NEW YORK (AP)- the first slated trial of a wrongful death suit against Merck & Co. over its painkiller Vioxx has been postponed at the urging of a federal judge.

Jere Beasley, founding shareholder at the law firm taking the first Vioxx lawsuit to trial in May, Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C, called upon Merck to join him in asking Judge Rochester to lift a protective order which prohibits the release of protected information regarding the drug's dangers

Giant drug maker Merck & Co. has viewed to fight every one fo the thousands of person injury cases filed against it after the Vioxx withdrawal, starting with the case of Brad Rogers, 42, an ambulance dispatcher in Alabama.

Merck was accused yesterday of violating a court order by providing documents to the media concerning an upcoming trial over the safely of Vioxx.

Merck had asked the Court to dismiss the lawsuit, contending that Mr. Rogers, who died of a heart attack after being prescribed Vioxx, never took the drug. Lawyers for Beasley Allen disputed Merck's claims and said that they had evidence that Mr. Rogers took Vioxx before he died.

Merck & Co. has vowed to fight every one of the thousands of personal injury cases filed against it after the Vioxx withdrawal, starting with the case of Brad Rogers, 42, an ambulance dispatcher in Alabama.

Merck was accused of violating a court order by providing documents to the media concerning an upcoming trial over the safety of Vioxx.

A motion was filed today for sanctions against Merck for violating a protective order and disclosing personal and confidential information to the news media related to Cheryl Rogers and her deceased husband, Howard. Mrs. Rogers is the plaintiff in the first Vioxx lawsuit scheduled to go to trial on May 23.

"Merck provided depositions of Mrs. Rogers and Dr. William Clancy, who treated her husband, to local and national press on April 12, in violation of the court's protective order. In fact, one reporter had the documents on this date apparently before it was even filed in court."

The plaintiff at the center of the first trial from pain reliever Vioxx said she's furious that the drug's manufacturer, Merck & Co., is branding her untruthful in court documents filed earlier this month in Alabama.