What Ed Peters said about how he worked Judge DeLaughter in Wilson v. Scruggs

Yesterday, Dickie Scruggs’s legal team filed a motion to clarify; they included as exhibits Ed Peters’s grand jury testimony and the memorandum from one of Peters’s FBI interviews (there were at least three, and this give us about a third of the notes).  As Bob Norman notes in the grand jury transcript, these documents give a very “high level” picture; there are details, but both present summary versions.  That said, there are a lot of facts, and this is the first public airing of Ed Peters’s point of view.

I’ll summarize what I see there; unless noted otherwise, these statements all come from the grand jury testimony.  In a later posts, I’ll make some notes about what it means, particularly about the motion to clarify and Scruggs’s effort to set aside his appeal (for now, I’ll say this testimony looks fatal to both), and say something about the other cases (particularly Eaton v. Frisby) mentioned in the 302.

Steve Patterson first contacted Peters about the Wilson case.  Paters said he knew Patterson from when he “had been state auditor while I was district attorney, and we of necessity professionally crossed paths.”

The amount of history compacted in that brief phrase sort of sums everything Peters had to say about all this.

Peters says that Patterson said that “a lawyer by the name of Kirksey” was representing Wilson and that Scrugs side wanted to make sure that Wilson wasn’t getting “undue influence.  Wanted to make sure that Kirksey on the other side didn’t create home cooking” for Wilson.  Peters said that DeLaughter and Kirksey had been in the same law firm together, before DeLaughter worked for Peters as an assistant district attorney.

Peters did not at this point know joey Langston, although he knew who he was.  He met with Pattersona nd Langston about Wilson v. Scriggs.  These meetings occurred in a private wing at the Municipal Airport in Jackson.  Most of the times, they would fly there.  The meetings involved Langston, Patterson, and perhaps Balducci.  He met 4 to a half dozen times.  On one of the times, he got cash.

The first occasion that I met with them the question was whether or not Mr. Kirksey would influence Judge DeLaughter, and I assured them that it would not be the case.  They said rather than me just telling them that would I check with the judge and make sure there wouldn’t be any influence.  So I did meet with the judge. … [H]e assured me what I believed was true that nothing that Kirksey would do on the other side would influence him particularly….

Kirksey and DeLaughter had had a falling out.  “My understanding is that Kirksey was very disrespectful of him and that kind of– I think that created bad blood between them.”  DeLaughter “just kind of laughed and said you can assure them nothing Kirksey does will influence me positively.”

Peters told this to Langston, and at that time, Langston pulled out a brief case with a UPS sealed envelope, “slid it toward me and said that’s $50,000 cash and there won’t be any 1099 on that.”

Peter said that the “first thing” this did was “scare the life out oe me” and he thought  at that stage they wanted him involved in trial preparation and jury selection, what one wanted local counsel to do.  That would have called for a legitimate fee and would not have “been cash in an evenlope with no 1099.”

Peters thinks that at this meeting, he let Patterson know that DeLaughter wanted to be a federal judge.  Peters said in his 302 “He told the Scruggs’ defense team tha the could not attend a meeting with them because he was meeting with some one else who might be able to help DeLaughter become a federal judge.”  At the end of the meeting, Peters was getting up to leave and Langston or Patterson “said you mentioned that Bobby was interested in the federal judgeship or that he was up for a magistrate position.”  He said “we want you to know that Dickie Scruggs is the brother-in-law of Trent Lott, and he will put in a good word for Bobby.  In his Grand Jury testimony about this, Peters asserted this “doesn’t have anything to do with this case.”  In his 302, Peters said he “thought if Dealguther could ‘help’ Scruggs, then Scruggs could ‘help’ DeLaughter.  Peters stated that DeLaughter’s help would consist of favorable treatment.”  The 302 has this sentence that Peters crossed out at the time of the grand jury testimony, as a correction:  “Based upon Peters conversations with DeLaughter, Peters believes that DeLaughter understood this agreement.”  In the 302, it says:

 Peters told DeLaughter about the conversation he had with either Patterson or Langston.  DeLaughter stated that it was good, but that it would not decide the case….

