Alan,
If Patterson was involved with the old Mississippi Bank ( and I think that he was) and P.L. Blake was a customer ( and I think that he was) then this “can of worms” has been wiggling together for a long time. Wonder who got left holding the bag on the old bank and who got the goodies out of the bag?

HMMM Mississippi Bank....Does anyone remember Pat McMullen?

DH

Alan:  I had an intereting discussion with a buddy of mine while muching on a vegetable plate @ Primos today. He has known both Peters and DeLaughter for a LONG time. He told me that his thinking on this situation is that Peters and DeLaughter were probably working with the feds, much like Judge Lackey.  Anyone out there have the same thoughts?

They may be working with the Feds now to save their respective boohineys… but unlike Lackey it doesn’t seem that they called the Feds to alert them as to the skunks in the system, like Lackey did.

No, I don’t think it happened that way at all.  If they had, what happened when Scruggs and Company tried to bribe Judge Lackey, would have happened then.

I am starting to think they offered DeLaughter a federal judgeship, made some efforts to make it look legitimate, and then told him sorry, no soap, after they got the ruling they wanted.

If if it did happen that way, it’s not like he could call the FBI up at that point and complain.

At the very least, he probably didn’t report the attempt, because it was made by his very good friend, Ed, and he could not foresee the events that have since transpired.  It’s kind of hard to believe that Langston lied when he said they tried to bribe DeLaughter, and that to make the lie more credible, he pleaded guility to attempted bribery and will go do some prison time.

In any event, I think we will know exactly what did happen, sooner or later.

lawdoctor, your explanation of the events and circumstances is the most plausible that I can think of.

I bet we will know by the end of the week about the Judge and Peters.

Has anyone heard reports of Trent Lott being questioned in the last few days by the F.B.I.?

Get REAL, imac49! If memory serves me, the Peters and DeLaughter case was in the last century! I am sure it would not take that long for the feds to act on that case if they had known about it!

I feel sure your friend was like some of the people that I talked with during my last trip to the Gulf Coast-Many of them felt that Scruggs was being framed. They do not want to accept the fact that Scruggs is not “Their Redeemer.”

Our Attorney General needs to get off his A$$ and go after the money from Langston, Balducci and Patterson before the IRS gets it all. They have already pleaded guilty and Andy Taggert offered to do it for free. Also the AG should be primed and cocked to go after the $ of anyone else who pleads guilty or is convicted. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON JIM HOOD? This is a tough budget year and our state needs the money.

Question?
I asked this on another board.
Other then the Lackey attempted bribe, do we have any judges taking money from these guys?
I don’t mean campaign bribes, oops contributions, that I beleive are totally above board as long as they don’t excede the election law limits.
I find it hard to believe all these judges, most of them lawyers, have stayed above the fray.
When are we going to call these “loans” like Diaz got from Scruggs and Minor flat out bribes?

"The bottom line is that the State Tax Commission may want to investigate these matters just to make sure that the appropriate taxes were paid by all parties.”

In an ideal world we would live in a state that had agencies headed by and staffed with capable and competent employees and officials. Sadly we do not. When we imagine our own people going after these criminals (regardless of the agency), we realize immediately that we would only see it bungled, bringing us only more national shame. Keystone cops with guns that fall apart driving 1949 Desotos with wheels that come off in a turn come to mind.

I think this is the same State Tax Commission which annually for about the past six or seven years has told us in January that they are going to be unable to get refund checks out before, in some cases, September. They’ve just realized they’re woefully understaffed and their data base has been compromised and computers are missing. How in the name of hootin’ hell could an agency that pegs the incompetency needle manage an investigation of this magnitude?

Lando wake up!!!!!!! Delaughter made the ruling in 2006 not in the 1990s.  DUH!!!!!!!

Fyodor1, I agree with you totally!

It it makes, you feel better Fyodor1, they’re not fooling me, either.

EvilZim - I believe Lott was “interviewed” early Tue/Wed of last week.

CCVZ:

Any information on the extent of the “interview” of Lott?  The information I heard was that he was haughty and evasive for the first hour or so, and then something took place that changed his posture quickly.

Don’t know if this is factual but, I heard it was Lott and McConnell who was approached by TOBACCO (in DC) who wanted to make a Government Deal as they were concerned that if one ‘lawsuit’ went for the little man, Big Tobacco would be over as all Companies would then fall to the Juries of America. What they wanted was to ‘make one payment’ and be immune from any further litigation as Tobacco was legal to sell and trade. Shortly after this, During an Ole’ Miss Homecoming game, the Tobacco Suit was hatched.

