Attorney General Lynch Cited For Civil Contempt of Court, Fined - RI Lead Paint Trial

Another stunner of a development in the always-shocking long-playing soap opera called Rhode Island (RI)  lead paint trial.  According to court documents unsealed this morning, RI Attorney General Patrick Lynch has been found to be in civil contempt of court and has been ordered to pay a fine of $5000.  This ruling comes from Judge Michael Silverstein who presided over the RI lead paint trial.

In addition to coverage of this on turnto10.com and boston.com, there will be an article in THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL later today by Peter Lord.

But, here's the scoop from one of our trusty Deep Throats.  This one is based right in Providence, RI, where the trial was held. 

Twice Attorney General Lynch, Providence Deep Throat reports,  had been censured by Judge Silverstein for inappropriate comments.  The first instance was during jury selection when the defendant Millennium filed a motion to review the documents concerning the settlement by DuPont with the state of RI.  Lynch used a tone and wording that caused Judge Silverstein to admonish him about the rules of behavior in court. The second instance came during the incident when the four defendants filed motions for a mistrial when the Assistant Attorney General Neil Kelly asked state witness Patricia Nolan about how much the defendants had already contributed to funding RI's efforts to address the lead-paint problem.  Judge Silverstein ruled against a mistrial. 

However, given those two incidents, Attorney General Lynch was ruled in civil contempt of court and ordered to pay a $5000 fine.  Only we didn't know it at the time.  Until today, the documents had been sealed.

Through his spokesperson, Attorney General Lynch states that he will appeal all this.

What does our Deep Throat in Washington D.C. think of this development?  "Given this hit to the AG's credibility," asserts D.C. Deep Throat, this could be the beginning of the end in all lead-paint litigation.  AGs in other states are watching RI.  They don't want this kind of trouble, not for any amount of public-nuisance money."