Judge orders split of Peters’ seized funds

OXFORD — A federal judge has signed off on a split of $425,000 seized as part of the judicial corruption investigation in Mississippi.

The money was taken from former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters. Peters allegedly was paid $1 million on behalf of former Mississippi attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs to influence Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter in a civil case.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner, in an order signed Feb. 17, approved a settlement between the government and attorney William Roberts Wilson Jr. Wilson will get $280,000. The government will keep the rest.

Wilson had sought the Peters money as part of finances he was owed, as he had claimed in court documents, because Scruggs and others used the money that he should have been paid to bankroll other financially successful litigation.