JACKSON — A federal appeals court has granted oral arguments in the appeals of a once-successful attorney and two former judges in a bribery case.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments July 10 in Houston, Texas, in one of two Mississippi judicial bribery cases before the court next month.
Attorney Paul Minor was convicted of backing loans to former Harrison County judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield in exchange for favorable court rulings. The judges were convicted of taking bribes.
Minor was first convicted of corruption charges in 2007 and sentenced to 11 years. He was re-sentenced in June to eight years because the 5th Circuit had vacated bribery convictions in 2009. The appeals court let some of his convictions stand, including racketeering.
Teel and Whitfield also were re-sentenced to shorter terms. Teel is out of prison.
In court documents, Minor has argued federal prosecutors didn’t prove that he got something in return for guaranteeing loans for Teel and Whitfield. Teel and Whitfield have joined in Minor’s brief.
Prosecutors said Minor guaranteed loans for the judges, then used cash and third parties to pay off the debts. They said the judges then ruled in his favor in civil cases. Minor has said the loans were meant to help friends in times of need and that he expected nothing in return.
Prosecutors said all three took extraordinary steps to hide the loans.
Minor said the government failed to show that he bought any ruling with payments to Teel or Whitfield, nor did the government show that a different judge would have come to a different conclusion in the two cases cited by prosecutors.
In the second judicial bribery case, Zach Scruggs is attempting to have his conviction overturned.
The 5th Circuit has scheduled arguments for July 9 in New Orleans.
Scruggs has appealed from a 2011 ruling by U.S. District Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr. in Oxford.
Scruggs was indicted in November 2007 with his father, imprisoned attorney Richard F. “Dickie” Scruggs, and three others that they conspired to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City. Lackey presided over a legal-fees lawsuit against Dickie Scruggs and others.
Their charges included what’s called honest-services bribery, which means a bribe aimed to deprive the public of an official’s honest services.
Ultimately Zach Scruggs pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misprision of a felony, in this case not reporting that a colleague spoke illegally to Lackey about the lawsuit.
He spent 14 months in prison, lost his law license and paid a $250,000 fine.
The government insists that for Scruggs to win his appeal, he must prove actual innocence.
Scruggs insists he is innocent of any allegations that he knew about the bribery scheme.
Last August, Biggers denied Zach Scruggs’ appeal.
Scruggs’ innocence arguments rely on the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which narrowed the definition of honest-services to just bribery and kickbacks.
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