Hood says statements distorted in Scruggs, State Farm cases

SKG attorneys told Balducci and former State Auditor Patterson that State Farm would settle the civil cases only if Hood's criminal case went away, Balducci later testified.

"And they told us," Balducci said, "that if we were successful in lobbying and working with the attorney general's lawyers to bring that to a resolution that they would pay us $500,000."

"And in short were you successful," a federal prosecutor asked.

Balducci responded, "We were successful."

In February, a State Farm attorney asked Hood, who was testifying in a civil case, if Scruggs' sent Hood a message through Balducci and Patterson: Scruggs would throw his considerable financial support to another attorney general's candidate if Hood failed to drop his case against State Farm.

This week, Hood said that he was negotiating the civil settlement with State Farm during the time that he, Patterson and Balducci had dinner. He still says they spent most of the evening talking about Balducci's plans to start a new law firm with Patterson as a consultant. Balducci was leaving the Booneville firm of Joey Langston, Hood said, but didn't want Langston to know that yet.

Hood said Balducci and Patterson did ask about the State Farm negotiations - Hood had the impression they were fishing, he said. But Hood says he did not agree to make any concessions and was not threatened.

"I made a decision, early on, that I was going to take this matter to a grand jury and make any decision on a settlement after that point," Hood said. Prosecutors in Hood's office did take the case to a grand jury a short time later. In the end, he said, three prosecutors, including the team's senior member, advised against bringing charges, while two thought the case might work.

"I know what I did and what I did, I did it right," Hood said. "Nothing influenced me either way in the decisions we made in this case."

On Nov. 28, Scruggs, Balducci, Patterson and two other Scruggs law firm members were indicted on judicial bribery charges.

Balducci had approached the judge for Scruggs, partly he told the grand jury, because he and Patterson needed the $400,000 still due from their work to influence Hood's decision. They had counted on the money to help start their new firm, he said.

All the men indicted have since pleaded guilty and will lose their law licenses, so the Balducci & Patterson firm is history. Langston, who together with Scruggs donated thousands to Hood's election campaigns, gave up his license, admitting that he bribed a Hinds County judge for Scruggs in 2007.

Hood said campaign contributions from Langston and Scruggs would have prevented him from investigating the two, but the question never came up. After being approached by Balducci, the judge reported the overture to federal investigators because of the relationship between Scruggs and Hood. Hood said those investigators were better-equipped to handle the case because he has no authority to use wire taps.



Sun Herald
4/25/8