An attorney who publicly released internal emails from Monsanto about its alleged cancer-causing weedkillers is in trouble with a California judge.
The attorney is one of those who sued Monsanto over its Roundup herbicide, the same herbicide that is at the center of two Oklahoma City federal court lawsuits.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ordered attorney Brent Wisner to show why he shouldn’t be removed from the lawsuit after posting sealed documents online. Dozens of internal Monsanto emails were released Aug. 1 showing how the company worked with an outside consulting firm to create friendly scientific reports and stories about Roundup and other weed killers.
As reporters for Bloomberg Business Week reported, academic papers vindicating the Roundup herbicide were written with the help of company employees.
It raises serious doubts about Monsanto’s claims that Roundup underwent rigorous scientific review and proclaimed safe to the public.
Roundup is at the center of a lawsuit filed in May in Oklahoma City federal court where a Del City couple and a woman from Broken Arrow blame Monsanto for their cancer. They contend the St. Louis, Missouri company relied on fraudulent scientific tests dating back to the 1970s. The lawsuit also accused Monsanto of being negligent in professing that Roundup was safe to the public.
Court files in the case, CV-00561 indicated Monsanto was just served a summons on Aug. 8 notifying the company of the lawsuit.
Court files also reflect a second lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma City federal court against Monsanto over production of Roundup. The suit was filed in July by an attorney for Clifford D. Little of Choctaw, who maintains he “has suffered and continues to suffer grave injuries” because of the weed killer. Monsanto is alleged to have been negligent and not properly warning the public about the dangers of the herbicide. He suffers from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and was diagnosed in 1988.
“As a direct and proximate result of defendant’s wrongful acts and omissions, Plaintiff has suffered severe and permanent physical and emotional injuries,” stated the lawsuit (CV-00805F). “Plaintiff has endured pain and suffering, has suffered economic loss (including significant expenses for medical care and treatment) and will continue to incur these expenses in the future.”
Little maintains he was first exposed to Roundup in Jacksonville, Arkansas in 1974, again in Oklahoma City from 1982 to 1995 and Augusta, Kansas from 1995 through 2011.
The attorney who filed the suit is Scott R. Jackson of Ponca City.