The rest is / was one big exchange of money whereas few got hurt at all in this exchange. The Government did not desire to make Tobacco Illegal as the tax revenue would be lost. Nor did the government desire for Tobacco to lose their A$$ down at the ‘Court House’ producing another big loss in taxes. So, tobacco made one big payment over 20 years (I think) and, all is fine and dandy. The rest was theatrics and this action was a done deal from the get-go.

But, remember, this all was done “FOR THE KIDS” and the poor smokers on welfare...........not to enrich the purse of the Judicial Jiants. Right?

This is what I heard from reliable ‘rumor starters’ however, these same people have been ‘on the money’ with most everything else. If this, or any part of this, is factual, this might explain Trents bit on jitters EvilZim was referring to.

In regards to Judge DeLaughter, at the time of the ruling at issue, was there a non-magistrate federal judgeship available or even on the horizon?  While I am certain there were a couple of magistrate slots available or on the horizon, I not sure as to an article three slot. Has anyone done a timeline on the ruling, as it relates to an article three vacancy?

JMAN,
that story is manure.  lol.  Dickie and Trent are not that bright.  An attorney from clarksdale named Michael Lewis had a secretary whose mother was dying from cancer.  The secretary was telling Michael how medicaid was paying all the bills and that tobacco should have because her mother was smoking all these years.  Lewis took the idea to Moore and Moore brought in Scruggs.  Under a normal lawsuit for smokers, the smokers lost because they assumed the risk of smoking.  The state sued for non-smokers or the medicaid part.  Now you are right that the tobacco industry wanted one payment and it was tax deductible.  But no trent lott and dickie scruggs are too stupid to come up with something like that.  Michael Lewis is the genius.  Not Dickie.

There were a couple people that weren’t happy with whatever deal tobacco cut...one now a President.

Tobacco War’s New Front: Lawyers Fight for Big Fees

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05EEDE153AF93AA35755C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

you are absolutely right, Huck.  he and his lovely wife, pauline, are the brains behind the “idea” of the law suit.  He took it to moore who brought in Scruggs.  Mike and Pauline have allways hated that scruggs got all the credit and feel like their 10% of mississippi fee was an insult.  but in the end they had to go with it or they would have gotten the same treatment that other scruggs partners obviously get.

An excerpt from the NY Times article…
‘’Some of these tobacco lawyers are becoming the poster children for tort reform,’’ said Mr. Scruggs of Pascagoula, Miss. ‘’The biggest problem is that some of these lawyers don’t give a damn about their colleagues. They just want their money.’’

"Mike and Pauline have allways hated that scruggs got all the credit and feel like their 10% of mississippi fee was an insult.  but in the end they had to go with it or they would have gotten the same treatment that other scruggs partners obviously get.”

Huh? I thought practicing law was like practicing medicine, a calling. Am I being told that you guys are in it for the money? What about championing the common man’s right and righting wrong and seeing justice fulfilled? This is a bad day at Black Rock if this is true.

"HMMM Mississippi Bank....Does anyone remember Pat McMullen?”

Well enough to remember how the “loans” involved made it possible for some highly regarded people to continue to offer their talents to public service - and that “private bankers” - Minor - for example, are a modern day version of same.

Wow Dudley,

I made that post two days ago.  I started my career in downtown Jackson in 1978 as a youngster working in Capitol Towers.  Ths MS Bank was on the first floor and I was quite naive then but felt like everyone that worked in top management with the exception of one person, was a crook. 

There is no point in publishing names now that it is thirty years later but we both know what happened to WP Jr.

So catch me up to date if you know there whereabouts of the McMullen family.  I know Pat is out of jail (I believe I remember he wed and fathered a child while incarcerated) but I do not recall if he is still alive. 

DH

Mississippi Bank? When did it start? When did it fold? Was Steve Patterson a loan officer? Was P.L. Blake a customer? Who were the officers and stock holders? Any info out there?

I believe I remember he wed and fathered a child while incarcerated) but I do not recall if he is still alive

If he managed that little trick, he lives on...........in the minds of many, I’m sure.

Mr. McMullen is deceased.

JimS

All those questions you posed happened a long time ago and I honestly don’t remember the details.

