DeLaughter Will Plead Guilty, Maintains Innocence in Scruggs Bribery Scandal

Judge Bobby DeLaughter leaving court earlier this year. DeLaughter will plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice this afternoon, according to his lawyer.

This afternoon in Aberdeen, Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter will become the latest person to admit guilt in the Scruggs bribery scandal. MPB’s Cari Gervin reports.

After months of proclaiming his innocence, Judge Bobby DeLaughter will plead guilty today to one count of obstruction of justice.

DeLaughter’s lawyer, Tom Durkin, said his client will admit only to lying to an FBI officer in a December 10, 2007, interview.

“So in that sense I don’t think it’s inconsistent with Judge DeLaughter’s previous claims of innocence of judicial corruption.”

Durkin said that assuming the plea agreement is accepted, the other four charges, including bribery, will be dropped. But just the one felony conviction will lead to DeLaughter’s disbarment and removal from the judicial bench.

“It’s rather tragic, I think. I think Judge DeLaughter is a Mississippi hero in a lot of ways.”

“He’s not admitting to fibbing about his age.”

Clarksdale attorney Charlie Merkel:

“He’s admitting that he lied to the FBI about the specific details that were being alleged by co-conspirators against him in the Wilson matter.”

Merkel is the lawyer for Roberts Wilson, the former partner of Richard Scruggs. It is their dispute over legal fees that federal prosecutors allege DeLaughter improperly judged – influenced, they say, by DeLaughter’s hope that Scruggs would get his brother-in-law, then-Senator Trent Lott, to nominate him for a federal judgeship.

The obstruction charge carries up to 20 years in prison, but no one else involved in the Scruggs scandal has received sentences anywhere near that length.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin.