UM Grace Case

Defense attorney Thomas Frongillo continued his cross examination of Dr. Aubrey Miller on Thursday morning, trying to establish just how much the government knew about the dangers of asbestos exposure in Libby, Mont. Using passages from Andrew Schneider’s book, “An Air That Kills,” Frongillo questioned Miller on his knowledge of several government reports published in [...]

After a brief afternoon recess, Grace continued its cross-examination of Dr. Miller. The cross examination was broken down into two parts: the presentation of a statistical study by the defense that contradicts Miller’s testimony about certain low-dose diseases and their ties to COPD and lung cancer, and; the presentation of evidence by the defense that [...]

Cross-examination of Dr. Aubrey Miller by the defense counsel, David Bernick, resumed this afternoon as Bernick sought to discredit Miller and the Environmental Protection Agency by showing statements and internal documents dating from 2000 and 2001, early in the cleanup, that appeared to contradict statements made by Miller more recently.
These included a letter from [...]

  After the lunch break, defense attorney David Bernick spent another two hours cross-examining Dr. Aubrey Miller.  Bernick appears to be attempting to undermine Dr. Miller’s opinion that the asbestos contamination in Libby poses an ongoing endangerment to the people in Libby.
Bernick’s cross-examination focused on several tacks.  While Bernick largely did not challenge the data [...]

After the Wednesday morning break Dr. Miller’s cross examination by defense attorney Bernick continued with Bernick making frequent notes and graphs on a whiteboard for the jury’s benefit. Bernick started the morning attacking the causation element from both the timeframe and validity of reports aspects. Bernick highlighted that for the people currently known to [...]

This morning the defense began cross-examination of Dr. Miller. Mr. Bernick conducted the cross-exam for the defense. Mr. Bernick began by displaying a large dry-erase board and wrote on it throughout the cross-examination. Before questioning of Dr. Miller began, Mr. Bernick noted on the board that that the endangerment charge focuses [...]

Kris McLean finished laying the foundation for Dr. Miller’s ultimate opinion this afternoon by examining Miller on several more studies that he used, in conjunction with his work in Libby, to formulate his opinion.
The first was a Grace study entitled “Cause of Death of 66 Libby Employees.” Over defense relevance objections, the study was [...]

Just after lunchtime, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean continued his direct examination of Dr. Aubrey Miller. Dr. Miller began by discussing several demonstrative exhibits (documents which contain no unique substance of their own, but distill and interpret substantive relevant evidence). These exhibits detail asbestos levels in the air during the EPA work in Libby over [...]

  Kris McLean continued his direct examination of Dr. Miller after the mid-morning break, laying the foundation for Dr. Miller’s expert opinion.  See also Motion in Limine  and Arguments on March 9, 2009.  Judge Molloy issued multiple “cautionary” instructions to the jury regarding the documents underlying the opinion of Dr. Aubrey Miller.  Defense objections concerned [...]

 Despite defense counsel’s objections aiming to limit Dr. Miller’s expert testimony, the government was able to conduct direct examination and admit some photographs into evidence.
Captain Aubrey K. Miller, MD, MPH, a physician in the U.S. Public Health Service and a Senior Medical Officer and Toxicologist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 8 Office, [...]