Famed Attorney Dickie Scruggs Indicted on Bribery Charges

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, famous for winning huge settlements from the big tobacco companies, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of trying to bribe a judge.  The indictment alleges that Scruggs and other attorneys at his firm, including his son Zach, conspired to payoff a state judge with $40,000 in cash in exchange for a favorable ruling in a civil case. Richard Scruggs is the son-in-law of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who announced this week he planned to step down from the Senate early. Sen. Lott is not named in the indictment. According to the indictment, Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey cooperated with FBI agents to help document the alleged bribery scheme. Lackey was presiding over a case where Scruggs had been sued by another law firm for more than $26.5 million in attorneys fees related to Hurricane Katrina insurance claims.  Scruggs is alleged to have used an outside attorney named Timothy Balducci to offer the bribe to Lackey in return for a ruling in favor of his firm. According to the indictment, after the payoff was made, Balducci told attorneys at the Scruggs firm that "we paid for this ruling; let’s be sure it says what we want it to say." Scruggs is also charged with creating false documents to cover up the scheme. Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage. On Wednesday, FBI agents searched Scruggs’ Oxford, Miss. law office and took away copies of computer hard drives, according to the Associated Press. The indictment charges that an e-mail was sent from the Scruggs Law Firm to Balducci containing a draft order of the ruling favorable to Scruggs. The Scruggs Law Firm did not return the Blotter’s request for comment and neither Richard nor Zach Scruggs could be reached on their cellphones. Scruggs was featured on an ABC News "20/20" report last year that detailed his efforts to sue State Farm Insurance on behalf of policyholders who said their Hurricane Katrina-related claims were falsely denied. This post has been updated. Read the indictment against Scruggs. Read the "20/20" report. Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?