http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0210/08/m02.html

 

                  October 8, 2002

 

            Judges' loans focus of probe

 

            Trial lawyers allegedly paid off their debts

 

                  By Jerry Mitchell

                  jmitchell@clarionledger.com

 

                  Authorities are investigating allegations that trial lawyers paid

                  off loans by Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz

                  and other judges — and whether such loans constituted bribes.

 

                  The FBI is heading up the investigation, which also includes the

                  Public Integrity Division of Attorney General Mike Moore's

                  office, the Harrison County district attorney and banking

                  regulators.

 

                  A federal grand jury is expected to meet this month on the Gulf

                  Coast as the probe continues.

 

                  "The only thing I've been told officially by the U.S. attorney's

                  office is that it's in the early stages," said Gulfport lawyer Joe

                  Sam Owen, who has been consulting with Paul Minor, a Biloxi

                  trial lawyer who is being investigated.

 

                  Diaz could not be reached for comment.

 

                  In a statement released Monday, Chief Justice Ed Pittman said

                  the court is concerned by the investigation: "Wherein requested,

                  we will be fully cooperative."

 

                  On Monday, some trial lawyers privately questioned the

                  motivation behind such a probe since U.S. Attorney Dunn

                  Lampton campaigned for Diaz's unsuccessful opponent in the

                  2000 election, Keith Starrett.

 

                  Lampton was unavailable Monday for comment.

 

                  Minor and Pascagoula lawyer Dickie Scruggs, a longtime

                  friend of Moore's, are among those under scrutiny by

                  authorities. Scruggs was out of town and could not be reached

                  Monday for comment.

 

                  Authorities have subpoenaed records in connection with loans

                  taken out at the Biloxi-based Peoples Bank and the

                  Pascagoula-based Merchants & Marine Bank.

 

                  In addition to loans, authorities are examining trips judges have

                  taken and allegations of "judge shopping" — maneuvering by

                  lawyers to get a certain judge to hear a case.

 

                  Authorities are also studying rulings by judges in certain cases.

                  Subpoenas have already been issued for copies of several

                  Harrison County court cases.

 

                  Authorities are examining the relationship between Minor and

                  Diaz.

 

                  For example, authorities are looking at allegations that in the

                  months following Diaz's election, Minor lobbied trial lawyers

                  to help pay off a $73,000 loan that Diaz's then-wife had taken

                  out for her husband's campaign, which raised more than

                  $800,000 in contributions.

 

                  Campaign records show that $17,000 of that loan had been

                  repaid as of Jan. 10, 2001. (The couple divorced later that

                  year.)

 

                  Authorities are also examining allegations that when Minor fell

                  last summer and was taken to an emergency room, Diaz

                  accompanied him, saying he was Minor's lawyer.

 

                  (Under the judicial canon and state law, a Supreme Court

                  justice is barred from representing anyone other than himself

                  and his family.)

 

                  Veteran journalist Bill Minor, whose son is Paul Minor, said he

                  doesn't believe the allegation is true.

 

                  He said he arrived shortly after his son was hurt and Diaz

                  "wasn't around. Frankly he was never in or around when I got

                  there."

 

                  In addition to Paul Minor's relationship with Diaz, authorities

                  are exploring Paul Minor's relationship with John Whitfield, a

                  former Harrison County circuit judge, who resigned two weeks

                  ago from the Phelps Dunbar law firm.

 

                  In late 2000, Whitfield opened a Gulfport office for the law

                  firm after serving six years on the bench. At the time, Whitfield

                  said, "I pray that in the final analysis — whether you are friend

                  or foe — that you truly understand I always gave my all and that

                  I tried to do my best to ensure that justice, real justice,

                  prevailed for everyone."

 

                  While a judge, Whitfield gained national attention for

                  sentencing offenders to wear sandwich boards that publicized

                  their crimes, such as, "I'm a convicted drunk driver" and "I now

                  have a felony criminal record."

 

                  One of Whitfield's cases now drawing scrutiny from FBI agents

                  is a $3.75 million verdict in 2000 that he delivered from the

                  bench on behalf of Archie Marks, who suffered back injuries

                  while working on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in

                  1998.

 

                  The judge found Diamond Offshore Management liable for

                  Marks' injuries because it had faulty water pressure on one of

                  its rigs. As a result, Marks had to carry heavy buckets of water

                  up to an upper level of the rig, which caused back injuries,

                  Minor's firm contended.

 

                  Whitfield couldn't be reached Monday for comment on the case,

                  now on appeal to the state Supreme Court.

 

                  One certain defense by those under scrutiny is that those loans

                  were never meant to be construed as bribes.

 

                  Whether a court or a jury concludes they are bribes under

                  federal law could well depend on how state law is interpreted.

 

                  Mississippi statutes restrict an individual's contribution to a

                  candidate for the state Supreme Court or the state Court of

                  Appeals to $5,000. A contribution to a judicial candidate for

                  county, circuit or chancery positions is limited to $2,500.

 

                  If violations were determined to have occurred, they would

                  constitute misdemeanors.

 

                  But such violations could be used to further a federal case

                  involving such loans, such as prosecutors did in the case

                  against Public Service Commissioner D.W. Snyder, convicted

                  in 1989 of bribery.

 

                  State law prohibited commissioners from accepting "anything

                  of value" — a law federal prosecutors used to defeat Snyder's

                  claims the monies were campaign contributions, not bribes.

 

                  "I would think it would have to violate state law in order for

                  the (federal bribery) statute to kick in," said former U.S.

                  Attorney Robert Whitwell.