Scruggs Update: Backstrom Objects To Presentencing Report (And More)

Attorneys for Sid Backstrom on Wednesday filed a 16-page objection to the presentencing report from the US Probation Office. While the report itself has not been made public, Backstrom has objected to the calculation that he would have received $5.3 million from a successful bribe of Judge Henry Lackey and has disputed the claim that he “recruited, supervised or managed” co-defendants Tim Balducci and Steve Patterson. Backstrom and Dickie Scruggs are to be sentenced on June 27 (Daily Journal). The attempted bribe was to get Judge Lackey to send Jones v. Scruggs to arbitration, not to decide Jones’ $26.5 million suit in Scruggs’ favor, so the objection is at least understandable though not convincing.

The DJ story also says the motion “suggests the PSR seeks a punishment three times greater than he thinks it should be.” Since the maximum sentence Dickie Scruggs can receive under his plea agreement is 5 years in prison, and since Backstrom’s plea agreement allows no more than half of Scruggs’ sentence, this suggests either that Backstrom is pushing for a 10 month sentence or that the Probation Office is recommending sentencing enhancements even though both plea agreements have been accepted by the court.

In Scruggs Katrina Group news, US District Judge L.T. Senter on Thursday denied State Farm’s move to disqualify the Provost-Umphrey law firm from representing former SKG clients in the Shows v. State Farm RICO lawsuit (earlier), but with stipulations to insure that there will be no participation, fee sharing or any kind of financial arrangement between Provost-Umphrey and any of the disqualified SKG firms (Sun Herald, Judge Senter’s ruling).