Next Witness: Donald K. Hoel, if I recall
October 19, 2004 9:58 pm by Gene BorioAdverse Witness Don Hoel is scheduled to appear Wednesday morning.
Prof. Sorel Schwartz (also an Adverse Witness who may testify tomorrow), wrote of Hoel in his corrected testimony,
” I saw him as a major player in the ETS issue. My impression was that he was the most powerful person in the whole group. . . . Everyone seemed to defer to Hoel. He seemed to be in charge of the entire industry, not just the Tobacco Institute.”
Late Tuesday afternoon, at the end of a long day, Judge Kessler was trying to figure out the most efficient way to schedule witnesses. When DOJ attorney Stephen Brody told her he planned to call Don Hoel the next morning, she said,
“Hoel?? Oh, well that shouldn’t take long. I haven’t read so many ‘I don’t know’s and ‘I don’t recall’s in . . . “
Judge Kessler seemed to catch hereself, and didn’t elaborate, but I counted such utterances in Hoel’s corrected Direct Testimony. I found:
From the DOJ’s “FACTUAL MEMORANDUM”:
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http://www.tobacco-on-trial.com/profiles/witnesses/hoel-donald-k
Hoel, Donald K.
US Fact Witness
Mr. Hoel was an attorney at the long-time tobacco industry law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon from 1958 to his retirement from the practice of law in 1993. Beginning in the 1960s and continuing to his retirement, Mr. Hoel represented Defendant members of the tobacco industry in smoking and health litigation and tobacco regulation. Mr. Hoel was involved in the selection of scientists and other consultants for use by the industry in litigation and regulatory actions in the United States and around the world. He also participated, among a number of industry outside counsel, in locating and managing Council for Tobacco Research (”CTR”) Special Project and Special Account 4 researchers. He was a member of the Tobacco Institute Committee of Counsel, in which role he was the head of the ETS Subcommittee, also known as TI ETS Advisory Group or the “Hoel Committee” from 1975 through 1988.
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http://www.tobacco-on-trial.com/profiles/witnesses/schwartz-sorell
Schwartz, Sorell
US Fact Witness
Dr. Schwartz is a professor at Georgetown University, Department of Pharmacology. Dr. Schwartz was a tobacco industry consultant for many years. In 1982, Dr. Schwartz co-founded the Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology (”CEHHT”), a consulting firm that did significant work for the tobacco industry. Additionally, Dr. Schwartz was Chairman of the Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group (”IAPAG”), a division of CEHHT devoted to ETS. Dr. Schwartz traveled throughout the United States and abroad at the Joint Defendants’ expense to testify at hearings and participate in conferences.
As a result of his close work with the tobacco industry, Dr. Schwartz has direct knowledge of (a) defendants’ misrepresentations regarding ETS, research projects and industry-sponsored conferences that related to Environmental Tobacco Smoke (”ETS”); (b) defendants’ development of scientific witnesses that they used to analyze, critique, and review ETS research, publications, and proposed legislation concerning ETS and indoor air restrictions; (c) attorney involvement in ETS research, including but not limited to, organization and/or support of conferences that addressed ETS, approval/disapproval of research, revision of research results, and whether to publish research results; (d) company or industry knowledge regarding research and/or the development of scientific witness teams to address ETS issues and public statements regarding same.