Lawyer pleads guilty

Previous I posted a story about the arrests and now here is at least one rat turning on the others. I am afriad about where this will take this states judical system. We just had a lenghty trial about bribery of a Supreme Court Judge and other lesser judges down south. It is my fear that the State is about to lern that in some parts of this State justice was indeed for sale.


Miss. attorney pleads guilty to bribery
Cooperating with authorities in case involving Richard Scruggs
Associated PressThursday, December 6, 2007

JACKSON, Miss. -- An attorney has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a judge and is assisting federal prosecutors in a case involving one of the nation's wealthiest trial lawyers, according to court documents.

Timothy Balducci entered the plea late Tuesday after initially pleading not guilty to offering a bribe to Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey earlier this year.

U.S. Atty. Jim Greenlee, in a plea agreement document filed with the federal court in Oxford, said Balducci had already cooperated with the government in its investigation of Richard "Dickie" Scruggs and would be doing more to help the government's case.

According to court records, Balducci was accused of delivering $40,000 to a judge at the behest of Scruggs for a favorable ruling in a civil case.

The case involved a dispute between Scruggs and other lawyers over $26.5 million in fees from a mass settlement of lawsuits that homeowners filed against State Farm Insurance Cos. after Hurricane Katrina.

Scruggs, whose brother-in-law is Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., reportedly earned about $848 million for his part in brokering a multibillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s.

Scruggs and his co-defendants appeared in court a week ago and pleaded not guilty to six charges, including conspiracy and mail fraud. A trial date has been set for Jan. 22.

One of Scruggs' attorneys, Billy Quin, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that there's no way of knowing what Balducci was promised in exchange for his cooperation. And, Quin said, the government has not turned over alleged tape recordings that prosecutors claim link the defendants to the scheme.

The defendants "are absolutely innocent," Quin said. "Tim Balducci was operating own his own and of his own accord."

Scruggs' son and law partner, Zach Scruggs, former Mississippi Auditor Steve Patterson and attorney Sidney Backstrom also were indicted in the case. Patterson, who is not an attorney, worked for Balducci's law firm in New Albany, Miss.

Balducci sent a letter to the Mississippi Bar Association Sunday "expressing his intention to resign from the practice of law," said Adam Kilgore, the Mississippi bar's general counsel.