Richard Scruggs

1. Body Measurement: Not Available 2. Height: Average

3. Hair Color: Grey

4. Eye colour: Blue

Scruggs was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, on May 17, 1946, but grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi.[1] He told Time that his father left the family when Scruggs was five years old. Scruggs was then raised by his mother, Helen, who worked as a legal secretary at the Ingalls shipyard.[13]

Scruggs was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon as an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi. Upon graduation and commissioning as a naval officer, Scruggs entered flight training and earned his wings as an A6 bomber pilot in 1970. Scruggs was assigned to an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea during the Arab–Israeli conflict of October 1973, where he was stationed aboard the carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt during the nuclear alert triggered by the Soviet threat to intervene in the Arab–Israeli War.[13]

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.[1][2][14]

Scruggs began his career with a prestigious law firm in Jackson, Mississippi, where he often defended insurance companies. Later he moved back to Pascagoula and opened his own office.[14]

At the conclusion of one of the 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.[1][2][27][28] Lackey had contacted the local U.S. Attorney’s office about an improper communication from a third party associated with Scruggs, and at the U.S. Attorney’s request, Lackey solicited a bribe of $40,000 through the third party.[27] Scruggs, who was later recorded saying he would “take care of” what he was told was a request from the judge for an additional payment, pleaded guilty in Federal Court on March 14, 2008.[27][29] On June 26, 2008, he was sentenced to five years in prison for the bribery charge.[30]

In a separate federal indictment, Scruggs was accused of attempting to improperly influence Mississippi judge Bobby DeLaughter.[31] 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. Scruggs was sentenced to a seven-year term to run concurrently with the five-year sentence, adding two years to the total (the maximum penalty was 20 years/$250,000 fine).[32] 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."[33] The conviction also resulted in Scruggs Hall, which housed the music department of the University of Mississippi, to be renamed "The Music Building".[34]

In December 2012, a federal judge granted Scruggs' motion to be released from prison on bail pending his appeal of the 2009 conviction.[35] The appeal was unsuccessful and Scruggs returned to jail in April 2013 to complete his sentence.[36] Scruggs was released from jail and placed under house arrest on March 20, 2014. His sentence was completed on September 14, 2014.[9]

Scruggs has made monetary contributions to the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and John McCain; the senatorial campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Biden, and McCain; and to numerous other candidates from both major political parties.[37][38] He also reportedly contributed to Tom Daschle, Susan Collins, and Harry Reid.[27]

Scruggs was scheduled to host a fundraiser at his home for Senator Clinton's presidential campaign, on December 15, 2007, to be attended by former President Bill Clinton.[39] However, that fundraiser was canceled after Scruggs' indictment.[39]

In the months following Scruggs' indictment, both the McCain and the Biden campaigns returned his contributions.[37]

In 1971 he married Diane Thompson, a sister of Tricia Thompson Lott, wife of Trent Lott.

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. In 2010, the space was purchased by the firm of W. Roberts Wilson, Jr. following the 2009 settlement of Wilson's longstanding suit against Scruggs for fees resulting from asbestos cases in the 1980s.[40]

Scruggs and his wife, Diane, were ardent supporters of the University of Mississippi and made 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[41] following Scruggs guilty plea to bribery in March 2007. The building is now called "The Music Building".

John Grisham reported that Scruggs, while serving his sentence in federal prison, worked to help inmates get GED certificates, and expressed astonishment at the low level of literacy among the inmates. Scruggs took long walks with other white-collar inmates.[42][43] He taught nonviolent offenders, many who were imprisoned on drug charges, helping them to acquire their GEDs, and nearly 60 students under his tutelage graduated.[35][44] Scruggs has partnered with the Mississippi Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training program (MIBEST), which provides a remedial education and marketable skills to students seeking a GED.[45]

• Crockett, James R. (2014). Power, Greed, and Hubris: Judicial Bribery in Mississippi (reprint ed.). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781617039188.

• Richard Scruggs, Frontline: Inside the Tobacco Deal
• November 28 2007 indictment
• August 21 2007 criminal contempt charge
• LA Times story on Lott's suit