SH – AG denies being pressured in Katrina cases
“No, Mike Moore never approached me with such a message,” Hood said Tuesday in a statement. “Judge Lackey was right to turn the case over to the federal government which has the wiretap authority that the state lacks.”
Moore said Wednesday that there’s no truth to Lackey’s claim.
“That’s the biggest bunch of bull I’ve ever heard,” Moore said. “He may have gotten confused.”
Moore said he worked as an unpaid “facilitator between all the parties” in the legal battles that followed Hurricane Katrina, which hit the coast in August 2005. Moore said he did advise Hood, but never pressured him to do anything on behalf on Scruggs.
Assistant District Attorney Lon Stallings is the person who Lackey said told him that Moore approached Hood on Scruggs’ behalf. Stallings did not respond to a message left Wednesday.
Moore, who is an attorney for Scruggs’ son Zack in the bribery case, said his investigator spoke with Stallings.
Moore said Stallings told Lackey “to call the attorney general’s office.”
“Judge Lackey said to Lon, ‘I don’t trust them down there,'” Moore said.
Lackey did not respond to a message left Wednesday by The Associated Press.
This is not the first time allegations have surfaced that Scruggs sent messengers to tell Hood how to handle cases against State Farm.
Magnolia Tribune
