Jun. 26, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) — OXFORD — Hundreds of letters about attorney Dickie Scruggs and two other lawyers snared in a judicial bribery case portray exemplary lives ruined and families shattered.
Most of the 446 writers asked U.S. District Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr. to be lenient when he sentences Scruggs and attorney Sidney Backstrom on Friday for conspiring to bribe a Circuit Court judge. They also seek mercy for Scruggs’ son, attorney Zach Scruggs, who is scheduled for sentencing July 2 for failure to report the felony.
Dickie Scruggs, an acknowledged master of public relations, solicited the letters from attorneys, friends and family members. He refers to many of them in a motion filed Wednesday that asks Biggers to sentence him to 30 months, rather than the maximum five years, in federal prison.
The letters detail acts of generosity, large and small, on 61-year-old Scruggs’ part. They delve into his early career as a top fighter pilot in the Navy, his defense of the downtrodden and his bravery in tackling tobacco and asbestos companies to win settlements that changed countless lives.
Some of them even attempt to explain why a multimillionaire many times over would bribe a judge over a lawsuit that could have in the end cost him no more than $4 million of a $26.5 million fee State Farm paid policyholders’ attorneys to settle Katrina cases.
“A moment of weakness,” wrote Pascagoula attorney Charles J. Mikhail, the Mississippi Bar’s disciplinary counsel for eight years.
Ken Tate, the Madisonville, La., architect for Scruggs’ home in Oxford, wrote: “I have empathy for Dick Scruggs and those like him who fight the ‘good fight’ for the little guy. In some ways, they are like our soldiers on the ‘front line.’ After a while, the enormous responsibility and stress can lead to ‘battle fatigue.’
Tate even added Scruggs did not gripe about the inevitable cost overruns on a custom home.
The millions he contributed to the University of Mississippi are public knowledge. Several members of the Ole Miss community, including Chancellor Robert Khayat, wrote letters of praise — on university stationery, no less.
“It is my belief that any time he spends being incarcerated is an absolute waste of a great deal of talent and ability,” Khayat wrote. “He has much to offer society and is a public-spirited person.”
But many of Scruggs’ acts of kindness have been anonymous. One letter after another praised him for the Katrina relief he brought to Pascagoula, where he practiced law before moving to Oxford around 2000 to set up shop with his son.
Rex Deloach of Oxford, a retired accountant, said Scruggs 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.
Not everyone pleaded for leniency.
Oxford attorney David B. Howorth was one of several who thought Scruggs should receive “the severest sentence possible.”
He is concerned prominent members of the Mississippi Bar have minimized Scruggs’ crime, and that Khayat and Ole Miss Law School Dean Samuel Davis have defended him.
Among those who did not write letters: Trent Lott, Scruggs’ brother-in-law; former Attorney General Mike Moore, his partner in the victory over tobacco companies; and novelist John Grisham, who was incredulous over Scruggs’ indictment and said at the time he just wasn’t that dumb.
Drew Ranier, a Lake Charles attorney, eloquently summed up the sentiments of many: “He has admitted to a grievous error, but it is a marked aberration in a man whom I repeatedly saw do the right thing for many years. What he has given to all of us is unprecedented.
“The loss of his right to practice law will in itself be a profound and devastating punishment to this man who is one of the great lawyers of our time. Please judge him with leniency commensurate with the totality of the life that he has lived.”
Former Gov. William Winter, Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat, former “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman and tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand were among those who wrote letters to a federal judge on behalf of attorney Dickie Scruggs. The letter tally: 248 for Scruggs, 127 for co-defendant Sid Backstrom and 71 for attorney Zach Scruggs, Dickie Scruggs’ son.
:
“The State Farm Code of Conduct has been in place for nearly 10 years and provides all employees ethical and legal guidelines they must follow. Every State Farm employee must comply with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.”
You are correct….
These Codes only provide financial protection for State Farm.
Must meet State Farm Regulation for approval of the policy!
There is not one Regulation, in any State,
that protects the Insured or the Agents.
