Christi McCoy discusses Scruggs scandal, U.S. Attorney rumors
So you can honestly say that you never knew any of it was going on? Never knew about the bribery attempts?
NO! No, no! I mean, I … no, no, no, no, no! We didn’t have any association with Dickie Scruggs. We were a small town firm.
While the public in general was impressed with the prosecutors’ work, there was a public outcry over the full immunity given to former prosecutor Ed Peters who, as a close friend to Judge Bobby DeLaughter, abused his friends’ trust and received payment from Scruggs in order to influence the judge. Was it a wise decision to give full immunity to someone so clearly guilty?
I think it was the only decision (the prosecutors) could make. It stinks. I hate it, and everybody hates it. It seemed like Peters had a monopoly going on down there. I mean, this is not his only Delaughter problem, from what I understand, in the Southern district. There are other cases down there. So, yes, it stings a little bit, but I totally understand it. In this case I trust (Assistant U.S. District Attorney) Bob Norman. I literally would trust him with my children’s lives. I think he is such a wise person, and at the time he had Dave Sanders and Tom Dawson who were also very worthy of the public trust.
It was a hard decision for those guys to make, but I think it was for the greater good. Ed Peters — yes he’s a bad guy, but he only had his little enterprise going when he had a bad judge on the bench. I really think that the ultimate goal has to be to rid the bench of bad judges. Bad lawyers don’t get anywhere unless there are bad judges.
Even Bob Norman recently said in an interview that he wished Ed Peters could have been prosecuted, too.
No prosecutor wants to make that decision. Yes, there is some public outcry, but you know you have to look at two things: The greater good and the fact that there was a judge on the bench who could have had a much greater effect on the justice system than Ed Peters. I’d much rather have Bobby DeLaughter off the bench than Ed Peters in jail. That’s not personal to Bobby DeLaughter. I don’t know him, never met him. But if there is a dirty judge, he has got to go. At any cost.
Let’s talk about rumors that you have had legal problems in the past that would raise red flags in background checks (necessary for your appointment as U.S. district attorney by the president). True?
Absolutely false [emphatically]! That’s the first time I have heard of anything like that. No! I think that’s someone trying to damage me. The only thing I could even remotely point to is, a year or so ago there was an audit investigation on someone who had worked for me. It’s like throwing out, “there is a tax problem,” because you can say there is a tax problem and people will buy that. I laugh when I hear that and say, “I do have a tax problem! I pay too many.” But (seriously) I don’t have a tax problem. I don’t have any money. I keep my overhead low so that I don’t have to use my law license to make an extravagant living, and I don’t. I drive a beat-up minivan.
Here’s the thing: If there had been legal trouble I feel quite sure that DOJ (the Department of Justice) would have known about it, and the White House would have known about it. Both of my Congressmen would have somehow known about it. That’s just nonsense. It literally makes my heart and my stomach hurt. It breaks my heart, because, first of all, if there were anything in my background like that, I would never put myself out there in a position to embarrass my family, this district, my congressmen, my president. If I had anything shady at all, I wouldn’t do that, I wouldn’t be so brazen and egotistical as just to jump out there and say, “Oh, lets pretend this doesn’t exist.”
My husband is a nearly 20-year employee of the Department of Justice (McCoy’s husband Dwayne Smith is the Oxford resident agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) and has top security clearance. We have regular background checks. You know, there’s nothing to hide. My life is an open book.
(McCoy established her own law firm in Oxford in January, 2001. She has taught as an adjunct professor for the University of Mississippi’s paralegal studies program and served for three years as municipal judge in Jumpertown and Marietta, Miss. From 1995 to 2000 she was an associate at the Booneville law firm of Langston, Langston, Michael & Bowen. McCoy holds a J.D. and B.A. from Ole Miss and an associate degree from Northeast Mississippi Community College.)
Read more from Sandra Kinspel’s interview on The Oxford Enterprise Web site
10/10/9
Magnolia Tribune
