencing for the first one?
come back, David!
From letters written to the court:
Richard P. Ieyoub, a three-term Louisiana attorney general, wrote about the landmark state settlements with tobacco companies, an effort Scruggs led: "Obviously, Dickie's legal ability had much to do with his accomplishments, but it was his character that garnered the respect and confidence of attorneys general across our nation.” "Few would have been able to field such a formidable and united team, but no attorney general could deny the courage and conviction that fortified Dickie's efforts, and it became our honor to have taken our roles in the pursuit of his 'absurd little theory'."
Charles J. Mikhail, the Mississippi Bar's DISCIPLINARY COUNSEL for eight years and former chairman of the Committee on Professional Responsibility, said Scruggs always complied meticulously with professional and ethical rules. He wrote: "Regrettably, this court's involvement with Dick has been in connection with his moment of weakness; it has not experienced, on a daily basis, his strengths and goodness.” “Recall William Shakespeare's famous words in the play Julius Caesar: 'The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.' Nevertheless, Dick's failing does not change all the good he had done and the enormous credit he deserves for changing so many people's lives for the better."
an Oxford attorney who practiced for many years elsewhere, asked that Scruggs be given "the severest sentence possible." "What motivates me to write this letter is my concern about the extent to which Mr. Scruggs' crime had been minimized by prominent members of Mississippi's bar. I'm afraid that the result has been that many non-lawyers, taking their cue from these leaders, have concluded that bribery of judges is nothing to be alarmed about, that it is just business as usual for 'high-powered' lawyers." He is also concerned about the Mississippi Bar's less than "vigorous" pursuit of action against Scruggs and the state's failure to bring charges against him.
Greenwood dentist-"It seems to me the defendants have debased and eroded the foundation of our legal system - the very trough into which they have buried their snouts and off of which they have gotten fat."
The Mississippi Bar sent a statement from president Bobby Bailess saying the defendants' crimes "undermine the very foundation of our legal system."
Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat--well, he wrote too-on Ole Miss letterhead.
Attorney Don Barrett, a partner in the Scruggs Katrina Group: "I am shocked by what he did and I believe that Sid, looking back, is shocked by what he did also. He is broken, contrite and filled with remorse."
Man from Tupelo-"He did not think of the reputation of the University, Oxford, the judicial system of which he was a part or the people of Mississippi. He became twisted and lost all sense of morality for a $26 million judgment. I hope your judgment will render a punishment that will reflect well on the people's reputation, the same reputation Mr. Scruggs besmirched."
And Grady Tollison has been subpoenaed to testify for prosecutors Friday morning at Scruggs' sentencing hearing.