Richard Scruggs
Encyclopedia
Richard F. "Dickie" Scruggs (born May 17, 1946) is an American former A6A
naval aviator
, a prominent trial lawyer, one of the richest men in Mississippi
, and the brother-in-law of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
. Scruggs first came to the public eye after successfully suing the asbestos
industry on behalf of ill shipyard workers. He later represented the state of Mississippi in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.
Scruggs was indicted for attempted bribery in 2007 and in 2009. He pleaded guilty in March 2008, and again in February 2009. Scruggs was sentenced to 5 years in prison on June 27, 2008 by U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers; and on February 10, 2009, Judge Glen H. Davidson
sentenced him to 7 years for the second scheme, to run concurrently. A book entitled Kings of Tort, documenting the rise and fall of Scruggs, was released in December 2009 by Pediment Publishing. A second book, The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer, was published in 2010.
, on May 17, 1946, but grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi
. In 1971 he married Diane Thompson, a sister of Tricia Thompson Lott, wife of Trent Lott. The sisters are close, and their families often spent holidays together.
Scruggs lived in a five-million-dollar mansion in Oxford, Mississippi
. In 2003, he bought the upper floor of a building on Courthouse Square in Oxford in which he housed the Scruggs Law Firm.
Scruggs brought a certain élan to Oxford, and politicians regularly came through on fund-raising quests, Joe Biden
, Tom Daschle
, Susan Collins
, and Harry Reid
, among them.
Scruggs and his wife, Diane, were ardent supporters of the University of Mississippi
, making large donations to several organizations on campus. Scruggs Hall, which currently houses the Music department, was named in their honor. The Scruggs name was removed from the building following Scruggs guilty plea to bribery in March 2007. The building is now called the "The Music Building".
as an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi
. He graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School
in 1976, where he was a classmate of Mike Moore
, a close friend who later became the Attorney General of Mississippi.
and John McCain
, the Senatorial campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry
, Biden, and McCain, and to numerous other candidates from both major political parties.
Scruggs was scheduled to host a fundraiser at his home for Senator Hillary Clinton
's presidential campaign, on December 15, 2007, to be attended by former President Bill Clinton
. However, that fundraiser was canceled after Scruggs' indictment.
In the months following Scruggs' indictment, both the McCain and Biden campaigns returned his contributions.
, where he often defended insurance companies. Later he moved back to Pascagoula and opened his own office.
One of his first big legal victories was in representing workers at the Pascagoula shipyard who became fatally ill as a result of exposure to asbestos
fibers.
248 billion. His performance in this case was portrayed by actor Colm Feore
in the movie The Insider
. Scruggs himself, as well as his second house in Pascagoula, Mississippi, also appeared in the film.
. He asserted that the makers of Ritalin "manufactured a disease" and that Ritalin "has been grossly over-prescribed. It is a huge risk." All five class actions in five states were dismissed before trial.
, Scruggs filed a number of lawsuits against insurance companies regarding payment on claims made for storm damage. One of his clients was his brother-in-law Senator Trent Lott
, former Majority Leader
of the US Senate and Lott's wife, Tricia, in a lawsuit against State Farm Insurance
. Numerous other clients and cases followed, most of which resulted in favorable settlements.
Scruggs pleaded guilty in Federal Court on March 14, 2008. On June 26, 2008, he was sentenced to five years in prison for the bribery charge.
In a separate federal indictment, Scruggs was accused of attempting to improperly influence Mississippi judge Bobby DeLaughter. On February 10, 2009, Scruggs pleaded guilty in federal court in Aberdeen, Mississippi
, to one count of that indictment charging mail fraud in the corruption of a public official. That count carried a maximum penalty of 20 years/$250,000 fine. Scruggs was sentenced to a seven-year term to run concurrently with the five-year sentence, adding two years to the total. He was also fined $100,000. Judge Glen H. Davidson imposed his sentence and quoted the Scottish philosopher William Barclay
: “The Romans had a proverb that money was like sea water. The more you drink the thirstier you become.”
reports that Scruggs, who is serving a seven year sentence and is scheduled for release in 2015, is helping inmates get GED
certificates and is astounded at the low level of literacy among the inmates. Scruggs takes long walks with other white-collar inmates.
