Oklahoman asks to use cameras during opioids trial

NORMAN — The Oklahoman is requesting that media cameras be allowed into the courtroom for a trial over the accusation that pharmaceutical companies helped create the state’s deadly opioid epidemic.

The trial is set to begin in May 2019.

“The use of unobtrusive cameras would allow reporters to create images and video that can be displayed later in the newspaper or online, giving readers and website visitors a more complete view of what has transpired in the courtroom than traditional narrative reporting,” media attorney Robert D. Nelon, told the trial judge in a letter.

Nelon made the request on behalf of

and NewsOK.com to Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter told the judge Thursday that he would not object to allowing digital cameras in the courtroom during the trial. Hunter filed the lawsuit against drug companies on behalf of the state. “I think getting that ground rule addressed on the front end is important,” Hunter told

“The public needs to understand the scope of the crisis and the public needs to understand the deliberations that went into the decisions that we made.”

Balkman told attorneys for the drug companies that he would give them 20 days to present their opinions before ruling on the camera issue. More than a dozen pharmaceutical companies are being sued by the state. They are accused of making billions of dollars by waging a fraudulent decades-long marketing campaign that greatly understated the addictive risks of opioid painkillers while overstating their benefits.

Oklahoma has experienced nearly 3,000 overdose deaths in the last three years. Attorneys for the state and drug companies met Thursday morning with retired Judge Bill Hetherington, who was brought in to help resolve disputes over the exchange of documents.

Attorneys for the state accused attorneys for the drug companies of using delay tactics, while attorneys for the drug companies accused attorneys for the state of causing the delays by making requests for documents that were overly broad. “I’d say we’re somewhere between patient and frustrated,” Hunter said after the meeting. “Hopefully this will be the catalyst for moving things along more rapidly.”

The attorney for one drug company said his client had already turned over more than 3 million pages of documents.