The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance has asked the state Supreme Court to suspend Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Bobby DeLaughter because of complaints filed against him by two attorneys.
The commission is inquiring into the complaints about DeLaughter’s rulings in a legal-fee dispute between attorney Dickie Scruggs and his former partner in asbestos litigation, Roberts Wilson. Wilson attorney Vicki Slater joined attorney William Kirksey in filing the complaints.
Booneville attorney Joey Langston has confessed to attempting to bribe DeLaughter on Scruggs’ behalf in the case, ostensibly resolved in 2006. Langston said he went through an intermediary, former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters, to let DeLaughter know Scruggs would put in a word with his brother-in-law, then-U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, to recommend DeLaughter for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench if he ruled Scruggs’ way in the dispute.
Magnolia Tribune