Again, list of officers and stockholders would be inappropiate 30 years later.  There were a few well respected Jacksonians involved with the bank who got in no trouble and moved on.

As for P.L. Blake, he was definitely a customer and if you will surf Alans blogsite, you will see numerous post describing the misdeanmor offense where Blake bribed an officer of the bank.

Someone else will have to enlighten you about Patterson, I think he was but I don’t want to spread misinformation.

And if you pick up this weeks issue of the NorthSide Sun, you will see a rehash of the Blake antics in Wyatt Emmerich’s editorial but it’s only a thumbnail of the information you will find on this blog.

DH

"And if you pick up this weeks issue of the NorthSide Sun, you will see a rehash of the Blake antics in Wyatt Emmerich’s editorial but it’s only a thumbnail of the information you will find on this blog.....(as lots of Wyatt’s research is done right here on this site)“

C’mon, a little credit where credit is due, as we say in publishing circles.

DH,
The fact the MS BANK and the characters involved was 30 years ago is exactly my point. I also think there were some Texas connectionns involved as well--- grain contracts and grain bins?

Grain?????  Texas???????  Can we PLEASE connect this Scrugolicious mess with Cattle Gate?  PLEASE???????????  I’m on the edge of my sheep!!!!

Texas, bribes, PL Blake, government contracts----Oh, my God.  Billie Sol Estes has returned from the dead.

Quote by huck / chuk
<JMAN,
that story is manure.  lol.  Dickie and Trent are not that bright.  An attorney from clarksdale named Michael Lewis had a secretary whose mother was dying from cancer.  The secretary was telling Michael how medicaid was paying all the bills and that tobacco should have because her mother was smoking all these years.  Lewis took the idea to Moore and Moore brought in Scruggs.  Under a normal lawsuit for smokers, the smokers lost because they assumed the risk of smoking.  The state sued for non-smokers or the medicaid part.  Now you are right that the tobacco industry wanted one payment and it was tax deductible.  But no trent lott and dickie scruggs are too stupid to come up with something like that.  Michael Lewis is the genius.  Not Dickie.

Yep........know all about that piece of the puzzle. Part of the theatrics and, I think this Attorney was shorted a bit for his efforts. Not sure of this. As far as smarts, Dickie was a Naval Aviator, Lawyer, and somehow outsmarted (with the help of a whistleblower [also part of the theatrics I am told] the Tobacco Mouth Pieces too) if one is to believe this whole deal was not just a big money swap over so many years. Now, stupid does not even belong as anything descriptive for the above Dickie. Now, the bribery does show stupidity or a sense of over self confidence (which will develope with large sums of money in one’s pruse). Had that happen to me once in the 5th grade when my Grandfather gave me 10 bucks for my B’day. Hadn’t happen since.

Jman,
Have you met Dickie? the stupid SOB just lost his freedom for an order that he could have paid a damn idiot defense lawyer $2k for.  I know Steve Susman of Susman Goddfrey.  Those boys didnt have a chance in chancery court at that time.  I dont know if it was home cooking or not.  All i do know is that they could not prove the damages to medicaid.  How much damage did the receive to all smoking patients paid by medicaid? lol.  He is an asbestos lawyer that used his pascagoula connections to get cases.  Now your definition of stupid might be different than mine, but mine includes bribing judges in cash and EMAILING OTHERS ABOUT IT.  “HEY JOEY, YOU GET THE ORDER WE PAID FOR”.  OMG.  If you think making money is an exhibition of intelligence, may i present britney spears, richie schwartz, and donald trump.  to sum up, I HOPE HE DIES AND ROTS IN HELL.

Jim Hood should resign his post effective immediately and allow the Governor to appoint someone.  My recommendation would be Al Hopkins.  At that point the AG’s office could pursue state prosecutions of everyone involved in this current fiasco and perhaps the Beef Plant.

Timing is everything.  If this had broke before the election, there seems to be little doubt that Hood wouldn’t have been re-elected.

If Al Hopkins had won, I imagine he would be getting briefed already on what was going on, and what his office could do to help.

It’s hard to do that with the present situation.  No one in the USAO would even tell Hood what the address is for the courthouse, I bet.

Texas, bribes, PL Blake, government contracts----Oh, my God.  Billie Sol Estes has returned from the dead.

