State Farm has just filed a Bench Memorandum surrounding the efforts by counsel representing AG Jim Hood to seek to have the deposition of Dickie Scruggs stopped in the State Farm v. Hood case.
The Bench Memorandum can be found here.
In addition to the Bench Memorandum is a letter from AG Jim Hood’s counsel Lawson Hester seeking to lobby against Scruggs deposition. In the letter, he parrots Scruggs counsel by saying that Scruggs will not testify if asked any questions and that just having Scruggs invoke his 5th Amendment protection would not serve State Farm or Hood’s interests.
Also included as an exhibit on the Bench Memorandum is an email string between Dickie Scruggs’ attorney John Keker and counsel for State Farm. In this email, Keker states that Scruggs will not attend. For someone who is out on bond, ignoring a court ordered subpoena to testify is a pretty huge gamble. The rest involves some legal posturing back and forth between counsel.
This is definite required reading for the YallPolitics Nation. Again, having Scruggs be compelled to testify and watching him take his 5th amendment protection on a deposition that will be public record is a political nightmare for Jim Hood. In fact, it is Hood’s lawyers and not Scruggs’ lawyers (officially) who are lobbying the Court to prevent Scruggs’ testimony prior to Hood’s testimony, which is scheduled for next week. As the Bench Memo provides, it would be Scruggs’ attorneys burden to request an emergency hearing on the matter and have the Court remove the burden. Otherwise, it seems pretty clear that Scruggs will be compelled to show up for the deposition, if for nothing else than to officially invoke his 5th amendment protection against self-incrimination.
Magnolia Tribune
