TOBACCO CO. ALLEGED TO HAVE ILLEGALLY OBTAINED PHONE RECORDS

Attorney, judge suing tobacco firm
Phone-record theft denied

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum and trial attorney Cynthia Langston have filed separate lawsuits charging that lawyers for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. invaded their privacy as part of a conspiracy to have the judge ejected from the case.

The lawsuits allege that tobacco company lawyers conspired with a phone company employee, who also happened to be Ms. Langston's ex-husband, to access the personal and business telephone records of the judge and the plaintiff's lawyer in 1997 as the case moved closer to trial.

Bell South Communications and Michael Miller, Ms. Langston's ex-husband, are also defendants in the lawsuits and have denied the charges against them.

The federal judge in Judge Landrum's case has previously denied requests by the tobacco company and Bell South to dismiss the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, a state judge in Ms. Langston's case ordered the tobacco lawyers to turn over dozens of internal law firm documents that the plaintiff's lawyers say will prove a crime was committed. Brown & Williamson has appealed that ruling to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which is now considering the issue.

Lawyers familiar with the case also say that federal law enforcement officials in Mississippi recently became aware of the two lawsuits and are conducting a preliminary investigation. U.S. Attorney Brad Pigot of Jackson said he could not comment on the charges.

The allegations, if true, could violate Mississippi fraud and theft statutes as well as federal laws prohibiting the improper taking of privately stored electronic communications and data for commercial gain, according to lawyers in the case.

Indeed, the court filings tell a story of clandestine meetings, anonymous informants and intercepted e-mails. They accuse the tobacco company of paying private investigators to follow them.

The situation initially arose in the summer of 1997 when Ms. Langston was representing Ava Dean Butler, who was suing the major cigarette companies for the death of her husband. Ms  Butler alleged that her husband died from breathing secondhand smoke.

Tobacco lawyers had been complaining loudly that Judge Landrum was constantly ruling against them. In spring 1997, he became the first judge in the country to rule that previously secret internal industry documents should be made public

"Any kind of allegation like this, especially if true, makes it very difficult for us as an industry to develop a national dialogue about tobacco," said Steve Parrish, vice president and lawyer at Philip Morris Inc., the nation's largest cigarette maker. "This certainly doesn't help our reputation."

Added 11 August, 1999