Pre-Gaming the Scruggs Sentence: Will Dickie Get 5 Years?
Famed plaintiffs lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs is slated to be sentenced later this morning for conspiring to bribe a Mississippi judge, a crime to which he pleaded guilty back in March. If things go badly, he could be looking at 60 months in prison, the statutory maximum. If things go Scruggs’s way, however, he could receive half that.
The world of federal sentencing, with its guidelines and points and departures, has always, frankly, sort of confounded us. But in re Scruggs, the crux of the debate on his sentence revolves around the monetary benefit he could have derived from the bribe. The U.S. Probation office has pegged that figure at $5.3 million. Scruggs and co-defendant Sidney Backstrom put the figure much lower — at $50,000. Here are stories from the AP, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and the Biloxi Sun-Herald.
Prosecutors have agreed that Backstrom, who also pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe judge Henry Lackey, should serve no more than 30 months. Scruggs’s son, Zach, who pleaded guilty to a lesser crime, is slated to be sentenced July 2.
Meanwhile, in other Scruggs news…. Months ago, to ensure we were on top of the Dickie Scruggs story, we set up a Google Alert under the word “Scruggs” to send us news roundups every day. Early on, in addition to notes about Dickie and Zach, we got alerts about famed banjo player Earl Scruggs.
Then, this spring, we started getting alerts on stories featuring a fellow named Xavier Scruggs, a power-hitting junior corner infielder for UNLV. As the plight of Dickie and Zach worsened, the fortunes for young Xavier got better and better. Turns out, Xavier, contrary to some expectations, had a monster year for the Runnin’ Rebs, hitting .379 with 20 home runs and 65 RBIs. He was named Mountain West Conference player of the year and, earlier this month, was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. Earlier this week, he signed with the Cards and was assigned to the team’s short-season A-ball team in Batavia, N.Y., the Batavia Muckdogs. Congratulations Xavier!
Photos: AP, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
I like the info on all the Scruggssss
Earl Scruggs is the best. Particularly when he was with the late Lester Flatt. And never better when he and Lester did the following song:
Pearl, Pearl, Pearl
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs
Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, come let us see our girl
Are you still our valentine? Do you still look so divine?
Come and let us see our darlin’ Pearl
Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, don’t give your love to Earl
I have got a horse and mule, Forty acres near a school
We’ll be happy as two bugs
Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, come be my loving girl
Don’t you marry Lester Flatt, He slicks his hair with possum fat
Change your name to Mrs. Earl Scruggs
Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, you’ll get no love from Earl
This here man is such a sap, He won’t hold you on his lap
Unless you are an old 5-string banjo
Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, he’s nutty as a squirrel
If you’ll be Mrs. Scruggs, We’ll live on kisses and hugs
Like Juliet and Romeo.
The Beverly Hillbillies intro song, music performed by Flatt and Scruggs:
Come and listen to my story
‘Bout a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer,
Barely kept his family fed.
And then one day
He was shootin’ at some food,
And up through the ground came a-bubblin’ crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
Well the first thing you know
Ol’ Jed’s a millionaire,
Kinfolk said “Jed move away from there”.
Said “California’s the place you outta be”.
So they loaded up the truck
And they moved to Beverly.
Hills that is, Swimming pools, movie stars.
Well now it’s time to say
Goodby to Jed and all his kin,
They would like to thank
You folks for kindly droppin’ in.
You’re all invited back again to this locality
To have a heapin’ helpin’ of their hospitality.
Hillbilly that is, sit a spell, take your shoes off.
Y’all come back now, y’hear?
Good for Xavier. Now both Xavier and Dickie will have roommates named Bubba!
Give him the chair.
Earl Scruggs wins the best Scruggs award. Dickie, rot in jail.
The Scruggs hierarch in order of value to mankind…
Earl (come and listen to my story bout a man named Jed..)
Xavier (he’s young with opportunity to move up)
Zach (same youth opportunity as Xavier but less likelhood of moving up)
Dickie (fuhgeddaboutit)…
how can you say “give him the chair” he didn’t murder anybody… yet, he should pay for what he did, the fair way…
His License should be revoked and so should his sons license and anyone involved in this..and there should be a very hefty fine involved I mean after all he is the RICHEST Man in Mississippi, ROFLMAO….what goes around comes around!!!
both of those men are very handsome!
Revoke his license….
