Tobacco Figure Halts Deposition in Texas Civil Suit

Philip Morris’ former research director, Thomas S. Osdene, invoked the 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination during a deposition this week in Richmond, Va., and the deposition was halted, sources told The Times on Wednesday.

Osdene was scheduled to be deposed during a four-day period by attorneys in the massive civil suit by the state of Texas against the tobacco companies. But the deposition was halted after an hour and the transcript was sealed, the sources said.

In the last 18 months, Osdene has emerged as a key tobacco industry official whose internal writings at Philip Morris have been scrutinized by government officials and plaintiffs’ lawyers investigating the industry. FBI agents came to his home 13 months ago and served him with a subpoena for Philip Morris documents believed to be in his possession.

Several lawyers involved in tobacco litigation said Osdene was the first tobacco executive to invoke the 5th Amendment during any of the depositions that have been taken in the burgeoning number of civil cases against the industry. The Texas case, which seeks billions of dollars in damages and includes a civil racketeering count, is scheduled to go to trial in September.

Osdene’s action comes as the Justice Department is intensifying its criminal investigation of the tobacco companies. Sources said the government has added FBI agents to review a slew of internal tobacco industry documents.

Justice Department spokesman John Russell would say only that the investigation is continuing. Grand juries have been convened in Washington, New York and Brooklyn to investigate industry practices.

Osdene, who has a PhD in chemistry from the University of London Institute for Cancer, worked for Philip Morris from 1965 until the early 1990s. He headed the company’s research efforts in Richmond for 15 years and was involved in research on the impact of nicotine on smokers. He also had considerable involvement with Philip Morris’ highly secretive German research facility called INBIFO, according to company documents,

Reached by phone at his home in Richmond, Osdene, who is now retired, said, “I appreciate your calling, but I have absolutely no comment to make to anyone.”

Osdene’s attorneys, including John W. Nields Jr., a former special counsel to the Senate Iran Contra committee, declined to return calls seeking comment. So did Dan K. Webb, a former U.S. attorney in Chicago, who is now Philip Morris’ lead counsel in the Texas case.

Ronald L. Motley, a special counsel for the state of Texas in its suit, also declined to comment on the deposition.

Motley’s firm has been seeking to question Osdene for many months, its curiosity piqued by a February 1996 affidavit of former Philip Morris research scientist Ian L. Uydess. In that affidavit, Uydess said that Osdene headed an “inner company” at Philip Morris that controlled critical information about the health effects of smoking.

Osdene’s attorneys had resisted the deposition, citing his poor health. Osdene, 69, had an operation in October to have a lump on his back removed.

Earlier this week, attorneys representing Minnesota in its suit against the tobacco industry won the right to depose Osdene for an hour a day over four days during the week of June 15.

Several provocative documents relating to Osdene have surfaced during the last year. For example, in September, lawyers for Minnesota introduced an undated, unsigned, handwritten memo from Osdene’s files that Philip Morris turned over during pretrial discovery.

The note includes the direction that “if important letters or documents have to be sent, please send them to home, where I will act on them and destroy.” A brief filed by Minnesota’s attorneys said the document “appears to be” in Osdene’s handwriting.

The document was introduced by Minnesota’s attorneys as part of an attempt to compel Philip Morris and other cigarette companies to provide more detailed responses to allegations that they have destroyed documents--a charge the companies vigorously deny.

Anti-tobacco lawyers also have obtained a Nov. 29, 1977, Osdene memo in which he warned his boss at Philip Morris that some of the research on the health-effects of smoking being conducted by the industry’s research arm, the Council for Tobacco Research, could prove detrimental to the industry.

Among other things, he said in the memo:

* “I was amazed at the trend that the CTR work is taking. For openers Dr. Donald M. Ford, a new staff member makes the following quotes:

* “Opiates and nicotine may be similar in action.”

* “We accept the fact that nicotine is habituating.”

* “There is a relationship between nicotine and the opiates.”’