DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 1997                 TAG: 9707080281
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   66 lines

PETA BROKE COURT ORDER IN NEW JERSEY, JUDGE SAYS NO PUNISHMENT IS IMPOSED, BUT FUTURE VIOLATIONS COULD LEAD TO FINES OR JAIL TIME.

The president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals violated a federal court order by joining actress Kim Basinger in an effort to rescue puppies at a New Jersey laboratory last week, a federal judge ruled Monday.

PETA's co-founder and president, Ingrid Newkirk, also violated the temporary restraining order because PETA issued a news release last week that listed clients of the Huntingdon Life Sciences lab in East Millstone, N.J., U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith ruled.

Huntingdon sued last month in U.S. District Court alleging that a PETA agent lied to get a job at the lab and secretly took notes and used a hidden video camera to document animal testing. The tape shows technicians handling monkeys roughly and a technician cutting into a monkey before it was dead.

Huntingdon, which tests drugs for pharmaceutical makers, claimed PETA had violated federal and state laws by illegally obtaining trade secrets. Huntingdon obtained an order from Judge Smith barring the organization from spreading the trade secrets.

Norfolk-based PETA sent copies of the videotape to several Huntingdon clients. One, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, temporarily suspended its research contract with the lab.

Because Newkirk appeared with Basinger outside Huntingdon's lab Thursday, and because PETA issued a news release that alluded to alleged animal mistreatment, Newkirk violated the court order, the judge ruled.

``She violated not only the letter but the spirit of the order,'' Smith said.

The judge took the case under advisement and imposed no punishment, but she did warn of ``very heavy monetary fines and potential jail time,'' for future violations. A July 28 hearing will be held on the company's claim that PETA illegally disseminated trade secrets.

Basinger showed up outside Huntingdon's lab to receive as many as 36 beagle puppies allegedly used in research on a drug to speed the healing of broken bones. An air-conditioned bus equipped with cages was there to take the puppies away, but the dogs were not released by the lab as PETA had expected.

Huntingdon said it never told PETA it would free the dogs.

Basinger met during the demonstration with Huntingdon President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Staple, according to court testimony. The event frightened Huntingdon employees and made it impossible to conduct business, Staple said.

During the event, Basinger, an animal rights activist, mentioned much of what PETA claims happened to animals inside the lab.

Newkirk, by taking a prominent role in the protest, helped disseminate the lab's trade secrets, the judge ruled.

``She could have stayed in the background, seeing that the puppies got on the bus,'' Smith said.

Attorneys for PETA and Newkirk, however, argued that PETA was not necessarily the source of information for the statements that Basinger made at the event.

The lawsuit claims that PETA's operative, 30-year-old Michele Rokke, got her job and gathered information for eight months under false pretenses.

Huntingdon's suit is similar to the one the Food Lion supermarket chain used to win a $5.5 million judgment in January against ABC News. The grocery chain alleged that two producers from ABC's ``PrimeTime Live'' program lied to get jobs at Food Lion stores and wore hidden video cameras to produce a story that said Food Lion was repackaging and selling spoiled meat. KEYWORDS: PETA LAWSUIT RULING

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