Posted by hdmatthias

I tried to tell y’all earlier, this thing is going to twist right down into the saga of Ed Cates and the burned out car on ‘55. Laugh if you will. B.S.Estes has some direct connections to Cates.

HD and Elli,
A lot of friends/connections were made back in those days. Texas was one of the 4 states with MS, FL and the fourth escapes me. Blake/Patterson. Patterson/Thompson, Blake/Thompson--do not forget Texas later had a member on the arbitration panel for tobacco. As I understand this Texas member of the panel loved bird dogs and horses. You never know who connected with who or when the connections were made.

Actually, I think Cates’ car was found on Bozeman Rd., but I get what you are saying.

Donn and Regan,
When was the Cates situation?

You know some people just do not understand how far back, how twisted and how connected some of this stuff could be.

JimS, yep, i think the “connected and the non-connected” have been of the same lineage for decades.
Maybe our esteemed AG-HOOD can save the day.  Yes, I am ROLFMAO.

heck, you know what i mean.

From the NYT

“Edward L. Cates, a prominent Jackson lawyer who was a close adviser to Gov. Ross Barnett in the 1960’s, is being held without bond on charges of murder, arson and embezzlement, a month after he was believed to have died in his burned-out automobile. On May 14 a charred car belonging to the lawyer was found on a country road in nearby Madison County, with part of a body inside. Funeral services with full military honors were held three days later for Mr. Cates, a former city official described b… “

June 14, 1983

Thanks Jane. I well remember the incident--just was not sure on the date.

quote by chuk / shuk
<Jman,
Have you met Dickie? the stupid SOB just lost his freedom for an order that he could have paid a damn idiot defense lawyer $2k for.  I know Steve Susman of Susman Goddfrey.  Those boys didnt have a chance in chancery court at that time.  I dont know if it was home cooking or not.  All i do know is that they could not prove the damages to medicaid.  How much damage did the receive to all smoking patients paid by medicaid? lol.  He is an asbestos lawyer that used his pascagoula connections to get cases.  Now your definition of stupid might be different than mine, but mine includes bribing judges in cash and EMAILING OTHERS ABOUT IT.  “HEY JOEY, YOU GET THE ORDER WE PAID FOR”.  OMG.  If you think making money is an exhibition of intelligence, may i present britney spears, richie schwartz, and donald trump.  to sum up, I HOPE HE DIES AND ROTS IN HELL.>

Huck Chuk...........you gotta quit holding back.

And, yes.........I have met Dickie.

Has Britney, Richie or Donald ever flew Fighter / Bombers? This takes skill beyond chasing ambulances and shaking one A$$ like Britney. Donald is just a gambler who won and kept winning. Dickie came at his fortune quite differently.

He is an intelligent homo-sapien primate male that took advantage of opportunities and, it finally activated his ‘deceptive’ gene and created this God Equal mindset. From a humble up-bringing to the richest person in MS is quite a jump and, he allowed this to rearrange his self confidence believing he was atop the evolutionary scale. This is what destroys the good in man / woman......losing the ability to recognize right from wrong.

He made some stupid moves but, he did not calculate these moves to be stupid until around November ‘07.

Just for the record, thank you Alan, for this site.  (I do still feel the Hinds County Public Records were ok here).

So a former city commish is involved in this? You know he got caught because he sent his wife money from GA, where he was living under an assumed name (major something). His wife got suspicious and called the police.

Hey, y’all.

I’ve heard a ton of stories in the hospital about Blake’s old hunting camp in the Delta. 

My friends tell me that back in the 60’s and 70’s very important people (nationally) used to hang out with Blake at his camp.

Donn:  What was Billy Sol Estes’s link to Ed Cates?

The reason Cates faked his own death was that he had embezzled a large sum of money from a law client.  He copped a plea to avoid a trial. 

There were some things about that case that I never figured out.  (1) When the judge (Goza?) accepted Cates’s plea, why didn’t he require him to tell the whole story?

(2) Who was the dead person in Cates’s car?

(3) It was learned that Cates had been buying new Cadillacs in New Orleans and selling them in Jackson for LESS than he had paid for them.  What was that all about?

Cates wired his wife money from GA under the name COLONEL Christopher [Somebody].  He said in the telegram that Mrs. Cates’s husband was “the best.”

While Cates was at Parchman, he tried to volunteer to go out West and fight forest fires.  Before he died, Ber-r-r-t Case went to interview him at Parchman, but Cates really didn’t tell him anything.

