Subject: Judicial conflict of interest (guru).
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 230439 -0500
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
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Hi everybody:
I happened to be reading the following Bloomberg Business news item because
I own some Texaco stock.........
The case reported by the citation below is not an EMF case -- but it sounds
like one!!! It might as well be. It is typical......
For example, the "boondagle" educational trip for the judges described
below (paid for by industry and including some propaganda "presentations" by
the industry CEOs) ... was set up very much like the U.S. Air Force/industry
sponsored ICNIRP "boondagle" I have previously reported to EMF-L that took
place in Munich as a part of the BEMS meeting in June of this year.....!!!!
Do you remember me telling you about that....??? Well, when you read the
story below, just imagine that it is the same Munich ICNIRP event that I
told you about which was staged in advance of the BEMS Annual Meeting to
"sell" the EMF scientists on the ICNIRP "party line"......
It fits that criterion....
And, of course, the Air Force/industry not only staged and paid for the
ICNIRP event -- but also paid the travel costs, etc., for many of the
ICNIRP attendees ... on very much the same basis you will read about below.
(The Adair's, for example, who do you think paid their costs to attend that meeting.....????)
Note that in the story below neither the judge nor the company (Texaco)
regard their behavior as "out of order." .....As "conflict of interest."
These COZY situations are so "normal" in our **COZY science/industry and
governmental relationships** that "they" (the recipients of the largesse)
are shocked that anyone would think their activities "out of order."
Or, that they are **guilty** of conflict of interest bahavior.....
God help us....!! (Actually, I don't think we can rely on God in these
situations....... We shall have to **change the system** ourselves.....)
Cheerio....... (For the record: guru owns considerable Texaco stock.
It has been a very good investment.)
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
It is better to light a single candle
than to curse the darkness.....
WEBSITE: http://emfguru.com
People are more important than profit$$
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HREF="http://ads.bloomberg.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.bloomberg.com/markets/bbn/worldnews@Top">
Top World News Wed, 13 Sep 2000, 12:07pm EDT
Texaco Judge's Expense-Paid Trip Creates Conflict,
Lawyer Says
By David Glovin
New York, Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. appeals court
is being urged to disqualify the judge presiding over
suits that accuse Texaco Inc. of polluting the Amazon
rain forest, because he attended an environmental
conference at a Montana resort where former Texaco
Chairman Alfred DeCrane was one of the speakers.
The judge's expenses for the 6-day conference were paid
by the business-backed group hosting the event.
In court papers mailed Tuesday to the U.S. 2nd Circuit
Court of Appeals, a lawyer for South American Indians
suing Texaco argues that U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff
breached conflict of interest rules by attending the
conference as a guest of the Foundation for Research on
Economics and the Environment, (FREE), the attorney
said. Rakoff and 11 other judges were free to mingle
with speakers including DeCrane, said the attorney,
Cristobal Bonifaz, who is representing the plaintiffs.
Texaco, the second-largest U.S. oil company, has been a
contributor to FREE, the group's chairman has acknowledged.
``The attendance of Judge Rakoff at this seminar
occurred in the midst of his supervision and management
of a major environmental case,'' Bonifaz said.
The Montana conference was held from Sept. 15-20, 1998,
a year after Rakoff dismissed the suits against Texaco
by Ecuadorean and Peruvian Indians. On Oct. 5, 1998,
the 2nd Circuit vacated the ruling and returned the
cases to Rakoff for more proceedings.
The request to disqualify Rakoff comes amid growing
scrutiny of judges' attendance at expense-paid seminars
sponsored by private groups critical of environmenta
regulation.
In a report issued in July, the Community Rights
Counsel, a public interest law firm that studied
privately funded trips by U.S. judges from 1992 through
1998, found that nearly 100 members of the federal
judiciary had accepted invitations to seminars at
luxury resorts.
The conferences are typically underwritten by
conservative groups, which in turn are funded by
corporations and other business interests, the
Community Rights Counsel said.
``This case is a perfect example of appearance problems
when private interests are allowed to fund judicial
education,'' CRC Executive Director Doug Kendall said.
Rakoff last week turned aside a request that he
disqualify himself. Though he acknowledged in his
opinion that FREE had paid his expenses for the
conference -- as a not-for-profit, Rakoff noted, that
was perfectly legal -- the judge said he was unaware
that Texaco helped finance the group. The judge also
said that he had not spoken to DeCrane about the case.
``Nothing in judicial ethics requires a judge to be a
hermit, or to closet himself from ideas,'' Rakoff said
in his ruling.
The suits, filed in 1993 and 1994 on behalf of
thousands of South American Indians, blame Texaco for
widespread pollution and resulting health problems in
the Amazon rain forest. The Indians say Texaco failed
to use cleanup measures employed by other oil companies
in the 1960s and 1970s.
Rakoff is now weighing a request by White Plains, New
York- based Texaco to dismiss the cases -- filed under
a federal law permitting suits by non-citizens claiming
violations of international law -- because the alleged
wrongdoing occurred in South America. The plaintiffs
say Ecuadorean courts are so corrupt they cannot gain a
fair hearing there.
Texaco contributed a total of $125,000 to FREE,
according to 1997, 1998, and 1999 tax documents from
FREE submitted to the court by the plaintiffs. Other
donors over that time included Procter & Gamble Co.,
Coca-Cola Co., and Exxon Corp., as well as several
charitable foundations.
FREE's 1998 conference, held on a ranch near Big Sky,
Montana, was entitled ``Real and Alleged Environmental
Crisis -- Seminar for Federal Judges,'' according to
court papers. DeCrane led a talk entitled, ``The
Environment: Some Thoughts From The Corner Office.''
Judges ``and presumably the lecturers, including
DeCrane,'' had afternoons free for horseback rides,
fishing, and hiking, Bonifaz said in an affidavit.
Bonifaz said DeCrane may be called as a witness if the
Texaco suit goes to trial.
DeCrane was Texaco's chairman from 1987 to 1996 and
chief executive from 1993 to 1996. Texaco spokesman
Andrew Norman said the company had no comment on the
plaintiffs' disqualification request.
FREE, based in Bozeman, Montana, questions whether
additional government regulation is needed to protect
the environment, the group's chairman, John Baden said.
Baden said Texaco did not underwrite the 1998 seminar.
He called the plaintiffs' ethics claim ``silly'' and
said he couldn't imagine Rakoff or DeCrane violating
ethics rules.
``I don't think they spent time consorting,'' he said.
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--
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
It is better to light a single candle
than to curse the darkness.....
WEBSITE: http://emfguru.com
People are more important than profit$$
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com