JACKSON (AP) — Suspended judge Bobby DeLaughter and his former boss have been issued subpoenas in an attempt to determine if they acted improperly in a trade secrets case pitting Eaton Aerospace against a group of former employees.

A Hinds County Circuit judge allowed attorneys for the former employees to subpoena records from DeLaughter, former district attorney Ed Peters and attorney Mike Allred. Peters and Allred worked for Eaton.

The Eaton civil suit is one of at least three cases the FBI is examining involving DeLaughter and Peters as part of its investigation into a judicial bribery scandal in Mississippi.

Peters and DeLaughter also are under federal investigation in an unrelated case over disputed legal fees where Peters has been accused of influencing his former assistant district attorney in favor of disgraced trial attorney Richard ‘‘Dickie’’ Scruggs.

DeLaughter first came under scrutiny in January when attorney Joey Langston, of Booneville, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring with Scruggs to influence DeLaughter in a dispute over asbestos litigation fees.

Scruggs has not been charged in the DeLaughter investigation. He pleaded guilty March 14 in federal court to conspiring to bribe Lafayette County Judge Henry Lackey in a dispute over Hurricane Katrina insurance settlement legal fees.

Witnesses have testified that Scruggs used Peters to persuade the judge to rule in his favor. Scruggs allegedly offered DeLaughter a chance to be recommended for a federal judgeship by former Sen. Trent Lott, Scruggs’ brother-in-law.

The Mississippi Supreme Court suspended DeLaughter, a judge since 1999, in March at the request of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance. He has said he has done nothing wrong and will fight the accusations.

DeLaughter rose to national attention for prosecuting Byron De La Beckwith in the early 1990s for the 1963 murder of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers. The case was portrayed in the 1996 movie ‘‘Ghosts of Mississippi,’’ with Alec Baldwin playing DeLaughter.

Eaton Aerospace claims the former employees, all engineers, stole trade secrets for military contracts from the Jackson company and gave them to their new employer, Frisby Aerospace, a North Carolina competitor.

The former employees also face charges in a separate federal criminal case.

Alan Perry, the lead attorney for Frisby, argues the civil lawsuit should be stayed and the role of Peters investigated to determine what impact he might have had on the case.

Ed Blackmon Jr., the engineers’ attorney in the civil case, said the subpoenas are aimed at seeking direct evidence of Peters’ involvement.

‘‘We have substantial circumstantial evidence that there was extensive contact between the court and Ed Peters,’’ Blackmon said.