Sometime later, Peters expressed to DeLaughter that Scruggs was not doing enough to help DeLaughter obtain a federal judge position.  When ever Peters asked Patterson about current vacant federal judge positions, Patterson would tell Peters that DeLaughter would get the next one.  Once Patterson stated that the “Turk” was going to get the current judgeship.  Once he stated that the current judgeship was going to be determined by Mississippi United States Senator Thad Cochran.  Peters always passed this information from Patterson on to DeLaughter.

Later, the 302 states that after the trial, a position on the federal bench came open.  “Patterson said Peters needed to do some work on his own to help DeLaughter.  Patterson told Peters he need[ed] to get Cochran’s support.”

In the 302 of his September interview, Peters said “it was clear to him tha the was not being hired by Joey Langston to work on the case, but to influence DeLaughter.  Nobody told him that he was to be doing trial work, and Peters knew the defense team was interested in his relationship with DeLaughter.  In the grand jury testimony, Peters implies that he originally thought he would have a local counsel role with the jury and trial preparation.

Normally, Peters would have entered an appearance.  He never did in this case.  He was working Behind the scenes so far as the … other side was concerned.”

Up to a half-dozen times, Langston and Balducci would send Peters briefs and motions before they were filed to ask his opinion.   On one occasion, DeLaughter told Peters he had done research on his own, and that the argument in Langston and Balducci’s papers was not correct and they needed to find something else.  They gave the same authority again, he said I’m going to have to rule against them, and did.  This was behind the scenes, not in court.

In the 302, it says:

The Scruggs’ defense team gave Peters copies of their briefs that they were anticipating to be filed. Peters took these copies and presented them to DeLaughter.  DeLaughter told Peters what his ruling was going to be. If DeLaughter’s ruling was going to be adverse to Scruggs, DeLaughter would tell Peters that the Scruggs’ team needed legal authority of why DeLaughter should not rule against them.  DeLaughter never told Peters he was not allowed to act in this manner.”

DeLaughter sent an email through Peters’s wife email account an advance copy of an order he was planning on entering.  Peters took it to Scruggs’s lawyers.

These conversations with DeLaughter were in violation of the state bar’s ethics rules and, Peters presumes, DeLaughters oath as a judge.

DeLaughter never got a penny and did not know Peters did.  In the 302, it states that Peters did not tell DeLaughter about the reverse contingency fee.

At some point, either in the spring or fall, Peters was fishing in Cocatrie, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, and got a cell phone call from DeLaughter, saying “something like, you’re not going to elieve this or guess what….   I just received a call from Trent Lott or Senator Lott.  He told me that his quote, sorry ass brother-in-law, end quote, had just called him— or not just called him– called him and let him know that he was interested in the … federal judgeship.  And … it was his practice before he placed anybody’s name on the list for a judgeship that he called the person and made sure they were interested in it.”  DeLaughter said he was interested.  If Scruggs’s law time had Lott call, he would naturally assume it would be to let the judge know that Scruggs had helped him get a judgeship.  A federal judgeship is a thing of value.

Peters’ opinion is that the reason favored the Scurggs side in the lawsuit:  “My opinion is primarily friendship for me.  Natural inference also for the judgeship.”  Peters has said himself that “Bobby DeLaughter probably just could tell [him] no.”

Peters believes DeLaughter would not go contrary to the law.

DeLaughter knew Peters was employed by the Scruggs team.  This is why he would send Peters advanced copies of the orders.  He did not know about the money.

Neither he nor DeLaughter disclosed to the Wilson side of the lawsuit that Peters was meeting with DeLaughter for the Scruggs team or that DeLaughter was sending orders in advance by email.

In his 302, Peters says he never talked to Scruggs.

Peters was paid an additional $950,000 from Langston, for a total of a million.  He says “in hindsight” he was hired to influence Bobby DeLaughter and is sure he did.

Peters said:  “I am sorry for the embarrassment that I’ve caused my profession and putting Bobby in this position…”  He said he felt DeLaughter did this “out of his respect and affection for” Peters and he feels bad– close to suicide– because of it.

At this point, Peters had been interviewed 4 times, and there were 4 FBI 302s, totaling about 17 pages.  He corrected where he thought they were inaccurate.