JACKSON — A prominent attorney embroiled in a judicial bribery case paid two associates $500,000 to convince Mississippi’s Attorney General not to file criminal charges against an insurance company, according to court records.
Plaintiffs lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Cos. soon after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was afraid the company “was not going to settle the civil cases” if the attorney general’s office filed criminal charges, according to an FBI report filed Monday in the bribery case.
Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday he would not have met with the men if he had known they were paid to persuade him not to file charges. “If I knew they were getting paid that much I would have told them to get out of the office because it just didn’t smell right,” Hood said.
Hood acknowledged meeting with former State Auditor Steve Patterson and attorney Timothy Balducci around Christmas 2006, but said he was not influenced by them.
“It was like they were fishing for information more than anything,” Hood said. “I didn’t get a dime, wasn’t offered a dime and wouldn’t have taken a dime.”
Scruggs, Patterson and Balducci were indicted in November 2007, along with Scruggs’ son and law partner Zach, and another attorney in the Scruggs’ firm, Sidney Backstrom. The men were charged with conspiring to bribe a state court judge for a favorable ruling in a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees from a settlement of Katrina insurance cases.
Balducci and Patterson have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with investigators. The Scruggses and Backstrom have pleaded not guilty.
While being interviewed by the FBI in November 2007, Balducci told agents that Scruggs paid him and Patterson to see “if they could get Hood to relent on indicting” State Farm, according to the report filed in federal court on Monday.
John Keker, an attorney for Scruggs, told The Associated Press on Wednesday: “I’m not going to talk about Balducci’s claim until we get to the trial.”
The FBI report, entered into federal court records in the bribery case against Scruggs and two associates, is based on an interview with a confidential source, apparently Balducci.
A judge on Tuesday ruled that he will allow evidence of prior bad acts, particularly that Scruggs allegedly tried to influence at least one other judge when the trial begins March 31.
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