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Big-Time Attorney Dickie Scruggs Gets Five Years In Prison

From the AP

Richard ''Dickie'' Scruggs, the attorney who built his career by taking on tobacco, asbestos and insurance companies, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for conspiring to bribe a judge.

U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. called Scruggs' conduct ''reprehensible'' and fined him $250,000. The judge handed down the full sentence requested by prosecutors despite arguments from the defense for half that time in prison.

Scruggs appeared to nearly faint as the federal judge scolded him for his conduct. Some people in the courtroom gasped as Scruggs started to sway side to side and his attorney grabbed his arm to steady him. He had to be seated before the sentence was read.

''I could not be more ashamed where I am today, mixed up in a judicial bribery scheme,'' Scruggs told the judge.


Scruggs's brother-in-law is Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS).


9 Comments

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Wow, I'm amazed. What was he thinking?

This guy was instrumental on making some of the insurance companies pay up after Katrina.

New Yorker? Vanity Fair? recently had long, complete profile and boy it is sad. what happens to him after this?

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Chancellor Robert Khayat of Ole Miss wrote a letter to the judge saying he thought it would be a waste of taxpayer's money to put such a man as Scruggs behind bars. The judge agreed. He ordered Scruggs to pay his own incarceration costs.

a repuglitard with a sense of shame ???

I don't believe it

this liar is just trying to reduce his sentence

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This guy never was a hero. He is where he is today because he wanted as much cash and power as he could possibly yank in. He doesn't give a damn about "causes" that don't fatten his own wallet. He's hardly atypical in the class action field.

Scruggs is a Democrat, not a Republican. A very prominent one too.

yeah. kinda disappointing that mr tilghman chose to leave that fact out but chose to include scrugg's relationship to trent lott. cheap. not the kind of evenhanded muckraking i expect from tpm.

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Scruggs contributed money to Democrats AND Republicans. He hasn't exactly been a MoveOn.org poster boy.

5 years plus a quarter mill for attempting to bribe a judge? Violent criminals get more lenient sentences. It's too political a punishment to stand on appeal.

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