Too bad Cheney wasn’t a member.  Of course, I say that in jest.

jman,
I have several friends who fly....aint that hard.  hell, aint that hard.  see W.  Second, Dickie knew Trent Lott and Mike Moore.  You dont know much about asbestos attorneys.  They are worse than car wreck guys.  They never go to court.  they dont do anything but hire some hack doctor to say they they might be asbestosis.  Exactly what intelligent calculating move did he make...filing everything in Jones county? brilliant decision.  he was at the right time and the right place and knew an AG who got him two sets of state cases.  Brilliant.

quote by huck/chuk
<jman,
I have several friends who fly....aint that hard.  hell, aint that hard.  see W.  Second, Dickie knew Trent Lott and Mike Moore.  You dont know much about asbestos attorneys.  They are worse than car wreck guys.  They never go to court.  they dont do anything but hire some hack doctor to say they they might be asbestosis.  Exactly what intelligent calculating move did he make...filing everything in Jones county? brilliant decision.  he was at the right time and the right place and knew an AG who got him two sets of state cases.  Brilliant.>

Huck.........I know all about the “Trials” of Dickie from Day One. With that in mind, read further.

He was smart / stupid enough to move many other smart / stupid human beings in whatever direction he wanted and, you have not. Someday you might try this little exercise of convincing / influencing thousands of smart / stupid individuals and see how well you do and, while you’re at it, sit yo bohunkus behind the stick of a jet aircraft and see how easy it is to maneuver traveling at about 500 knots. We not talkin’ about a Piper / Cessna ‘float fluff glider’ (going about 120 knots) w/prop scenario. Let’s just say I have some experience and I know exactly what W and Dickie had to accomplish before either got the opportunity to sit in the left seat. One will not occupy that seat if one is ‘stupid’. And, I too have several friends that fly. So what?

Now...........on the flip flop, we have some ‘sound-bites’ who graduate from Law School who act stupid when they become disconnected from reality. This absolutely did happen to Dickie and, he will pay dearly for this unplugging.

Jman, it’s funny you mention the fighter pilot aspect of Scruggs’ personality.  I have often thought of that part of him and how it applies to what has happened.

I’ve known a dozen or so fighter pilots, and my cousin married an F-14 pilot.  If they have one overiding characteristic, it is a supreme self confidence in themselves and everything they do- an arrogance that literally goes to the point of stupidity.

I guess they have to, because if you have ever talked to them, it is a very dangerous profession, and not many people who honestly weighed the odds of longtime success would ever do it. 

I’m betting the personality that got him into fighter planes, is also the personality that got him into this mess.

You only have to look at Randy Cunnigham, the former Congressman (and Vietnam fighter ace) who is in prison as we speak, to see another example.

True LawDoc..........Hubris magnified. Surprisingly, many Jet Jocks see the light and stay on the ground once they leave the yoke (no pun intended) of Military Service. The high of flight is recognized as what it really is ‘an intoxicating element’ and dangerous. Same with a motorcycle going too fast. When this high (as I refer to as God Equal) becomes realized for what it is, with mental maturity, one will level off. Dickie did not level off with such maturity. He maintained his intoxication with the high which led to where we are now.

jman,
He had Mike moore, Jones County, and Trent Lott.  You can say all that disconnect you want and believe this “evil genius” grishamesque portrayal all you want.  As Jim Greenlee will show, he bribed his way or when he had to trial a case he ran his way to go get Ron Motley.  And you can tell that you are losing this debate because you are now comparing him to me to prove that his intelligence, that is not the issue.  I admit i am an idiot and can recognize one at a drop of a hat. 
But with that said, this idiot here learned a long time ago that if i break the law, i would get caught.  But hey, in six months this idiot will go home make love to his wife, play with his kids, and take a shower alone, while your disconnected evil genius will be doing six years over what is pocket change to him and a motion that a first year lawyer could have won.
So hey jman call me everything you want to call me but the fact remains paying the Rigsby’s sisters cash, taking part of paul minor’s bribery scam and getting caught, using the Rigsby’s password illegally (you want State farm to shred documents see Enron), screwing john jones, paying judges with cash that can be traced, using idiots like Balcucci, fighting over 5millioin, using emails to talk about a bribe, paying your bag man 50 million dollars and saying it was reading a few newspapers articles, putting your insurance cases in federal court and not state court, not asking for a jury and getting $536 on your first trial, suing hospitals for not being non-profit, not paying your law partners, pissing off a federal judge in alabama, having your brother in law call a judge that can be traced, talking about bribes on phones calls, paying ed peters cash (swiss bank account or cooke islands?), and finally doing that damn celebration dance that was filmed by 20/20 when they settled tobacco are some of the dumbest moment in the history of man. 
You can call the man that eats his own feces “genius” because he is trying to recycle and has been disconnected from the rest of society due to his genius and i will still call him a s&#t eating idiot.  we will have to agree to disagree

