Court Intrigue For The King Of Torts

Clarksdale, Miss.

Richard Scruggs, known for bringing big companies to heel, now has to fight federal bribery charges. He is shown in a house in Pascagoula, Miss., where he has represented victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Charles M. Merkel Jr., whose fee dispute with Richard Scruggs is at the heart of the bribery case.

EVER since Richard Scruggs was indicted on federal conspiracy and bribery charges about two weeks ago, legal eagles have asked whether a renowned lawyer who earned a reputation as the “King of Torts” would really risk his reputation, his freedom, his wealth and, of course, his career, by offering $50,000 to sway a judge in a relatively small squabble over fees.

One clue may be found in this town, nestled amid cotton fields and country crossroads made famous in the music of the legendary blues singer Robert Johnson A Clarksdale lawyer, Charles M. Merkel Jr., spent more than a decade battling Mr. Scruggs in two fee disputes and says he still bears scars from the fight.

“It’s scorched earth with Dickie Scruggs,” says Mr. Merkel, sitting in a wood-paneled office featuring duck-hunting memorabilia and two framed checks representing about $17 million in payments that Mr. Scruggs had to disgorge to Mr. Merkel’s client — a lawyer named Alwyn Luckey who argued that Mr. Scruggs shortchanged him for work he performed on asbestos cases that made Mr. Scruggs rich.

Mr. Merkel and prosecutors say that the Luckey case foreshadowed some of Mr. Scruggs’ woes in the current bribery case. “As far as whether he’s guilty, I can’t say,” Mr. Merkel concedes. “But I’m not surprised, because he’s willing to use any means to an end. And it irks the hell out of me when Scruggs skates on the edge and makes the profession look bad.”

According to an official investigating the Scruggs case who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly, federal prosecutors have asked the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section to examine whether Mr. Scruggs has engaged in multiple bribery attempts of local judges. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment publicly on the case. The case is also likely to fuel further debate over the merits of lucrative class-action lawsuits.

Even if Mr. Merkel turns out to be wrong, the indictment casts a different kind of spotlight on Mr. Scruggs, who cultivated the image of a smooth Southern lawyer capable of winning huge verdicts on behalf of smokers and, most recently, victims of Hurricane Katrina. Indeed, Mr. Scruggs was a key character in “The Insider,” the 1999 film that detailed how he helped win a $248 billion settlement from the tobacco industry.

Estimates of how much Mr. Scruggs and his partners stand to eventually collect from the tobacco settlement reach north of $1 billion. He is one of Mississippi’s richest men, with a black Porsche Cayenne that is a familiar sight in Courthouse Square in nearby Oxford, where his firm is located.

But Mr. Scruggs still fought hard this year against the accusations of John Griffin Jones, a Jackson, Miss., lawyer who worked alongside Mr. Scruggs in his suit against State Farm Insurance after Katrina. Mr. Jones, saying he was cheated out of his fair share of a $26.5 million settlement, sued in state court. Then, on Nov. 28, Mr. Scruggs was indicted with four other men, including his son Zachary Scruggs, who is a lawyer in his firm. They are accused of attempting to bribe Judge Henry L. Lackey, who was overseeing Mr. Jones’s suit.

To make matters worse for Mr. Scruggs, one of the four, Timothy R. Balducci, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to a bribery charge in the case and has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating Mr. Scruggs. Mr. Balducci’s conversations were taped, and he is expected to testify when the case goes to trial next year. Judge Lackey informed the United States attorney’s office about Mr. Balducci’s offer shortly after he was approached last spring.

Mr. Scruggs and others indicted in the case each face up to 75 years in jail and $1.5 million in fines if convicted. Mr. Scruggs’s lead lawyer, John Keker, says his client is innocent. “We’re looking forward to a fight,” he says. “Dick Scruggs is a fine man, and he doesn’t deserve this.” Through Mr. Keker, Mr. Scruggs declined to comment.

Zachary Scruggs referred questions to his lawyer, Anthony L. Farese. “He’s certainly innocent of these charges,” Mr. Farese said of his client. “We look forward to receiving discovery from the government and proceeding to trial.”

NORMALLY, Mr. Merkel’s criticism of his longtime adversary might be considered trash talk between members of the famously incestuous Mississippi bar. After all, both men graduated from college and law school at Ole Miss within a few years of each other, and have often engaged in legal battles.

Tag Cloud

External Information

Additional Information

Where Am I?