Hinds County Judge DeLaughter Pleads Not Guilty To Corruption Charges

Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter pleaded not guilty in federal court in Oxford this morning. He’s been charged with having been influenced to rule in favor of Mississippi’s fallen king of torts, Dick Scruggs, mail fraud and obstruction of justice. MPB’s Sandra Knispel has more.

Dressed in a charcoal suit, with hands and feet shackled and head hung low, Judge Bobby DeLaughter entered the courtroom looking like a ruined man. An uneasy silence fell over the small crowd – there is no triumph in the spectacle of justice in leg irons. Assistant U.S. attorney Bob Norman approached him, shook his hand and told him simply “I’m sorry we have to be here.”

“In general terms, Judge DeLaughter is charged with participating in a scheme to defraud the citizens of the state of Mississippi of fair and honest services,” Norman later told reporters.

DeLaughter pleaded not guilty to the five-count indictment, which also includes obstruction of justice for lying to FBI investigators about the case. DeLaughter faces a maximum prison term of 45 years and a maximum fine of $750,000.

According to the indictment it was "part of the conspiracy that Ed Peters [former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters] would be used secretly and corruptly to influence his very close friend Bobby B. DeLaughter." The indictment continues by detailing how DeLaughter's aspirations to become at federal judge were exploited in order to "obtain rulings from the court that while not plainly unlawful, would ultimately minimize Scruggs' financial liability and preclude his exposure to excessive damages [in the Wilson v. Scruggs case]."

DeLaughter was released on an unsecured $10,000 bond. As a prosecutor he had risen to national prominence in 1994 for putting Klansman Byron De La Beckwith in prison for murdering civil rights activist Medgar Evers thirty-one years earlier.

“Personally I think it’s pretty sad," Norman responded to a reporter’s question about the larger meaning of the indictment. "But I have to let other people decide what that means.”

The trial date is set for April 6 before Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Glen Davidson.

Already this morning, DeLaughter’s lawyer, Cynthia Speetjens, told the presiding U.S. magistrate judge, S. Allen Alexander, that she may have to recuse herself over a possible conflict of interest. She had worked for Ed Peters, who was paid one million dollars to influence his friend DeLaughter. In the indictment Peters is mentioned frequently, but clearly exempt from prosecution, thereby indirectly confirming a rumored immunity offer in exchange for his testimony.