Ex-Scruggs Partner Requests Sanctions
In the latest twist to the ongoing judicial bribery scandal that felled plaintiffs lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, one of Scruggs’ former partners, Bob Wilson, is now asking for millions of dollars in sanction and punitive damages.
The claim dates back to 2005, when a federal magistrate ordered Scruggs to pay $17 million to another former partner, Alwyn Lucky, for legal fees in asbestos litigation. But Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter ruled the following year that Scruggs only owed Wilson $1.5 million, contrary to the findings of a special master, the Clarion Ledger reports.
Federal investigators are looking at DeLaughter and others tied to Scruggs’ cases, especially given testimony that the judge was involved in a bribery scheme. DeLaughter, currently suspended from the bench, has denied taking bribes.
The Ledger reports that Wilson’s attorneys are asking the court to toss out all previous orders by DeLaughter and that a new default judgment be entered to pay Wilson more than $15 million.
Wilson isn’t the first to attempt to recoup more money in attorney fees. Last week, Special Circuit Judge William Coleman granted a default judgment Jones, Funderburg, Sessums, Peterson and Lee, a Jackson, Miss., law firm that claims Scruggs owed it a bigger cut of the $26 million fees from Hurricane Katrina litigation.
Scruggs and others have pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey, who helped the FBI get the bribe on tape.
The Ledger reports that Lackey testified last week, that “We didn’t know what kind of monster we were dealing with. That monster was Dickie Scruggs.”
