Mississppi's Justice System Feels the Heat of State Farm

Hood ordered to appear in court

-- Attorney General Jim Hood must appear and may have to testify in a lawsuit filed against him by State Farm insurance companies, a federal magistrate judge has reiterated in an order filed Thursday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker also granted State Farm permission to question policyholders' attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs under oath before the hearing is reconvened. Scruggs, Parker said, might not be available to testify at the hearing so should be questioned beforehand.

Judge David Bramlette III, who is presiding over the case, will enter an order that sets a time, place and scope for the hearing to reconvene. Hood's recent request that he be allowed to resume a criminal investigation of State Farm triggered the court action.

State Farm filed the lawsuit in September to stop Hood's investigation, winning a temporary restraining order that suspends action by Hood's office. Both sides agreed at a November hearing in Jackson that the restraining order would remain in place until further notice.

To date, Hood has avoided testifying in the case, at the previous hearing offering testimony from one of his prosecutors working on the State Farm investigation. Bramlette heard her testimony behind closed doors.

State Farm claims Hood and Scruggs teamed up, with Hood threatening criminal charges against the nation's largest insurer so Scruggs could wrest from the company a global settlement of policyholders' Hurricane Katrina claims. Scruggs, who has also denied the allegations, stood to earn millions in legal fees from the global settlement reached in January 2007.

However, U.S. District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. subsequently rejected the proposed settlement, saying it failed to protect policyholders' rights.

Sun Herald

Justice sees crisis in trust Chief judge worried public losing confidence in judiciary


JACKSON - Mississippi Chief Justice Jim Smith said he's worried about the public losing trust in the state judiciary shaken by charges of lawyers offering bribes to judges to buy favorable decisions.

“We are obviously concerned and saddened and upset by the allegations, but this is an isolated situation,” Smith said Wednesday.

Smith met with reporters at his state Supreme Court office to discuss the crisis of confidence in Mississippi lawyers and judges.

“I think honesty and integrity are the foremost traits we have to possess, and we are answerable to the public about that,” said Smith, who heads the state's judicial branch.

The U.S. Justice Department has pursued cases of prominent Mississippi lawyers and a former state auditor trying to bribe state judges.

In separate cases, Booneville attorney Joey Langston and former state auditor Steve Patterson pleaded guilty this month to trying to bribe two judges. Oxford attorney Dickie Scruggs - the brother-in-law of former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott - awaits a trial for his role in the bribery scandal. Scruggs' son and other lawyers also have been implicated.

In another federal prosecution, attorney Paul Minor was convicted last year of bribing Gulf Coast judges John Whitfield and Wes Teel, who were found guilty of accepting the bribes. All three were sentenced to prison.

The Commerical Dispatch