He bribed a judge! You have to send a message to all the other sharks out there that this is unacceptable. It is amazing what kinds of situations you can find yourself in when all that motivates you is greed. 30-60 months and a hefty fine and some community service seems appropriate.
“He bribed a judge! ”
This is MS dude, we have been bribing judges since Reconstruction. Free Dickie!
Keep investigating. Dickie’s so smooth at this that he has to have done it before.
This is only the beginning! The “word” is many other “High Profile” Mississippi Figures (Politicians)are or were involved in the Scruggs Cases!
And honestly, I do not blame this on Scruggs. This happens EVERYDAY ANYWHERE IN AMERICA!
Welcome to the “Good ‘ol Boy System”!!! President BUSH should give DICKIE, a FULL PRESIDENTIAL PARDON!!
He assisted the Attorney General of Mississippi at the time “Mike Moore” Take down BIG TOBACCO companies for LYING TO CONSUMERS!
PRAISE HIM not PUNISH HIM!!
Mr. Scruggs should get a PARDON!
He made a mistake, but it is unfortunate that one of the MOST INFLUENTIAL LAWYERS to EVER CRUSH CORPORATE AMERICA “BIG BOYS” will be now most remembered for this Ignorant Set of Circumstances!
It is shameful that if this has been going on that it took a “lil o” $50,000.00 attempted “so called Bribe” to bring him down.
Judge Lackey must have been insulted in order to turn to the FBI to report this.
To bad DICKIE did not offer “MOORE” $$MONEY$$ or NONE of these events would have ever been known about!
FREE DICKIE!
FREE DICKIE!
FREE DICKIE!
PRES. PARDON IS IN ORDER HERE!
WILL PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH PARDON DICKIE SCRUGGS?
You are correct U.S. CITIZEN, DIXIE CITIZEN, and DIXIE CAPO!
A Full Pardon is in order here.
WHAT MAKES ME SICK ABOUT THE WHOLE “SCRUGGS CASE” IS THAT JUST WITHIN THE LAST FEW WEEKS “BIG OIL COMPANIES” WERE IN FRONT OF CONGRESS TO ADDRESS THEIR “BILLIONS OF MONTHLY PROFITS” OFF OF EVERY U.S. CONSUMER AND NOTHING WAS DONE TO THEM, YET NONE OF THEM ARE IN JAIL FOR “FAVORABLE RULINGS” LIKE THE SUPREME COURT RULING DEALING WITH THE EXXON VALDEZ CASE! BUT OF COURSE THATS NOT “BRIBERY” THAT WON THEM THE LANDMARK CASE AND SAVED THEM EVEN MORE MILLIONS! GUESS IT WHO’S INVOLVED, “BIG OIL” AND THE GOOD OL BOYS FROM TEXAS!
HOPEFULLY ONE DAY AMERICA WILL BE RUN AS OUR FOUNDING FATHERS SAID, “for the people and by the people” INSTEAD OF SPECIAL INTERESTS! BIG MONEY AND CORPORATE AMERICA!
Dickie said, IM GUILTY…MY SONN IS GUILTY…STOP RIGHT HERE….BROTHER IN LAW TRENT LOTT MAY BE A NUT BECAUSE HE WEARS A RAYON TOUPEE FROM A COTTON STATE…..DICKIE WANTS FOUR YEARS AND HE AND FAMILY AND FRIENDS KEEP TWO HUNDRED MILLION. IF YOU DON’T HAVE OVER FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON. YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER TURD WE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH.
It is very ugly down here. The corruption is so deep and fast you need a racing card to try keeping up with it. Republican Govenor Hailey Barbouur looks and talks like an ignorant fool but he still collects 12 million a year from cigarette and other drug pushers. It is very ugly down here. There is a disease that connects the top politicians, lawyers, judges, sherriffs, hospital administraors, corporate medical entities….big money divied up and its all illegal and very ugly. This is the new south. Just as ugly and mean as the old south. j.b.
North or South it is all the same. The perfect cooperation between government, business and crooked lawyers is a national problem. To see who and what is in charge of New York Courts see www.stoplegalfiction.org
…and he gets 5 year.
It is incomprehensible why he would need to get involved in something like this after the success he has already had. The in-depth New Yorker article on Scruggs is fascinating, so I recommend it to anyone who is interest in this story. However, it too fails to answer the question that nobody can seem to answer: why?
