Montgomery, Ala. – Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy voiced confidence they will be vindicated on appeal, despite a jury finding them guilty of government corruption charges.
Both Siegelman and Scrushy claimed the charges against them were the result of vendettas by prosecutors and that the convictions would be overturned, while prosecutors said they hoped the jury’s verdict Thursday would warn public officials against abuse of office.
Scrushy was convicted of six counts and Siegelman of seven – mostly concerning what prosecutors said was a scheme in which Siegelman promised Scrushy a seat on a state hospital regulatory board in exchange for Scrushy arranging $500,000 in contributions to Siegelman’s 1999 campaign for a state lottery.
“If I’m really guilty of this, then every other person in public office ought to look out because everybody is raising money and putting people on boards and commissions,” Siegelman said. “We’re going to win this case on appeal.”
Scrushy’s attorney, Terry Butts, called the verdict “the worst miscarriage of justice since Gen. Sherman burned Atlanta.”
Siegelman, 60, was once the golden boy of Democratic politics in Alabama, repeatedly winning elections for secretary of state, attorney general and eventually governor. The bribery allegations derailed his campaign to retake his former office.
The case was tried as Siegelman sought his party’s nomination for governor, and the trial put him in court during the final weeks of the campaign. He lost to Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley in the June 6 primary.
But even in courtroom defeat, he was ever the politician, praising the jury and keeping an upbeat attitude as he chatted with reporters and thanked supporters. He noted the jury cleared him on 25 of the 32 charges he faced.
“We got a fair trial by a good judge and a great jury,” he said. “This is Round One. The truth is we did pretty good in Round One.”
Scrushy, 53, a hard-charging entrepreneur who built his chain of rehabilitation clinics into one of the nation’s largest, has said prosecutors pursued the charges because they were upset that a jury in Birmingham found him not guilty last year in a massive accounting fraud scandal at HealthSouth.
Scrushy saw the one-year anniversary of that verdict Wednesday but remains a defendant in major civil cases involving allegations of a $2.7 billion accounting scam at the rehabilitation clinics he once ran.
