"It may be a criminal matter, and we're going to have to turn this over to the appropriate people. The arrogance of taking those documents from a federal court supervised depository is astounding.' - U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sent four armed guards to a federal depository where the records were stored. The X-rays are part of an ongoing investigation into possibly fraudulently diagnosed lung disease. The investigations are being conducted by a congressional committee and the U.S. attorney general as well as Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
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Cross Posted at Texas Kaos
From the New York Sun
Silicosis Judge Erupts in Fury In Case of the Missing X-Rays
By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 18, 2006
Evidence key to ongoing investigations of alleged fraud in silicosis-related litigation has gone missing from a repository in Texas, fueling a bitter row between a federal judge and the state's attorney general.
Judge Janis Jack excoriated the office of Texas's top lawman, Greg Abbott, for sending four armed agents to seize thousands of X-rays last month from a private company in Corpus Christi holding the records on behalf of the federal court, The New York Sun has learned.
"The arrogance of taking those documents from a federal court-supervised depository is astounding," an audibly seething Judge Jack said during a conference call last Friday with lawyers involved in the case. "The attorney general of the state of Texas has exhibited a total disregard for the rule of law by doing this."
Judge Jack made national headlines last year when she issued an opinion that most of the "diagnoses were driven neither by health nor justice: they were manufactured for money."
Testing for Silicosis Comes Under Scrutiny in Congress
By JULIE CRESWELL
Published: March 8, 2006
Once seen as the next asbestos or tobacco for class-action lawyers, silica and the lawsuits related to it have instead become a messy legal morass for the doctors, X-ray screening companies and plaintiff law firms that have wound up as the subjects of numerous investigations.
Now, Congress is getting involved. Today, four doctors and the chief executive of an X-ray screening company are scheduled to appear before a Congressional subcommittee to answer questions about how patients were screened and how it was determined they had silicosis, a disabling and often fatal lung disease that comes from inhaling silica dust. Silica is a purified sand used as a cleaning abrasive in sandblasting and in making glass, and other materials.
The intensifying investigations into the validity of silicosis claims are having a spillover effect in litigation involving asbestos, and other suspected hazards, with defense lawyers looking for doctors who repeatedly turn up in diagnosing fairly rare occupational-related diseases.
As a result of this new line of inquiry, several thousand silica cases have been dismissed, doctors have been subpoenaed for their records, a federal grand jury has been convened in Manhattan to investigate and lawmakers are looking into whether stricter guidelines are needed on the screening of occupational diseases.
This tough stance is the result of Judge Jack's findings last year in Corpus Christi. Her investigations revealed that 65% of the plaintiffs in the Corpus Christi cases had previously filed claims for asbestos.
On June 23rd, Abbott's ARMED goons threatened the guard of the federal depository with arrest if he did not surrender the X-rays. Judge Jack learned of the seizure on July 5th and ordered Abbott's office to return them by noon the following day. Forty boxes were returned but 152 X-rays were missing.
"When Judge Jack heard of the removal of the records on July 5, she ordered my opponent to return the x-rays by the next day at noon," he continued. "Only 40 boxes were returned, with more than 150 records missing, which indicates Abbott is in open defiance of a federal judge."
David Van Os, Democratic Candidate for Texas Attorney General
From the Austin American Statesman:
"All I can say is I can vouch to the court that this office does not have those X-rays," Assistant Attorney General Lance Kutnick told Jack, according to an audio recording of the session.
He added that he had concerns about taking the records but said the decision "was made way above my level." He said he did not know who made the decision.
New York University law professor Stephen Gillers said a basic principal of American law is that federal courts have supremacy over state government actions.
Abbott's actions were "unprecedented in my experience or memory because no one would think to do something like it," Gillers said. "It gives whole new meaning to the phrase 'Wild West.'"
In a press release, David Van Os compared Abbott and his goons to the Keystone Kops.
"In a scenario strangely reminiscent of the Keystone Kops, my opponent has illustrated he has no respect for the law or for the people of Texas who are involved in this case," said Van Os from his headquarters in San Antonio. "These missing x-rays are vital to the various investigations as well as to the outcome of this case. By not returning all the records, the AG's flagrant disregard for the rights of the people involved is once again apparent."
Back to the New York Sun where the plot thickens:
Last year, Judge Jack drew national attention when she issued an opinion saying the vast majority of the more than 10,000 silicosis lawsuits consolidated before her were "manufactured for money." She noted that the same dozen doctors diagnosed 9,000 cases of the serious lung ailment. In many cases, the physicians had not seen the patients and relied solely on reading X-rays. Trial lawyers had hoped that silicosis cases would yield billion-dollar paydays like those in asbestos litigation.
Judge Jack believes that Abbott was trying to "get an oar in the water" in the investigation. Abbott likely thought he needed to do something to help his campaign to keep his office. However, it's a way too late in the game for Abbott to pretend his has actually done anything at all in the past four years.
Abbott's spokeswoman was unavailable for comment.
And finally back to the New York Sun. (This is the unavoidable part where they reference Cowboys and Yee Haw.)
The X-rays are critical to the claims of fraud because some of the doctors diagnosed the same individuals with both silicosis, a disease caused by exposure to airborne particles of finely ground sand, and asbestosis, a malady stemming from exposure to asbestos fibers. Judge Jack and some of the companies named as defendants contend that the so-called dual diagnoses are evidence of fraud, because the conditions are rarely found together. Plaintiffs' lawyers contend that many of the dual diagnoses could be legitimate.
At a House hearing on the matter earlier this year, three doctors involved in the case refused to testify, citing the Fifth Amendment.
An attorney for one of those physicians said yesterday that the actions by officials in the Lone Star State were startling. "I guess that's why they call them Texas cowboys," the defense lawyer, Lawrence Goldman, said.
The Justice Department investigation into the allegedly fraudulent lawsuits is being led by prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The tie to Manhattan is murky, but the New York Times has reported that the connection involves the Manville Trust, a fund set up to pay asbestos claims brought against the Johns-Manville Corp.
There's more to this story then an overzealous attorney general. That is out of character for Greg Abbott who is a corrupt, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay crony and an enabler of predatory corporations and monopolists.
John Colyandro, who worked for Karl Rove, was laundering Tom Delay's TRMPAC money while on Greg Abbott's campaign payroll during 2002. Colyandro has been indicted for money laundering and also faces 13 charges of unlawful acceptance of corporate political contributions.
Abbott's biggest donor is Bob Perry, tycoon homebuilder and financier of Karl Rove's Swift Boat smear campaign tactics.
I have a burning desire to discover those doctor's names and see if they happen to show up on Abbott's Texas Ethics Commission report. I do note that doctors seem to contribute heavily to Abbott.
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Please nominate Greg Abbott for Worst Person in the World KOlbermann@msnbc.com