Miss. Attorney General Hood Keeps State Farm Deal Secret

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Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has asked a court to block renewed efforts to make public a settlement agreement between his office and insurer State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. that was part of their feud over claims from Hurricane Katrina.

Hood’s office has asked the court to deny requests from media outlets and a political Web site to unseal it.

The agreement has been kept under wraps by court order since it was reached in February 2008 and at one point Hood’s office denied to reporters that it even existed.

The settlement was reached after State Farm sued Hood, accusing him of using the threateningf criminal prosecution to force through settlements in civil lawsuits over Katrina claims. Hood denied the allegation.

Last month, the Web site Y’allPolitics.com and several TV stations filed motions urging the court to make the deal public.

Hood said in a response that the court has no authority to open records on a closed case and that the reasons the “testimony and settlement agreement were sealed are equally applicable now.”

State Farm also wants the records under seal.

“Our stance is that we have an agreement with General Hood and we intend to continue fully honoring that agreement,” company spokesman Jeff McCollum said.

A judge did not immediately rule on the matter.

U.S. District Judge David Bramlette sealed the settlement when it was reached last year. Less than two weeks later, Hood wrote a letter to The Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson that said “allegations lodged against me by this insurer were shown to be false when a federal judge recently threw out a lawsuit it had filed against my office.”

The next day, Hood’s spokeswoman sent an e-mail to reporters that said there was no settlement. “The only reason it is referred to as such is because the details of the attorney general’s criminal investigation needed to be protected,” Jan Schaefer wrote at the time. “The case was dismissed because the allegations were false.”

After Schaefer’s e-mail said there was no settlement, a State Farm attorney questioned if Hood could be held in contempt of court. An e-mail from State Farm apparently was accidentally sent to more than a dozen reporters.

In response to Schaefer’s e-mail, lawyer Sheila L. Birnbaum wrote, “This is so over the top. Can we ask that he be held in contempt of court for misrepresenting a settlement agreement and order of the court?”

“No, you can’t,” Schaefer responded in an e-mail that also was sent reporters.