Legal News

Sentencing Roundup: Weiss?s Looms; the Scruggs Gang Gets a Date

By Ashby Jones

What’s going on, you ask, with the sentencings of Mel Weiss and Dickie Scruggs? Let’s quickly get you up to speed.

Mel Weiss: Weiss, who pleaded guilty last month to racketeering conspiracy in connection with the firm’s alleged improper payments of kickbacks to class-action clients, is slated to be sentenced on Monday. Prosecutors are seeking a 33-month sentence while Mr. Weiss would like the judge to impose a term on the lowest end of the range in his plea agreement – 18 months, with at least half of that period either in community service and/or home confinement.

According to papers filed on Wednesday, Weiss, in arguing for the lesser end of the range, said his meeting with a representative of a paid plaintiff was “less sinister” than the federal government alleges and that his failure to turn over a subpoenaed fax was bad judgment, not “criminal arrogance.” Here’s the story, from the National Law Journal.

The filing was a response to prosecutors’ assertion that Weiss, while under criminal investigation, met with an intermediary lawyer for one of the lead plaintiffs, Howard Vogel, to discuss his share of attorney fees — behavior that “reflects a criminal arrogance” justifying a higher sentence. He also, prosecutors have asserted, obstructed justice by failing to turn over a subpoenaed fax.

Dickie Scruggs: Dickie Scruggs, the famed plaintiffs lawyer who pleaded guilty in March to crimes related to a judicial-bribery scheme, will be sentenced on July 2. Here are stories from the Biloxi Sun-Herald and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Scruggs’s son, Zach, and his former law partner, Sid Backstrom, are also slated to be sentenced on July 2.

Dickie Scruggs faces up to five years in prison. Prosecutors have recommended that Backstrom serve no more than three years in prison for his role in the scheme and that Zach Scruggs serve three years probation. Zach pleaded guilty to a lesser charge than did his father.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 30, 2008 (boomark / email).