Doesn’t the Insurance Commissioner receive
Campaign Contributions from the Industry?
Are they like paid to “keep the ghost clear?”
There is not one Regulation that would enforce protection for the Insured.
There is not one Regulation that protects
the Agents!
Why do we even need a Commissioner?
He does not help us!
We had State Farm 4 years ago. Wife got tagged in a hit and run. State Farm decided to give us a problem and managed to turn what would have been a $3000.00 claim into a $45,000.00 judgment against themselves in less than 9 months.insurance fraud Dickie Scruggs try really hard to stop this giant..maybe President George W. Bush will granted a pardon..Please to the right thing George
….”others praised him for the Katrina relief he brought….’ let’s keep that inn perspective: he also acted in his own interest by taking fees. If he was so altruistic, he should have donated his time. I am sure he was philanthropic but I have this old biblical metaphor in mind about the pharisee boasting in Temple about how good and rigtheous a man he was; but doing well always tempts people to add more and more to their own baskets, and make allowances for themselves by noting all the other good things they’ve done. I can live with 30 months instead of 60 but let him devote himself to providing free legal assistance to his jailhouse bretheren, many of whom don have a prayer on their own. Maybe he can get involved with finding a true innocent and help get their cases back into court; it might do him some good seeing how the other half are making out.
“It is a document that clearly shows State Farm used engineers and coerced engineers to write a report like they wanted.
Zach Scruggs, part of a legal team that sued State Farm on behalf of hundreds of homeowners, said Forensic turned over the e-mails as part of the pretrial discovery for one of the lawsuits. He said they “confirm everything that we have always suspected.”
In a reply dated Oct. 18, 2005, Down questioned the insurer’s motivations and questioned whether there was an ethical problem with State Farm telling the firm what to put in reports. He also suggested that on another occasion, State Farm asked the firm to remove information from a report because “they would then have to settle.”
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Jun. 26, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) — OXFORD — Hundreds of letters about attorney Dickie Scruggs and two other lawyers snared in a judicial bribery case portray exemplary lives ruined and families shattered.
Most of the 446 writers asked U.S. District Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr. to be lenient when he sentences Scruggs and attorney Sidney Backstrom on Friday for conspiring to bribe a Circuit Court judge. They also seek mercy for Scruggs’ son, attorney Zach Scruggs, who is scheduled for sentencing July 2 for failure to report the felony.
Dickie Scruggs, an acknowledged master of public relations, solicited the letters from attorneys, friends and family members. He refers to many of them in a motion filed Wednesday that asks Biggers to sentence him to 30 months, rather than the maximum five years, in federal prison.
The letters detail acts of generosity, large and small, on 61-year-old Scruggs’ part. They delve into his early career as a top fighter pilot in the Navy, his defense of the downtrodden and his bravery in tackling tobacco and asbestos companies to win settlements that changed countless lives.
Some of them even attempt to explain why a multimillionaire many times over would bribe a judge over a lawsuit that could have in the end cost him no more than $4 million of a $26.5 million fee State Farm paid policyholders’ attorneys to settle Katrina cases.
“A moment of weakness,” wrote Pascagoula attorney Charles J. Mikhail, the Mississippi Bar’s disciplinary counsel for eight years.
Ken Tate, the Madisonville, La., architect for Scruggs’ home in Oxford, wrote: “I have empathy for Dick Scruggs and those like him who fight the ‘good fight’ for the little guy. In some ways, they are like our soldiers on the ‘front line.’ After a while, the enormous responsibility and stress can lead to ‘battle fatigue.’
Tate even added Scruggs did not gripe about the inevitable cost overruns on a custom home.
The millions he contributed to the University of Mississippi are public knowledge. Several members of the Ole Miss community, including Chancellor Robert Khayat, wrote letters of praise — on university stationery, no less.
“It is my belief that any time he spends being incarcerated is an absolute waste of a great deal of talent and ability,” Khayat wrote. “He has much to offer society and is a public-spirited person.”
