Kentucky, and the nation, will soon know the full extent of Purdue Pharma's culpability in the manufacturing and marketing of OxyContin.
Lawyers for the pharmaceutical company, and for Boston Globe Life Sciences Media LLC d/b/a as STAT, received notification today that the Kentucky Supreme Court has declined to review the opinion of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
Purdue Pharmacy has now exhausted all available avenues of appeal. The records compiled by the Office of the Attorney General during its decade long battle with the drug manufacturer must, at long last, be released to STAT and the public.
On December 14, 2018, the Court of Appeals issued an exhaustive 70 plus page analysis of the records access issues, affirming a circuit court ruling unsealing the documents obtained by the attorney general in the lawsuit against Purdue — initiated by Attorney General Greg Stumbo as the first of its kind in the nation in 2007 — and sealed under the terms of a 2015 settlement agreement concluding the litigation during Attorney General Jack Conway's administration.
https://cases.justia.com/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2018-2016-ca-000710-…â¦
In unsealing the records, Pike County Circuit Court Judge Steven Combs declared that members of the public have a right "to see the facts for themselves."
At oral argument, Kentucky's premiere First Amendment and open government attorney, Jon Fleischaker, — representing STAT — echoed this view, asserting that "the public's right of access cannot be controlled by two lawyers agreeing to keep certain records private."
It was his position that access to the records would permit the public to evaluate "how the court behaved; how the attorney general behaved; and was it settled for too little or too much." He emphasized that "you're dealing with public offices and public trust in the system."
In its December 14 opinion, the Court of Appeals reasoned that disclosure of the records would enable the public to "assess whether the government's decision to compromise a valuable claim of the people adequately protected or maximized the claim's value."
Several boxes of records were released to STAT representatives this morning but some records, placed in sealed envelopes, apparently await review for redaction of information such as social security numbers.
Not surprisingly, Fleischaker today demanded that Purdue Pharma no longer be allowed to seal embarrassing information that "sheds light on less-than-savory activities." "It's time," he declared, "to open it all up."
