JACKSON — Federal prosecutors have ended their criminal investigation into political operative and former Greenwood resident P.L. Blake in the judicial bribery scandal that sent former trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs to prison, an attorney said.
The decision to drop the case involving Blake means the federal investigation into Scruggs and others officially has ended.
Blake's attorney, Doug Jones of Birmingham, Ala., said federal authorities have closed the case on his client, saying prosecutors declined to prosecute.
"We obviously are very pleased," Jones told the Jackson newspaper.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Oxford told The Associated Press this morning she could not immediately confirm Jones' claim.
Blake, who spent more than 30 years living and farming in and around Greenwood, is a former football star for Mississippi State University.
Blake's name arose shortly after the 2007 arrests of Scruggs, then-lawyer Timothy Balducci, former State Auditor Steve Patterson and others in the attempt to get Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey to rule in Scruggs' favor in a $26.5 million legal fees dispute involving Hurricane Katrina litigation.
Lackey, who was cooperating with the FBI, was paid a $40,000 bribe.
In a transcript of conversations secretly taped by the FBI, Patterson told Balducci he had informed Blake they had a $40,000 "pretty good problem" and asked Blake what to do and "he said solve it and if you need help, let me know."
But elsewhere, Patterson told Balducci that Blake didn't know anything; "He just knows the amount."
Blake, who now lives in Birmingham, was called Scruggs' personal "switchboard" in a book on the Scruggs case released earlier this year.
"(Blake) was the person that you went to if you wanted to talk to Scruggs but couldn't get Scruggs or Scruggs wouldn't talk to you," said Alan Lange, who co-wrote "Kings of Tort" with Tom Dawson.
In 1988, Blake pleaded no contest to a federal charge that he offered bribes to Mississippi Bank officials in exchange for preferential treatment in securing loans.
According to that indictment, he, his wife and their companies received $21 million in about 40 loans and renewals from the bank, which went belly up.
Tennessee lawyer Fred Thompson, a Republican candidate for president in 2008 who's now a radio talk show host, successfully argued Blake should avoid prison, citing Blake's bankruptcy. Instead, Blake was ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine.
Since his imprisonment, Scruggs, 64, has settled litigation with his former law partner, Bob Wilson, of Jackson, in a case that ensnared former Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter in the federal judicial corruption probe.
Wilson's attorney, Charlie Merkel of Clarksdale, said his client is "very happy" with that settlement. "It was a long time coming," he said.
Informed of the end of the federal investigation into Blake, Merkel replied, "P.L. skates again. He's the Teflon man. We all wish we could be paid that much to clip newspapers."
