By
The Associated Press
.
Published: Fri, March 21, 2008 - 11:41 am
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Zach Scruggs, son of powerful plaintiffsattorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, has pleaded guilty to a
federal charge that he was aware of but chose to conceal a
conspiracy to bribe a Mississippi judge.
Zach Scruggs was originally charged along with his father and
others of a more serious charge of conspiring to bribe Judge Henry
Lackey for a favorable ruling in a dispute with other lawyers over
$26.5 million in legal fees.
While the formal charge in Friday's pleading - misprision of a
felony - is also punishable by a prison term, prosecutors are
recommending three years probation for the younger Scruggs.
A law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, Dane
Ciolino, said it's not uncommon for defendants facing more serious
felony charges to cut a deal with prosecutors and plead guilty to
misprision of a felony.
He says it's about the least serious felony in the criminal
code.
Thirty-three-year-old Zach Scruggs is the last of five
defendants in the high-profile judicial bribery case to enter a
guilty plea.
His father pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to bribe a
judge.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-03-21-08 1234EDT
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