A US District Judge has recommended that prominent Mississippi trial lawyer Richard ‘Dickie’ Scruggs and his firm should be prosecuted on criminal contempt charges involving Hurricane Katrina damage documents taken from a Birmingham company.
U.S. District Judge William Acker is requesting that federal prosecutors in north Alabama prosecute both Scruggs and the Scruggs Law Firm on allegations Scruggs did not comply with an order issued in early December, The Birmingham News reports.
Scruggs was ordered to return documents received from sisters Kerri and Cori Moran, two former employees of Renfroe & Co., who maintain they uncovered evidence that State Farm was unfairly handling post-Hurricane Katrina claims.
Scruggs is accused of delivering the documents to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood instead of the attorney for E.A. Renfroe & Co., an insurance adjustment firm that contracts with State Farm to send out insurance adjusters during catastrophes.
Scruggs, who filed suit against State Farm on behalf of policyholders whose claims were denied after Katrina, said he did not violate the injunction because Acker’s order gave explicit instructions to cooperate with law enforcement.
“That’s what I did,” Scruggs said. “I cooperated with law enforcement, not only with the attorney general, but federal prosecutors.
