LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (May 10, 2002)—Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is facing “false allegations” from plaintiffs' attorneys in a wrongful death case in Little Rock, according to Cooper management.
A hearing is set in Little Rock federal district court May 16, four days before the actual trial is supposed to begin, on accusations that Cooper deliberately burned two boxes of documents relating to the May 1998 accident in which Scharlotte Hervey, her husband, her son and another driver were killed.
Cooper CEO Thomas Dattilo and General Counsel Richard Teeple, in a May 10 press and analyst conference, said to the best of their knowledge following an internal investigation two boxes were burned by two lower-level employees without orders from management or apparent purpose. They added that those documents did not relate to the Hervey case.