Larger-than-life trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs is charged with small-time bribery, but the consequences could reach beyond the courthouse square in a northeast Mississippi town. Scruggs, who built a multibillion-dollar litigation empire by taking on the tobacco industry and winning, is a bankroller of Democratic political contenders, a friend of the powerful, a relative by marriage to retiring Republican Sen. Trent Lott and a bit of a silver-screen celebrity.