JACKSON - © THE SUN HERALD

Federal investigators have subpoenaed records from the state Supreme and Appeals courts in their probe of Mississippi's judiciary, sources close to the investigation said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and state investigators are looking into whether lawyers paid off loans for state court judges in exchange for favorable treatment in court.

The investigation began last summer. The Sun Herald first reported on the investigation in the fall.

No one has been charged in connection with the probe.

Investigators are trying to determine if well-heeled trial lawyers, including Paul Minor of Ocean Springs and Richard "Dickie" Scruggs of Pascagoula, paid off loans from The Peoples Bank in Biloxi and Merchants & Marine Bank of Pascagoula.

The probe covers judges from all levels of the state's judiciary, including South Mississippi circuit and chancery courts.

According to sources, the Supreme Court was subpoenaed for records more than a month ago. The Court of Appeals was subpoenaed more recently.

Chief Justice Edwin Pittman refused to confirm whether the state's highest court has been subpoenaed but said the courts would cooperate with an investigation.

"Early on, I did talk to federal authorities about perceived problems at the court," he said. "We have been fully cooperative."

What type of information, or whether the subpoenas asked for specific cases, is not known.

"We are aware of the review or the investigation," Pittman said. "Wherein the court would be called (to help), I would hope that we would be speedily cooperative."

Questions about Pittman's campaign finances also have surfaced. Pittman contributed $60,000 to his own campaign in 1996, campaign finance records show.

Pittman said loans to his election coffers were repaid by his campaign.

When asked if lawyer Minor paid off any of his campaign loans, Pittman said, "Not that I'm aware of."

"The fact is, in my judicial campaign of 1996, there were loans made to the campaign but those loans were repaid," Pittman said. "The campaign, I know, paid a portion and I don't know anything beyond that."

State campaign finance law says judicial candidates are not supposed to know who contributes to their campaigns.

Pittman's former campaign treasurer could not be reached for comment.

Pittman said he has not spoken to any federal investigators about his campaign finances.

Oliver Diaz Jr., another Supreme Court justice, has been questioned about loans his former wife, Jennifer Diaz, took out for her husband's campaign in 2000.

Pittman was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1988 and was re-elected in 1996. He has served as chief justice since 2001. Pittman, who has lobbied for state Supreme Court justices to be appointed rather than elected, has said he will not seek another term when his expires in January 2005.

It is fairly common for the supporters of political candidates to repay campaign loans, said Marty Wiseman, an expert on Mississippi politics and director of the John Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University.

"But in the case where you have lawyers paying off loans for judges or insurance companies paying off loans for the insurance commission, it raises eyebrows," he said.

According to state campaign finance law, paying off a loan is considered an in-kind donation and should be reported, said David Blount, spokesman for the secretary of state, whose office oversees campaign finance law.

Individual contributions for judicial campaigns are limited to $5,000 a year. There are no limits on individual contributions for other campaigns.

An intentional violation of the campaign finance disclosure law is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum penalty of $3,000 and six months in prison, state law says.

The state code of judicial conduct also says a judge should refrain from "business dealings that tend to reflect adversely on his impartiality."

However, federal investigators are looking at more than possible misdemeanor campaign-finance violations.

Investigators are trying to figure out whether lawyers paid off loans in exchange for favorable treatment in court, and whether this is a pattern of behavior involving multiple judges and lawyers, which could be prosecuted under federal law.