Hood Ordered To Appear In State Farm Lawsuit

In Hattiesburg on Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker ordered Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to appear and testify at a reconvened hearing to be held in State Farm’s lawsuit against him. Parker also granted State Farm’s motion to take a deposition from Dickie Scruggs.  US District Judge David Bramlette has yet to set a date for the hearing. Anita Lee has the (Biloxi/Gulfport) Sun-Herald story here.

Hood allowed Scruggs and his associates to use the threat of criminal prosecution to extort a civil settlement from State Farm in Hurricane Katrina class action litigation. As part of the settlement Hood agreed not to pursue further criminal investigation; when he announced last September that he was reopening his investigation, State Farm filed suit and obtained a restraining order. Hood backed out of testifying at a prior hearing and agreed to stop, only to announce resumption of his quest earlier this week. With this order we are now one step closer to discovering the full extent of the Hood/Scruggs “cooperation.” More background: In a post from Tuesday, Alan Lange of Y’all Politics takes a look at patterns.