A-6 Intruder
The Grumman A-6 Intruder was an American, twin jet-engine, mid-wing attack aircraft built by Grumman Aerospace. In service with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps between 1963 and 1997, the Intruder was designed as an all-weather medium attack aircraft to replace the piston-engined A-1 Skyraider...
naval aviator
Naval Aviator
A United States Naval Aviator is a qualified pilot in the United States Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard.-Naming Conventions:Most Naval Aviators are Unrestricted Line Officers; however, a small number of Limited Duty Officers and Chief Warrant Officers are also trained as Naval Aviators.Until 1981...
, a prominent trial lawyer, one of the richest men in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, and the brother-in-law of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
. Scruggs first came to the public eye after successfully suing the asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
industry on behalf of ill shipyard workers. He later represented the state of Mississippi in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.
Scruggs was indicted for attempted bribery in 2007 and in 2009. He pleaded guilty in March 2008, and again in February 2009. Scruggs was sentenced to 5 years in prison on June 27, 2008 by U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers; and on February 10, 2009, Judge Glen H. Davidson
Glen H. Davidson
Glen H. Davidson is a United States federal judge.Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, Davidson received a B.A. from the University of Mississippi in 1962 and a J.D. from the University of Mississippi Law School in 1965. He was a City prosecutor, Tupelo, Mississippi in 1965. He was a U.S. Air Force...
sentenced him to 7 years for the second scheme, to run concurrently. A book entitled Kings of Tort, documenting the rise and fall of Scruggs, was released in December 2009 by Pediment Publishing. A second book, The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer, was published in 2010.
Personal life
Scruggs was born in Brookhaven, MississippiBrookhaven, Mississippi
Brookhaven is a small city in Lincoln County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 9,861 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lincoln County...
, on May 17, 1946, but grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, as a part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. The population was 26,200 at the 2000 census...
. In 1971 he married Diane Thompson, a sister of Tricia Thompson Lott, wife of Trent Lott. The sisters are close, and their families often spent holidays together.
Scruggs lived in a five-million-dollar mansion in Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city in, and the county seat of, Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....
. In 2003, he bought the upper floor of a building on Courthouse Square in Oxford in which he housed the Scruggs Law Firm.
Scruggs brought a certain élan to Oxford, and politicians regularly came through on fund-raising quests, Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
, Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
, Susan Collins
Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins is the junior United States Senator from Maine and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1996, she is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs...
, and Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
, among them.
Scruggs and his wife, Diane, were ardent supporters of the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
, making large donations to several organizations on campus. Scruggs Hall, which currently houses the Music department, was named in their honor. The Scruggs name was removed from the building following Scruggs guilty plea to bribery in March 2007. The building is now called the "The Music Building".
Education
Scruggs was a member of Sigma Alpha EpsilonSigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the Antebellum South...
as an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
. He graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School
University of Mississippi School of Law
The University of Mississippi School of Law, also known as Ole Miss Law, is an ABA-accredited law school located on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The School of Law opened in 1854 and is the fourth-oldest state-supported law school in the country...
in 1976, where he was a classmate of Mike Moore
Mike Moore (Mississippi politician)
Michael Moore was the Attorney General for the U.S. State of Mississippi from 1988 to 2004. In 1994, he filed the first lawsuit against thirteen tobacco companies, claiming that they should reimburse the State for the costs of treating those with smoking-related illnesses...
, a close friend who later became the Attorney General of Mississippi.
Political activity
Scruggs has made monetary contributions to the presidential campaigns of Joe BidenJoe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
and John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, the Senatorial campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
, Biden, and McCain, and to numerous other candidates from both major political parties.
Scruggs was scheduled to host a fundraiser at his home for Senator Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
's presidential campaign, on December 15, 2007, to be attended by former President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. However, that fundraiser was canceled after Scruggs' indictment.
In the months following Scruggs' indictment, both the McCain and Biden campaigns returned his contributions.
Legal career
Scruggs began his career with a prestigious law firm in Jackson, MississippiJackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, where he often defended insurance companies. Later he moved back to Pascagoula and opened his own office.
