just before the trial, john brownlee, the federal attorney in roanoke in rural virginia met privately with barry meier, author of "pain killer: a wonder drug's trail of addiction and death", to tell him that his august 2001 interview with the three top purdue executives friedman, udell, and goldenheim, had helped "inform" the doj's investigation. meier and a "new york times" photographer met the three executives on may 10, 2007, as they had left the federal courthouse in roanoke, heading to their corporate jet to go back to connecticut, just before brownlee's public announcement of their guilty pleas of "misbranding" oxycontin.