Scruggs letters update: Many praise his good works
Rex Deloach, retired accountant from Oxford, knows of Scruggs’ generosity to Ole Miss, where he has donated millions and promised more. Deloach, who served as an interim vice chancellor for finance at Ole Miss after retirement in 1996, said Scruggs is “fundamentally a good person.”
Without asking for publicity, Scruggs had Deloach deliver $1,000 each to four women whose husbands were injured or killed in an accident and to set up college scholarships for their children.
He also bought a 90-year-old widow’s house for $200,000 because she was about to lose it to a real estate broker who would have paid her only $90,000. She needed the money for medical and living expenses.
Today, she’s 93 and still living in her home.
Deloach also pointed out that Scruggs’ suffering extends to his family.
“It is axiomatic that in punishing Dick there are at least two innocent people that bear that punishment as well, Those are his wife, Diane, and his daughter, Claire. Both depend on Scruggs, he said.
Numerous Coast attorneys wrote in: Leonard Blackwell, Paul Benton, Russell Gill, Lowry Lomax, Walter Umphrey and Lee Young. Also sending letters are policyholders whom Scruggs represented in Katrina cases before the FBI raided his office in November.
Several members of the Page, Mannino law firm in Biloxi weighed in for Zach, blogger attorney Tom Freeland said. Freeland, who already has combed through that file, is blogging for folo.us, where Mississippi politics, all things Scruggs, blues, food and kittens are hot topics.
University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert C. Khayat has this to say in closing his letter about Scruggs: “It is my belief that any time he spends being incarcerated is an absolute waste of a great deal of talent and ability.
“He has much to offer society and is a public-spirited person. Furthermore, it would appear to be a waste of taxpayers’ money. Punishment is relative to the individual. A man such as Dick has been amply punished by the loss of his profession and his public stature.”
Former University of Southern Mississippi president Aubrey Lucas also wrote a letter for Scruggs.
Sun Herald
6/25/8