One of his first big legal victories was in representing workers at the Pascagoula shipyard who became fatally ill as a result of exposure to asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
fibers.
Tobacco litigation
In the 1990s, Scruggs was hired by Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore to assist with a lawsuit against thirteen tobacco companies. Settlement of the state's case against the tobacco companies was for $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
248 billion. His performance in this case was portrayed by actor Colm Feore
Colm Feore
Colm Feore is an American-born Canadian stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Feore was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Irish parents who lived in Ireland for several years during Feore's early life. The family subsequently moved to Windsor, Ontario, where Feore grew up.After graduating...
in the movie The Insider
The Insider (film)
The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
. Scruggs himself, as well as his second house in Pascagoula, Mississippi, also appeared in the film.
Ritalin lawsuits
A short time after the tobacco lawsuit, Scruggs led and became a spokesman for the plaintiffs in the Ritalin class action lawsuitsRitalin class action lawsuits
The Ritalin Class action lawsuits were a series of federal lawsuits in 2000, filed in five separate U.S. states. All five lawsuits were dismissed by the end of 2002. The lawsuits alleged that the makers of Methylphenidate and the American Psychiatric Association had conspired to invent and promote...
. He asserted that the makers of Ritalin "manufactured a disease" and that Ritalin "has been grossly over-prescribed. It is a huge risk." All five class actions in five states were dismissed before trial.
Katrina litigation
In the aftermath of Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, Scruggs filed a number of lawsuits against insurance companies regarding payment on claims made for storm damage. One of his clients was his brother-in-law Senator Trent Lott
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
, former Majority Leader
Majority leader
In U.S. politics, the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body.In the federal Congress, the role differs slightly in the two houses. In the House of Representatives, which chooses its own presiding officer, the leader of the majority party is elected the Speaker of the...
of the US Senate and Lott's wife, Tricia, in a lawsuit against State Farm Insurance
State Farm Insurance
State Farm Insurance is a group of insurance and financial services companies in the United States. The company also has operations in Canada....
. Numerous other clients and cases followed, most of which resulted in favorable settlements.
Bribery and wire fraud
At the conclusion of one of those Katrina-related trials, a fee dispute arose between Scruggs and other plaintiff's attorneys involved in the case. That fee dispute resulted in a separate trial to determine how to apportion the fees. According to allegations that later surfaced in a criminal prosecution, Scruggs was involved in an attempt to bribe Mississippi Third Circuit Court Judge Henry L. Lackey with $40,000 in exchange for a favorable ruling in the fee dispute.Lackey reported the attempted bribe and cooperated with the investigation.Scruggs pleaded guilty in Federal Court on March 14, 2008. On June 26, 2008, he was sentenced to five years in prison for the bribery charge.
In a separate federal indictment, Scruggs was accused of attempting to improperly influence Mississippi judge Bobby DeLaughter. On February 10, 2009, Scruggs pleaded guilty in federal court in Aberdeen, Mississippi
Aberdeen, Mississippi
Aberdeen is a city in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The population was 6,415 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Monroe County....
, to one count of that indictment charging mail fraud in the corruption of a public official. That count carried a maximum penalty of 20 years/$250,000 fine. Scruggs was sentenced to a seven-year term to run concurrently with the five-year sentence, adding two years to the total. He was also fined $100,000. Judge Glen H. Davidson imposed his sentence and quoted the Scottish philosopher William Barclay
William Barclay
William Barclay may refer to:*William Barclay , Scottish jurist in the 16th and early 17th centuries*William Barclay *William Barclay *William Barclay , 20th century theologian and writer of Bible commentaries...
: “The Romans had a proverb that money was like sea water. The more you drink the thirstier you become.”
Prison life
John GrishamJohn Grisham
John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...
reports that Scruggs, who is serving a seven year sentence and is scheduled for release in 2015, is helping inmates get GED
GED
General Educational Development tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills...
certificates and is astounded at the low level of literacy among the inmates. Scruggs takes long walks with other white-collar inmates.
External links
- Richard Scruggs, Frontline: Inside the Tobacco Deal
- "The Bribe" The New Yorker, May 19, 2008
- November 28 2007 indictment
- August 21 2007 criminal contempt charge
- LA Times story on Lott's suit