Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP: GM CEO Mary Barra To Answer For Alleged Ignition Switch Cover-Up
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, March 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bob Hilliard, appointed to lead the nation's personal injury and death litigation against GM, announced today the depositions of key current and former GM employees, including the deposition of GM CEO Mary Barra and other high level executives including Alicia Boler-Davis, Senior Vice President for Customer Experience, David Cary, Engineering Director and Maureen Foley-Gardner, Director of Field Performance Evaluation.
Ms. Barra has come under fire in recent days after internal GM documents surfaced, indicating that high level executives at GM not only knew about the 2.6 million defective ignition switches linked to at least 67 deaths and countless accidents, but also took steps to conceal them from the public. According to Mr. Hilliard, "This will be the first time GM employees will be made to answer difficult questions under oath about the specific details of the documents and their role in these deaths and injuries."
Mr. Hilliard is prepared to ask the difficult questions in an effort to find out exactly what role high-level executives at GM actually played in the likely cover-up. "Ms. Barra and other GM employees will face tough questions, subject to perjury. If they dodge or crawfish in their answers then they will face the consequences," said Mr. Hilliard. Yet, he added that, should GM's lawyer's instruct their witnesses to not answer questions and plead the 5th amendment, then we may never know the full breadth of this cover-up.
GM'S OUTSIDE COUNSEL ROLE IN THE COVER-UP
Mr. Hilliard and his team await to see the emails Lance Cooper, the attorney in the recently settled Melton v. GM case, says implicate the international law firm of King & Spalding as well as other outside counsel in GM's 'massive cover-up. "If the biggest law firms in the country helped GM cover up the cover-up then the game changes and the targets shift," said Mr. Hilliard. "GM pays the world's biggest law firms millions of dollars, and if some of that money was paid to help with this 'massive cover-up' then those firms have their fingerprints on the defective ignition switches and the blood of thousands of young victims on their hands."
According to Mr. Hilliard, should these allegations prove to be true, then this conduct could very well fall under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, (RICO) which provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
"In getting ready for these GM depositions and the first case I will try on behalf of the MDL in January, I talk with and negotiate with GM's national counsel daily," said Mr. Hilliard. "I have to trust and hope that GM's lawyers are generally shooting straight and not continuing to advance this decades long cover-up."
In getting ready for trial, Mr. Hilliard never forgets that GM's intentional decisions killed and maimed thousands of our country's young people. "The families of the dead will finally see how far up the food chain this cover-up went," he said.
While many questions about a possible cover-up still linger, determining who knew what and how high up inside and outside the company this cover-up extends is the next step. "The only thing standing between those responsible and exposure is the ticking of the clock. Their deposition dates are set, and we are ready. It is safe to say that this snake appears to be Medusa-like with many heads," remarked Mr. Hilliard. With that in mind, Mr. Hilliard is prepared to depose key GM executives to pursue justice on behalf of the victims and their families. Below is a list of the scheduled depositions for GM executives.
| GM Current and Former Employee: |
Depo Date: |
| Alicia Boler Davis |
5/6/15 |
| Mark Beauregard |
5/7/15 |
| David Carey |
5/7/15 |
| James Churchwell |
5/12/15 |
| Lucy Clark-Doughtery |
5/12/15 |
| David Caples |
5/14/15 |
| Dwayne Davidson |
5/15/15 |
| Mark Johnson |
5/18/15 |
| Jaclyn Palmer |
5/19/15 |
| Elizabeth Kiihr |
5/21/15 |
| Maureen Foley-Gardner |
5/22/15 |
| Vipul Modi |
5/27/15 |
| John Sprague |
5/29/15 |
| William Kemp |
6/4/15 |
| Steven Oakley |
6/8/15 |
| Jennifer Sevigny |
6/10/15 |
| Brian Everest |
6/16/15 |
| Gay Kent |
6/17/15 |
| James Federico |
6/18/15 |
| Alberto Manzor |
6/18/15 |
| James Zito |
6/22/15 |
| Craig Zinser |
7/7/15 |
| Robert Arndt |
7/14/15 |
| Deborah Nowak-Vanderhoef |
7/15/15 |
| Doug Parks |
7/16/15 |
| John Dolan |
7/16/15 |
| David Trush |
7/20/15 |
| John Capp |
7/21/15 |
| Lawrence Buonomo |
7/23/15 |
| James Sewell |
8/3/15 |
| John Murawa |
8/6/15 |
| Michael Gruskin |
8/14/15 |
| Joseph Fedullo |
8/26/15 |
| John Calabrese |
9/15/15 |
| Mary Barra |
10/8/15 |
ABOUT HMG http://www.hmglawfirm.com/
Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP (HMG) specializes in mass torts, personal injury, product liability, commercial and business litigation, and wrongful death. Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP has been successfully representing clients in the United States and Mexico since 1986. Bob Hilliard obtained the Largest Verdict in the country in 2012 and the #1 verdict in Texas in 2013.
HMG is actively seeking to represent other victims of GM's defective vehicles.
SCHEDULE AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB HILLIARD
Contact Lauren Gomez at 361-960-3146
SOURCE Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP
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