What Smells Here?

Tobacco Case Judge Got Campaign Funds From Lawyers: Report


DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

CHARLOTTE -- Illinois campaign records show 19 lawyers or relatives connected to a law firm that recently won a record tobacco judgment gave almost $10,000 in political donations to the presiding state judge last year, according to a published report.

Campaign records also show that the firm, Korein Tillery LLC of Belleville, Ill., has given more than $200,000 in recent years to state-level politicians who will decide in the next few weeks whether to pass legislation making it easier for that judgment to be appealed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.

Judge Nicholas Byron last month ordered Altria's (MO) Philip Morris USA, the largest U.S. cigarette maker, to pay $10.1 billion in damages for misleading smokers into thinking its Marlboro Lights and Cambridge Lights cigarettes are less harmful than its regular brands. The company has asked the judge to reconsider a requirement that Philip Morris post a $12 billion bond to appeal Judge Byron's verdict, and is back in court Friday to meet the judge and attorneys representing smokers.

If the judgment holds up, the legal fees would be nearly $1.8 billion, with a significant part going to Korein Tillery, the newspaper reported.

Illinois law doesn't prevent judges from accepting money from attorneys who argue cases in their courts, and there are no limits on the number or amount of campaign contributions that politicians and judges can accept. But critics of the state's campaign finance system frequently argue that judicial fundraising from the attorneys who argue in their courts creates at least an appearance of impropriety.

Byron, asked Thursday about the contributions, told the newspaper, "My (campaign) committee got the money. Nothing improper occurred." He declined further comment.

Korein Tillery attorney Stephen Tillery called the donations "basically a false issue." The firm noted that attorneys in the local law firm representing Philip Morris donated $6,000 to Byron's campaign. And the tobacco company itself has contributed more than $1.6 million to Illinois politicians since the mid-1990s, with about $156,000 of that last year, the Post-Dispatch said. Philip Morris didn't make any donations to Byron.

The state legislature is considering legislation that would cap bonds required to appeal such suits. The legislation, a result of lobbying from Philip Morris, is opposed by Korein Tillery, the newspaper said.

Campaign records show Korein Tillery or its attorneys have contributed to nine judges, with Byron the biggest judicial recipient of the firm's donations, since the mid-1990s. The firm also has given more than $200,000 to the campaigns of politicians around the state since the mid-1990s, according to the report.

-By Mary Ellen Lloyd, Dow Jones Newswires; 704-371-4033; [email protected]

Updated April 11, 2003 10:25 a.m.