James R. Crockett – författare

In 2004 the Corporate Crime Reporter asserted that Mississippi was the most crooked state in America. By comparing the number of federal corruption convictions over the past decade and the 2002 population of the state, the conclusion was inescapable. Too many officials were robbing the public they had sworn to serve and protect. Hands in the Till: Embezzlement of Public Monies in Mississippi establishes the scope of a major crisis in a poor state where needs are many and funds are scarce. The book highlights the tireless work of the Office of the State Auditor in investigating the theft of public money and bringing criminals to justice. This book reports on thirty-seven cases that demonstrate how and why embezzlement occurs, how it is discovered and investigated, and how the state’s justice system deals with perpetrators. The greedy schemes can be as outrageous as they are disheartening. Case histories narrated here involve a variety of public servants and others including chancery clerks, circuit clerks, justice court clerks, city clerks, sheriffs, tax collectors, school and college administrators, and employees of organizations that receive public money.

From 2003 to 2009 sensational judicial bribery scandals rocked Mississippi's legal system. Famed trial lawyers Paul Minor and Richard (Dickie) Scruggs and renowned judge and former prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter proved to be the nexus of these scandals. Seven attorneys and a former state auditor were alleged to have attempted to bribe or to have actually bribed five state judges to rule in favor of Minor and Scruggs in several lawsuits. This is the story of how federal authorities, following up on information provided by a bank examiner and a judge who could not be bribed, toppled Minor, Scruggs, and their enablers in what was exposed as the most significant legal scandal of twenty-first-century Mississippi.James R. Crockett details the convoluted schemes that eventually put three of the judges, six of the attorneys, and the former auditor in federal prison. All of the men involved were successful professionals and three of them, Minor, Scruggs, and fellow attorney Joey Langston, were exceptionally wealthy. The stories involve power, greed, but most of all hubris. The culprits rationalized abominable choices and illicit actions to influence judicial decisions. The crimes came to light in those six years, but some crimes were committed before that. These men put themselves above the law and produced the perfect storm of bribery that ended in disgrace.The tales Crockett relates about these scandals and the actions of Paul Minor and Richard Scruggs are almost unbelievable. Individuals willingly became their minions in power plays designed to distort the very rule of law that most of them had sworn to uphold.