Curtis Wilkie’s The Fall of the House of Zeus: How Jim Hood Settled with State Farm
The Fall of the House of Zeus by Curtis Wilkie (Crown, October 19, 2010)
“When Hood refused to drop his investigation, Scruggs grew apoplectic. In a move later characterized by his friends as an ‘afternoon decision’ driven by a large dose of his painkilling medication, Scruggs offered to pay $500,000 to Steve Patterson and Tim Balducci to get the attorney general on board . . . Sure enough, Patterson and Balducci were able to arrange one inconsequential dinner, which Hood grudgingly agreed to attend . . . They got nowhere with him.” (page 168)
“In January of 2007, Patterson warned Cupit that Scruggs was prepared to deliver an ultimatum to the attorney general. Unless Hood agreed to assure State Farm that there would be no indictments, Scruggs would fall back on a plan conceived by his public relations team. There would be a press conference, attended by several high-ranking public officials–including Senator Lott, who had sued State Farm himself–to endorse a settlement benefiting hundreds of Gulf Coast residents. The group would announce that only Hood stood in the way. The publicity could kill Hood’s reelection chances.” (page 170)
“The scenario was the subject of a heated discussion in a private room at the Jackson airport in January 2007, involving Hood, Scruggs, Patterson, and Joey Langston.” (page 170)
“Two days later . . . Hood drove to Memphis . . . to meet with high officials of State Farm . . . During his Memphis talks, Hood first reached a settlement with State Farm on the state’s civil case. The company agreed to pay $5 million to the attorney general’s office as reimbursement for its expenses in the investigation and to set up an apparatus to deal with the unresolved claims that could cost the company as much as $400 million.” (page 170)
“Before he left the Tennessee city, Hood also informed State Farm that he would discontinue the criminal case. This cleared the way for the final settlement of the 640 cases represented by the Scruggs Katrina Group . . . ” (page 170)
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Written by Lemuria
1 response so far ↓
1 C Griffin // Sep 8, 2010 at 11:32 am
Hood dodges discussing the “inconsequential dinner” in his sworn testimony in Natchez. I look forward to buying and reading Wilkie’s book to learn more.
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Q Mr. Hood, before Scruggs settled with State Farm — and by “Scruggs” I mean Dickie Scruggs and the SKG, Scruggs Katrina Group. Before they settled the case with 640 plaintiffs, which generated a fee in excess of $20 million for Mr. Scruggs and his partners, did they dispatch Mr. Balducci and Mr. Patterson to have dinner with you in a restaurant in Jackson to talk about that?
A. I don’t know.
A. I answered your question, I thought. I didn’t know that.
Q. I’m asking you whether or not Mr. Scruggs sent Mr. Balducci and Mr. Patterson to have dinner with you here at a restaurant in Jackson to talk about settlement of that case.
A. I don’t know what Mr. Scruggs did with Balducci and Patterson.
Q. Did you have dinner with Mr. Balducci or Mr. Patterson at Crechale’s restaurant where they discussed Scruggs’ desire to settle that case?
A. No, sir. I haven’t been to Crechale’s in a long time.
Q. You did not have dinner with them where they discussed —
A. When are you talking about? And you said “Crechale’s.” I haven’t been to Crechale’s so I know I didn’t have dinner with anybody at Crechale’s.
Q. My real question is: Did Mr. Patterson or Mr. Balducci have dinner with you and tell you that if you did not participate or assist Mr. Scruggs in settling that mass tort action which was going to generate a 20-million-dollar-plus fee, that he would fund an alternative candidate to run against you for attorney general?
A. If you’re asking me did somebody come to me and threaten me, the answer is no. Now, out of all candor in this, I don’t want to mislead you. I remember having dinner on one occasion with Mr. Balducci and Mr. Patterson, but that conversation was about they were leaving the firm that they were presently — that Mr. Balducci was presently with. They didn’t convey any threats to me about settling the case or anything like that.
Q. They never suggested that if you didn’t participate in dropping your criminal investigation that Dickie Scruggs would fund an alternate candidate and Mike Moore would support that?
A. No, sir. Absolutely not.
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