Then, worked for his dad and went to prison for fourteen months on a charge of failure to report a lesser felony in the judicial bribery case. Scruggs was also involved in teaching in prison. Unable to practice law again, the younger Scruggs moved to Florida where he worked for a solar and energy development company for four years. I was content doing that.
We want a proper, certified c 3 non-profit with an executive director. The Scruggs were attracted by the idea of not just helping people, but state businesses and industry and the economy as a whole. The younger Scruggs took off running, got it certified as a non-profit public charity, and then put a laser focus on developing programs with community colleges to get more adults in these programs and keep them in. A key barrier needed to be removed to allow people to come out of one of these workforce programs and can get a job right away.
Give them an employable certificate. Advanced manufacturing is particularly in demand, as are jobs as a Certified Nursing Assistant, a pharmacy tech, a commercial a truck driver, and a utility lineman.
These community colleges tailor their programs to what industry wants. There is a fix to that. The community colleges can solve both those issues. They do that. They have our funds available and they know the adults who need help. The adult ed instructors are like missionaries. They are really a godsend dedicated to helping their students succeed.
When people are more employable, it helps their family and they are less likely to need public assistance. The collateral consequences that flow from adult education all make sense.
The compounding affects more than the actual student. It impacts the family and society as a whole. November 1, Richard and Zach Scruggs overcame unfortunate life events and parlayed their experiences into a successful venture which has helped hundreds of deserving Mississipians reach their full potential. Are you a Daily Journal subscriber? Sign up to view our daily e-editions each morning with just a click.
Scruggs, 36, of Oxford today filed a request the U. District Court to give him a hearing to prove his innocence and to throw out his conviction. He said a recent U.
Supreme Court decision wipes away the crime to which he insists he had no choice but to plead guilty. In March , Scruggs pleaded guilty to not reporting that he knew about a crime, which was an illegal conversation with the judge in a legal-fees lawsuit over Hurricane Katrina insurance cases.
Recently, the U. Supreme Court narrowed the honest services law to pertain only to bribery and kickbacks, which Scruggs and others say is not what he pleaded guilty to. And prosecutors, who allegedly lied to the court that Zach Scruggs was part of another judicial bribery accusation involving Judge Bobby DeLaughter of Hinds County.
Senior U. District Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr. Farese strongly denied the allegations against him and expressed concerns that they are public while the focus of a confidential complaint to the Mississippi Bar Association. He has nothing but time and money to try to blame others for his unethical and illegal acts.
In the mids, Richard F. After Hurricane Katrina devastated his home and offices on the Gulf Coast in August , Scruggs moved to Oxford in practice with his son. A major focus of their business by was homeowner lawsuits to recover Katrina losses they insisted insurance policies covered.
It was filed in mid-March At the meeting with the two Scruggses were their law partner Sidney Backstrom, and attorney Timothy Balducci and his business partner, former state auditor Steven Patterson, both of New Albany. They wanted to avoid court and send it to arbitration, which is a binding decision made outside of court by an unbiased third party. Balducci spoke with Lackey about the case, and in the same conversation offered the judge a position at his firm after the elderly Lackey retired.
When he told the U. In a May 9, conversation recorded by the FBI, Lackey told Balducci that it looked to him as if both sides had agreed to arbitration.
Four months later, on FBI instructions, Lackey told Balducci he wanted money in exchange for ordering the lawsuit to arbitration.
On Nov. Their arrests sent shock waves across the Internet and in blogs, especially on law- and insurance-related websites. News coverage of the story flashed around the world and was especially intense in Mississippi.
Even today, members of the Mississippi Bar say they still feel the ill effects of the shadow cast on them by the scandal. In , the Mississippi Supreme Court agreed that arbitration was the correct outcome in the dispute.
The five defendants also were accused of honest services fraud. Ultimately, the six counts were dropped against Zach Scruggs and he pleaded guilty to a new charge, misprision of a felony.
By March , all of them cut deals for guilty pleas to avoid jury trials, which could have yielded up to year prison sentences and huge fines. While Zach Scruggs completed his month prison term and Backstrom was released from prison last Sunday, the others are still in federal custody.
If his conviction is legally erased, he could ask to recover his license to practice law, which was taken away by the Mississippi Supreme Court after his guilty plea. Various Mississippi rules of court and legal ethics specifically prohibit earwigging.
Throughout his legal proceedings and in related documents, Zach Scruggs insisted he was not guilty of the charges. Robertson Jr. Robertson of Arizona — write that he pleaded guilty out of fear that he could get a lengthy prison sentence, if a jury convicted him. Chris Robertson, coincidentally, was a young attorney in The Scruggs Law Firm in Oxford when his employers were arrested and never was suggested as part of the scandal.
As for timing, this type of appeal must occur while Zach Scruggs is still in federal custody. The clock is running out on that. Supreme Court's ruling that an anti-fraud law was improperly used to help convict former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling.
Scruggs' attorney, Edward Robertson Jr. Scruggs claims he didn't know the plot would include paying bribes to Judge Henry Lackey, who was cooperating with federal authorities.
Assistant U. Attorney John Alexander said during that hearing that the evidence showed Zach Scruggs knew about the bribery plot. Scruggs was appealing a ruling by U.
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