Firms May Have Misled Public, Judge Says

A state court judge in King County, Wash., ordered the tobacco industry to turn over 32 internal documents to the state attorney general, saying the documents provide evidence supporting the state’s case that cigarette companies used an industry research group “to mislead the public and/or that the RJ Reynolds Co. concealed health risks associated with its products.” Judge George Finkle also found that the state showed that “RJR was engaged in or was planning a fraud” at the time some of the documents were written. Finkle ruled after reviewing the documents from the Council for Tobacco Research. Attorneys for the state, which has sued the industry seeking hundreds of millions in damages, had contended that the documents would support its claim that the industry misrepresented the health hazards of smoking. Washington Atty. Gen. Christine Gregoire and 40 other state attorneys general have alleged that the council was a front group used by the industry to dupe the public into believing the dangers of smoking had not been proven. The ruling comes just two days before a deadline set by Rep. Thomas Bliley Jr. (R-Va.) for the industry to turn over 834 documents that a Minnesota judge said showed evidence of a crime or fraud. RJR spokeswoman Peggy Carter said, “We think the judge had an incomplete picture of the documents and we will move for reconsideration to flush out the record.”