Texaco Folder Marked ‘Withheld From Legal’

The man investigating the infamous Texaco tapes said Monday that he has found a folder that apparently contains documents company executives withheld from lawyers in the race discrimination case.

Michael Armstrong, who was hired by the company to analyze the tapes and determine what happened to the documents, said a file had been found labeled “Documents withheld from legal.”

He said the file apparently contains some of the papers executives allegedly discussed withholding. Two former Texaco employees face federal charges of obstruction of justice for allegedly plotting to conceal documents pertinent to the case.

“The motive was not ‘we better take this out or the company will lose the lawsuit,’ ” Armstrong said at a news conference in his Manhattan office. “The motivation was distrust and hostility toward lawyers and the whole process.”

Texaco settled the race discrimination case brought by minority employees for a record $176 million after audiotape recordings were made public last year that appeared to show executives plotting to shred papers related to the case.

Armstrong also noted that the expert who analyzed the tapes concluded that someone had erased portions. “That could be innocent or otherwise,” he said.

The tapes of company meetings were released by a former Texaco personnel manager, Richard Lundwall, 55, of Danbury, Conn. Lundwall and former Texaco Treasurer Robert Ulrich, 63, of White Plains, N.Y., are charged with obstruction of justice. They have pleaded innocent. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Armstrong’s assertion that there had been erasures led federal prosecutors to subpoena Lundwall’s tape recorder. He could face further charges if the erasure allegation can be proved.

Armstrong said that although some documents are still missing, he has found no clear evidence that shredding actually took place. He also said many of the documents discussed on the tape were eventually handed over and that most were “not that important in the overall litigation.”

Despite that, he acknowledged that withholding the papers in any form constituted wrongdoing. The executives “took it upon themselves to make the decision to withhold, to destroy, to not tell the truth.”

Armstrong reiterated his earlier conclusion that a word Ulrich used on the tapes, initially construed as “niggers,” was actually a reference to “St. Nicholas.”