4 Tobacco Firms Seek a Mistrial

The nation’s four largest tobacco companies filed a motion Wednesday calling on Judge Kenneth J. Fitzpatrick to order a mistrial in the massive case filed against them by the state of Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota.

The motion contends that Fitzpatrick, a veteran Ramsey County district judge, should remove himself from the proceedings, based on alleged fairness.

Fitzpatrick has been presiding over the case since it was filed in August 1994. The trial is in its eighth week in St. Paul. Previously, the industry has appealed several of Fitzpatrick’s rulings, taking one to the U.S. Supreme Court. The industry has lost all of those appeals.

The motion was filed just four days after Fitzpatrick issued a stinging decision saying the industry must turn over to the plaintiffs 39,000 confidential documents that the companies have waged a long legal battle to keep secret. That order is on appeal.

Fitzpatrick had no immediate response to the motion.

But Michael Ciresi, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, issued a sharp retort to the motion. “This is an absolutely desperate measure,” Ciresi told reporters. The motion “has no basis in fact or law,” he said.