In a December 5 hearing, U.S District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California overseeing the federal Roundup lawsuits agreed to separate prospective jurors with a separate questioning session to ascertain any possible bias in similar future cases.
Monsanto, acquired by Bayer in June 2018, asked the federal judge to strike prospective jurors who were aware of the jury's $289 million verdict awarded to plaintiff Dewayne “Lee” Johnson on August 10, 2018. Judge Chhabria's order would establish a separate group of jurors during voir dire based on whether they knew about the verdict. In a November 30 letter, Monsanto's lawyers wrote that the chances of a tainted jury pool were substantial considering the hype over the first verdict. A Bayer spokesperson quoted, "we believe these are positive steps towards preventing the risk of prejudice among jurors in these case.”
Monsanto faces more than 600 Roundup lawsuits over claims by plaintiffs that they developed Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) after being exposed to glyphosate from Roundup weedkiller. The first bellwether trial is slated for February 25, 2019, for 70-year-old Edwin Hardeman, who used Roundup in his Sonoma County property in the 1980s and was diagnosed with NHL in 2015.