Very comprehensive, HNC

I, for one, don’t think Dickie is dumb, but in a way he’s too smart for his own good.  All of these things that they aparently thought would be good cut-outs, and cover stories, passing bribes and messages through multiple people, using e-mails (and probably deleting them and thinking they were gone), using cell phones to communicate, actually using checks, and fake jury instruction documents, , are going to be the things that cook them.

These are the kind of things that smart people who are ignorant about the kinds of things law enforcement can go back and retrieve, or re-create, or discover, do, thinking they are being clever.  Any street thug, drug dealer with a ninth grade education would have done it better.

I have a feeling that net worth equals IQ in the minds of Scruggs and lawyers like him, with the idea that if there were any FBI agents or prosecutors out there smart enough to catch them, then they wouldn’t be prosecutors or cops, and would be out making all this money like they were.

Lawdoctor----I wonder if Charlie Ross would agree with your analysis of a fighter pilot?

I don’t know.  Somebody will have to ask him.

OK; this one by Huck Chuck gets laminated and put on the board. If it’s not original, it comes down.

“You can call the man that eats his own feces “genius” because he is trying to recycle...and i will still call him a s&#t eating idiot.”

This makes about five up on the board now and with the permission of no one, I’ll continue the tradition. You may not think so yet, but soon you’ll be struggling to get up there yourself (he sez collectively to all of them). One popular quote will be, “I remember when this bulletin board thing didn’t exist, and now I’m up there twice.”

Heddy,

You have helped get me straight on a few points so let me help you with the fighting bayou hunting club in Schlater MS.

The club began back in the mid fifties. By the early sixties prominent Jacksonians (about 30) comprised most of the membership, many of whom were doctors, a few lawyers and a mix of others.  I began hunting there in 1967 when I was 12.

The last landowner of Pee Dee plantation before Blake bought the property plantation was a planter named Gary Chittom who was very cooperative with the club that leased from him.

I cannot exactly determine the year that Blake acquired the tract but would have to guess it was in 1978.  The first year that he owned the tract he doubled the price of the lease and allowed the members to continue to hunt.  The next year they were kicked out and it became Blakes personal hunting club that he wined and dined the big shots probably some of whom have plead guilty and some of whom are indicted.

Incidentally, he renamed the club “Big Mallard”.

This would have to have been around the time his finanicial situation turned south because he lost the land through foreclosure at some point in the 1980s.

The club has been renamed Fighting Bayou and is now in the possession of Billy Vandevander and a small group of his Ole Miss friends who purchased the land long ago from the insurance company holding the foreclosed property.

Hope thats not more than you wanted to know...if I have any of the facts wrong please feel free to correct me.

DH

Do i get a t-shirt donn or is there an annual dinner?

For: Olemisslawstudent
From: Jman

Regarding your above dissertation............have another Vodka and check in with Matlock. CBS / 4pm. Don’t dare mention me.

Yo Donn............have I got a ‘slot’ on that thar Bullett in board?

This is want happens when you elect lawyers as law makers and judges. They write the law, practice law and rule on the law. What’s not to love about that. Unless one is trying to run a business here.

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=264174&pub=1&div=News

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Mississippi judge disqualified himself from hearing a case brought by powerful plaintiffs attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs after federal authorities started investigating allegations that Scruggs tried to illegally influence him in a different case.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter had presided over a lawsuit that Scruggs and other lawyers filed against several companies on behalf of a man who said he was exposed to toxic fumes from welding equipment.

On Jan. 4, however, DeLaughter recused himself from the case “in order to avoid even the appearance of any impropriety,” court records show.

Three days later, attorney Joseph Langston pleaded guilty in a federal court in Oxford, Miss., to conspiring with Scruggs to illegally influence DeLaughter in a dispute with other lawyers over fees from asbestos litigation.

Forgive me, but have I overlooked the CL mentioning this portion of The Story?