Student perishes in car accident

An early morning traffic accident in Tupelo claimed two lives on Saturday, including one Ole Miss student.

Julius Dozier, a 20-year-old junior, and Adrian Cannon, 19, both from New Albany, died in the accident, which occurred at the intersection of Coley Road and McCullough Blvd. at around midnight on Sat., May 24.

According to the Daily Journal, four others were injured in the wreck, including two children.

Be sure to read Tuesday's edition of the Daily Mississippian for more information.

Small earthquake shakes parts of northeast Mississippi

A minor earthquake caught many northeast Mississippi residents by surprise Saturday afternoon.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed that a 3.1 magnitude earthquake struck the area at 12:52 p.m. The earthquake was epicentered near Sherman, Miss., a small community located approximately ten miles west of Tupelo.

Preliminary reports indicate that the small quake was felt in Lee, Pontotoc, and Union counties. No damage has been reported.

Just two days prior on May 8, a tornado caused significant damage in the western and northern parts of Tupelo.

The epicenter of Saturday's quake is only a few miles from where Thursday's tornado was first spotted.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Did you feel the quake? Leave a comment and tell us if you or anyone you know felt the shaking.

What really happened?

When Judge Henry Lackey testified about how he helped catch the Scruggs bribe conspirators he said, before going to the Federal government, he went to Lon Stallings local assistant District Attorney for advice.

During Lackey's testimony he said he did not go to Hood after Stallings told him Hood said Richard Scruggs and former AG Mike Moore threatened Hood not to proceed with a criminal investigation into State Farm over Hurricane Katrina. They threatened to fund and support a new candidate for attorney general, Lackey said.

Moore was in the courtroom when Lackey testified and said he had to do a "double take" when he heard Lackey say that. Moore, attorney for Zach Scruggs had sent his investigator Bill East to talk to Stallings about when Lackey reported the bribe, but Stallings did not tell East about how Hood had been threatened, both Moore and Stallings said.

Stallings added he did not know East was working with Moore.

Moore took that to mean Stallings never said that to Lackey. However Stallings did tell Lackey (when they met) he thought Hood was being threatened.

An email sent by Lee Martin, an attorney in Moore's office, to Moore during Tuesday's hearing says "I talked to Bill, and Lon Stallings did not say anything about such a conversation with Hood or Lackey. During Lackey's conversation with Lon - Lon suggested they get the Attorney General’s office involved."


Stallings did suggest that Lackey get "wired up" by Roger Cribbs, an investigator for Hood, but Lackey said he did not trust anyone from Hood's office, because he was too close with Scruggs and Moore, Stallings said they might not be as close as you'd think. This is when Stallings told Lackey about Hood being threatened.

Stallings, after speaking with Hood, felt that Moore and Scruggs had threatened to back a different candidate for attorney general, Stallings said.

Lackey decided to go to The Federal government to avoid Hood.

After investigating, the FBI caught Tim Balducci on tape bribing Lackey and eventually got all 5 co-conspirators to plead guilty.

Lackey's testimony came during a hearing about the case the conspirators tried to bribe him over.

The North East Mississippi Journal (Daily Journal) reported that Stallings sent a text message to Moore during court Tuesday. The message said Lackey was not telling the truth. The reporter was actually looking at the email sent by Martin to Moore and mistakenly thought it was from Stallings, Moore said.

Stallings was offended by the false reports, saying "The judge is not a liar." Stallings and Lackey know each other from Calhoun City and Stallings worried these reports might be seen by "the folks" back home.

Moore "categorically" denied ever threatening Hood.

"If anyone ever suggested to me they were going to run anyone against Hood I would have been on the other side (with Hood)," Moore said.

Video from box-cutter brawl posted on YouTube

A video from the scene of the student knifing in the Circle surfaced on YouTube earlier today. The video looks like it was taken from a cell phone camera and the quality is very low. The video was not taken by a member of The Daily Mississippian staff.

Final defandent in bribery overture pleads guilty

Zach Scruggs pleaded guilty Friday morning to a one count felony. The government dismissed the conspiracy charges against him and agreed to charge him only with misprision of a felony.

Scruggs' plea comes one week after his father Richard "Dickie" Scruggs pleaded guilty to charges of trying to bribe circuit judge Henry Lackey. Three others have also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges.

Scruggs pleaded guilty to having knowledge there was unlawful contact with Lackey to obtain a favorable ruling. According to the new charges against him, he was not directly involved with the conspiracy but should have reported the illegal contact to the authorities.

The maximum sentence Scruggs could receive is three years. However, prosecutors have asked for a probated sentence, where Scruggs would be on probation and have to pay the fine. The final sentence is up to the judge, who did not set a date for the sentencing.

With his attorneys, former Miss. Attorney General Mike Moore and Todd Graves, Scruggs made a statement about his actions:

"No one is more sorry that I under the circumstances. I had no knowledge that Tim Balducci bribed Judge Lackey to obtain the order. I would have reported that if I had known. I did know about Balducci’s relationship with Judge Lackey and the improper contacts. That did deprive the state of honest services. I should have reported that to my lawyer so that it could have been communicated to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, but I did not. I here accept full responsibility. The legal profession has high standards, not just a duty to not do ex parte contact but to prevent others from doing ex parte contact. I hope that the Miss. bar will gain from my mistake."

Scruggs, 33, graduated from the Ole Miss law School.

Law School removes Scruggs from campaign

The new University of Mississippi law school's fundraising campaign Web site no longer list Dickie Scruggs as one of the co-chairmen of the fundraising committee, and they have also removed his name from a list of donors.

