Former HealthSouth CEO Fields New Legal Team, Continues to Fight Allegations
By Patti Bond, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nov. 11--Former HealthSouth chief Richard Scrushy has a new crew of lawyers, including ex-President Clinton's impeachment lawyer and a former federal prosecutor in Atlanta who helped bring down the Gold Club.
Scrushy is also working the court of public opinion via a Web site. Scrushy portrays himself as a former church choir member in "great sorrow" and claims his problems have been exaggerated by inaccurate news reports.
A defiant Scrushy is turning up the defiance as he fights allegations that he masterminded a $2.7 billion fraud at Birmingham-based HealthSouth.
New on board is Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, former Democratic counsel during the impeachment of President Clinton. Lowell also represented former Congressman Gary Condit (D-Calif.) in the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy.
Atlanta's Arthur Leach, a former assistant U.S. attorney during the Gold Club trial, also has joined Scrushy's legal team.
Scrushy, 51, pleaded innocent last week to 85 counts alleging he pocketed more than a quarter-billion dollars from cooked books at HealthSouth. The rags-to-riches Selma, Ala., native is the first chief executive officer prosecuted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which Congress adopted last year after the collapse of Enron and other scandal-ridden companies.
"In this time where the government is trying to criminalize corporate conduct with too broad a brushstroke, it is especially important to set the record straight with respect to Richard Scrushy's amazing accomplishments in building HealthSouth into one of the country's top companies," Lowell said in a statement.
Scrushy's Web site, www.richardmscrushy.com, takes aim mainly at "personal prejudices of various news reporters." Lawyer Thomas Sjoblom said the site addresses the criminal charges and refutes certain news reports focusing on Scrushy's penchant for rock bands, yachts and armored cars.
Scrushy has said repeatedly that HealthSouth's fraud was concocted by his former lieutenants.
Fourteen former executives have pleaded guilty to the HealthSouth fraud, and a fifteenth has agreed to plead guilty. All five former chief financial officers who pleaded guilty have implicated Scrushy.
Scrushy's Web site, as well as a recent appearance on "60 Minutes," follow the lead of domestic guru Martha Stewart, who talked with Barbara Walters recently about her upcoming obstruction-of-justice trial. This summer, Stewart launched a Web site, www.marthatalks.com, to tell her side of the story.
The high-profile approach is tricky, though. Scrushy, for instance, caught flak when members of Congress played a clip of his chatty "60 Minutes" appearance, then criticized him for invoking the Fifth Amendment during recent hearings.
"Web sites can provide a consistent, central location for getting the facts out there, and that can be a good thing," said Scott Sobel, spokesman for crisis management firm Levick Strategic Communications. "The negative side is that they're overt public relations moves that can put off a judge or potential juror, so there's the danger putting off the very people you want to win over."
Bloomberg News contributed to this article.
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