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• Suit against Scruggs implicates 'former U.S. Senator' 

A new lawsuit against incarcerated plaintiffs attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs accuses a state judge and a former U.S. Senator of teaming with Scruggs in a judicial bribery scheme.

The suit, filed Monday by Scruggs' former asbestos litigation partner William Roberts Wilson, alleges a conspiracy that involves Scruggs, his lawyers in a dispute with Wilson over attorneys fees, Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter, former state Auditor Steven Patterson, former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters and an unnamed former U.S. Senator. . . .

Wilson claims Scruggs used those ill-gotten funds from the asbestos settlement to fund the landmark tobacco litigation that resulted in billions of dollars for plaintiffs attorneys hired to represent their respective states.

Scruggs represented Mississippi, hired by then-Attorney General Mike Moore. His work led to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which has an estimated worth of $246 billion for the 52 participating territories and states. The case, and Scruggs' work, was depicted in the Al Pacino/Russell Crowe film "The Insider."

Wilson had filed suit in federal court, asking for a share of the tobacco fees because it was his money Scruggs was using to fund the litigation. When DeLaughter ruled that Wilson was not owed anything, that argument died.

"Scruggs, along with defendants Timothy Balducci, Edward J. Peters, Steven A. Patterson, David Zachary Scruggs (his son and law partner) and non-parties Joseph C. Langston and others did enter into a conspiracy to illegally and feloniously influence and corrupt (DeLaughter) to render a zero judgment on asbestos fees in Scruggs' favor against Wilson so that the U.S. District Court would be thwarted and defrauded out of its intention to hear evidence supporting the imposition of a constructive trust over the tobacco settlement proceeds," the complaint says.

"As a result of the scheme, Wilson was defrauded out of his cause of action in the U.S District Court, his claims for constructive trust over tobacco proceeds and the corpus of his trust in the asbestos fees and other relief."

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