Additionally, the Dickie Scruggs classroom wing is no longer on a list of the new law school's named areas.

Chancellor Robert Khayat confirmed Tuesday that the Scruggses had requested his and his wife Dianne's names be removed from the Richard and Dianne Scruggs music hall building. The request will be considered Thursday by the Institutions for Higher Learning.

Scruggs pleaded guilty to bribing Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey on Friday. Three others have also pleaded guilty.

Scruggs' son Zach Scruggs is the only remaining defendant and has spent the week adding lawyers to his defense team, suggesting he is prepping for trial. Like his father, Zach attended Ole Miss as an undergraduate and for law school.

The DM will be trying to contact both the dean of the law school and Khayat in order to get a better explanation.

Scruggs won close to one billion dollars suing big tobacco companies. He and his wife have donated millions to the university ever since.

Guess who's back...

Brother Micah Anderson, a preacher who often visits universities, has returned to the front of the Ole Miss Student Union to deliver his evangelistic message. Anderson was spotted preparing for his speech around 12 p.m., and by 12:50 p.m. a group of over 150 student had gathered to listen to and/or protest his words.

Anderson, seen in the file photo to the right, visited Ole Miss for a week at the end of March 2007. Click here for an audio slideshow of his visit last year and click here for a video interview by Newswatch's Tony Russell.

For coverage of Anderson's visit this year, check The DM Online later.

U.S. attorneys file new motion

Two U.S. attorneys from the Western District of Tennessee filed a motion concerning new evidence in the conspiracy involving Dick Scruggs. Because Zach Scruggs did not plead guilty to the bribe conspiracy the motion is to allow evidence against him.

After an FBI computer research team reviwed the files they decided there was eveidense against Scruggs and his co-conspirtors that related to his indictment. They sent duplicates of the evidence via Federal Express to the Scruggs defense team Thursday.

The evidence was acquired during the Nov. 27 search of the Scruggs Law Firm, court documents show.

The motion is to allow prosecutors against Scruggs to have access to the files.

Scruggs' attorney John Keker began talking about a plea agreement Thursday with the government, U.S. attorney Bob Norman said. Whether the new evidence caused Scrugss to plea Friday is unclear.

Also noteworthy developments not mentioned in earlier posts are the differences between Backstrom's plea agreement and Scruggs' plea agreement.

Backstrom has agreed to cooperate with prosecutor's for this or any other conspiracies. He may be required to testify in front of a grand jury or with any agents U.S. attorneys assign to interview him. Whereas there is no mention of Scruggs being required to assist the government with this or any other conspiracy.

Scruggs faces 5 years in jail and Backstrom could spend up to 2 1/2 years.

Governemnt witness against Scruggs Joey Langston pleaded guilty in January for attempting to bribe Judge Bobby DeLaughter on Scruggs' behalf. DeLaughter has not been charged, however he remains under investigation.

Talk among bloggers on a variety of websites continues to discuss if Dickie copped a deal in order to save his son Zach. There are no facts to support this claim.

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog is reporting Scruggs' brother-in-law former Senate Majority leader Trent Lott is under investigation to find out if he played a knowing role in the DeLaughter bribe. Langston's guilty plea shows he and former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters tried to use Scruggs connection with Lott to get Delaughter a federally appointed judgeship.

Check The DM news blog for any new developments in this ongoing saga.

Scruggs Update

I received a phone call from Barbra Lago at Ole Miss public relations right after speaking with Mr. Creekmore (see post below). For many of the questions regarding Scruggs and his involvement with the University she could not give any final answers.
-When asked if Dickie Scruggs name would remain on the music building she said "It's premature to talk about that now, requires pre-approval from the college Board." She added the board meets next week but the agenda has already been set making it unlikely they would discussed it then.
Lago directed me to Annie Mitchel with the college board to find out if they would add it to the agenda. Mitchel said it would only be on the agenda if a "request comes from the institution." She also said the final agenda for next weeks meeting would made available Tuesday, if its not on the agenda a request was not made.
After calling Ms. Lago and asking if a request was likely, she said she did not think so. Chacellor Kayhat and Gloria Kellum are out of town right now and might discuss it next week however, Ms. Lago was not sure.
-Again Lago responded it's "premature to talk about those things. A lot of people are away from campus right now. We can discuss that next week," when I asked her if Scruggs would remain on the fundraising committee for the new law school, or if the law school classroom slated to be named in his honor would remain.
-Lago could not comment on any donations made by Scruggs because the UM foundation is private and donors are to remain private, "we can't comment," Lago said. Scruggs pledged $1 million a year over 25 years to the Liberal Arts teacher foundation and has only paid $7 million, whether the school will continue to accept Scruggs money remains unclear.
Chancellor Kayhat made a direct statement about Dickie Scruggs.
"It's a very sad day in our lives. The Scruggses have been great supporters not only of the University but also many other worthy organizations and needy people. We are heavy hearted. The Scruggs family is in our heart."

Scruggs Update

Just got off the phone with Ben creekmore, the District Attorney for Lafayette County. He and I discussed how the Dickie Scruggs pleading will be handled at the local level after Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood deferred the case to Creekmore.
He began his statement, "Judge Lackey went to the Feds, which was the correct thing to do. We don't want to pile on top of federal charges,"
Creekmore went on to say state charges would be filed if "any unique state injuries come to light."
Creekmore said they didn't get involved with the current case against Scruggs because "I know the Feds...we didn't want to interfere."
"I do expect we'll talk to the US Attorney to see if there are any unique injuries," Creekmore ended his statement.