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Attorney, judge suing tobacco firm / Phone-record theft denied 

Mississippi Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum and trial attorney Cynthia Langston have filed separate lawsuits charging that lawyers for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. invaded their privacy as part of a conspiracy to have the judge ejected from the case.

The lawsuits allege that tobacco company lawyers conspired with a phone company employee, who also happened to be Ms. Langston's ex-husband, to access the personal and business telephone records of the judge and the plaintiff's lawyer in 1997 as the case moved closer to trial.

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Any kind of allegation like this, especially if true, makes it very difficult for us as an industry to develop a national dialogue about tobacco.
Steve Parrish, vice president and lawyer at Philip Morris Inc, on the odd doings in Mississippi over the Butler trial. Quoted in <i>Attorney, judge suing tobacco firm / Phone-record theft denied</i>