But many of Scruggs’ acts of kindness have been anonymous. One letter after another praised him for the Katrina relief he brought to Pascagoula, where he practiced law before moving to Oxford around 2000 to set up shop with his son.
Rex Deloach of Oxford, a retired accountant, said Scruggs 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.
Not everyone pleaded for leniency.
Oxford attorney David B. Howorth was one of several who thought Scruggs should receive “the severest sentence possible.”
He is concerned prominent members of the Mississippi Bar have minimized Scruggs’ crime, and that Khayat and Ole Miss Law School Dean Samuel Davis have defended him.
Among those who did not write letters: Trent Lott, Scruggs’ brother-in-law; former Attorney General Mike Moore, his partner in the victory over tobacco companies; and novelist John Grisham, who was incredulous over Scruggs’ indictment and said at the time he just wasn’t that dumb.
Drew Ranier, a Lake Charles attorney, eloquently summed up the sentiments of many: “He has admitted to a grievous error, but it is a marked aberration in a man whom I repeatedly saw do the right thing for many years. What he has given to all of us is unprecedented.
“The loss of his right to practice law will in itself be a profound and devastating punishment to this man who is one of the great lawyers of our time. Please judge him with leniency commensurate with the totality of the life that he has lived.”
Former Gov. William Winter, Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat, former “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman and tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand were among those who wrote letters to a federal judge on behalf of attorney Dickie Scruggs. The letter tally: 248 for Scruggs, 127 for co-defendant Sid Backstrom and 71 for attorney Zach Scruggs, Dickie Scruggs’ son.
Anita Lee
:
“The State Farm Code of Conduct has been in place for nearly 10 years and provides all employees ethical and legal guidelines they must follow. Every State Farm employee must comply with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.”
You are correct….
These Codes only provide financial protection for State Farm.
Must meet State Farm Regulation for approval of the policy!
There is not one Regulation, in any State,
that protects the Insured or the Agents.
Doesn’t the Insurance Commissioner receive
Campaign Contributions from the Industry?
Are they like paid to “keep the ghost clear?”
There is not one Regulation that would enforce protection for the Insured.
There is not one Regulation that protects
the Agents!
Why do we even need a Commissioner?
He does not help us!
Can you smell the rats?
We had State Farm 4 years ago. Wife got tagged in a hit and run. State Farm decided to give us a problem and managed to turn what would have been a $3000.00 claim into a $45,000.00 judgment against themselves in less than 9 months.insurance fraud Dickie Scruggs try really hard to stop this giant..maybe President George W. Bush will granted a pardon..Please to the right thing George
this is the same ******* outfit that bailed out on paying the katrina victims…….
Holy crap. There needs to be CRIMINAL charges brought against the responsible individuals at State Farm. This is an atrocious degree of misconduct.
….”others praised him for the Katrina relief he brought….’ let’s keep that inn perspective: he also acted in his own interest by taking fees. If he was so altruistic, he should have donated his time. I am sure he was philanthropic but I have this old biblical metaphor in mind about the pharisee boasting in Temple about how good and rigtheous a man he was; but doing well always tempts people to add more and more to their own baskets, and make allowances for themselves by noting all the other good things they’ve done. I can live with 30 months instead of 60 but let him devote himself to providing free legal assistance to his jailhouse bretheren, many of whom don have a prayer on their own. Maybe he can get involved with finding a true innocent and help get their cases back into court; it might do him some good seeing how the other half are making out.
“It is a document that clearly shows State Farm used engineers and coerced engineers to write a report like they wanted.
Zach Scruggs, part of a legal team that sued State Farm on behalf of hundreds of homeowners, said Forensic turned over the e-mails as part of the pretrial discovery for one of the lawsuits. He said they “confirm everything that we have always suspected.”
In a reply dated Oct. 18, 2005, Down questioned the insurer’s motivations and questioned whether there was an ethical problem with State Farm telling the firm what to put in reports. He also suggested that on another occasion, State Farm asked the firm to remove information from a report because “they would then have to settle.”