Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter plans to plead guilty to lying to an FBI agent investigating a lawsuit DeLaughter was hearing that involved multimillionaire Dickie Scruggs, documents say.
DeLaughter plans to plead guilty at 2 p.m. Thursday in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen.
Scruggs already has pleaded guilty to attempting to influence DeLaughter in the lawsuit filed by Bob Wilson, who maintained Scruggs owed him millions in legal fees. Scruggs’ then-lawyer, Joey Langston of Booneville, also has pleaded guilty in the case.
Both are serving prison sentences in federal prison.
Delaughter is best known for the successful prosecution of Byron De La Beckwith for the assassination of civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, in 1994, over 30 years after the crime. In 1999, Governor Kirk Fordice appointed DeLaughter to a position as Hinds County Court Judge after the incumbent judge died of a heart attack. In 2002, he was appointed a Circuit Court Judge for Hinds County. In 1996, the events surrounding the final Medger Evers trial were memorialized in the Rob Reiner film Ghosts of Mississippi. Alec Baldwin portrayed Bobby in the film.[2] In 2001, DeLaughter wrote a book regarding the Evers prosecution, entitled Never Too Late: A Prosecutor’s Story of Justice in the Medger Evers Case.[1].
