BRUMFIELD – What’s more to come in Scruggs scandal?
When suspended Hinds Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter pleads guilty in U.S. District Court this afternoon, questions will linger about the judicial bribery indictment that cost him his reputation.
Chiefly to be answered:
– Will anyone else be indicted in this case?
– Will this second judicial bribery case in north Mississippi be the last related to DeLaughter or co-defendant and former attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs?
DeLaughter, 55, is expected to admit to U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson that he lied to FBI agents when he told them he did not speak improperly about the case Wilson v. Scruggs with his former boss, Ed Peters, the former Hinds district attorney.
The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Their testimony, court documents filed Friday say, was to establish the “modus operandi” of DeLaughter and Peters to show that their secret meetings in Wilson v. Scruggs “were neither innocent, accidental nor subsequently misunderstood.”
Wilson v. Scruggs, the federal lawsuit, was put on ice July 14 until the DeLaughter criminal case was over.
The question becomes: Will that be today?
Daily Journal
7/30/9
Magnolia Tribune
