A federal court jury on Friday acquitted the big chemical products company, W.R. Grace, and three of its executives on all criminal charges that they had knowingly contaminated the small Montana mining town of Libby with asbestos, then conspired to cover up the deed.
At least 200 people have died of asbestos-related diseases, and hundreds more have been sickened, in the tiny community of Libby, which has a population of about 2,600. And there is no doubt that the Zonolite Mountain vermiculite mine, owned and operated by Grace from 1963 to 1990, was the source of the asbestos.
But the jury in Federal District Court in Missoula — deliberating less than two days after a nearly three-month trial — unanimously concluded that the disaster was not a matter of criminal culpability by the company.
The verdict marked a repudiation of the Federal government’s case, which painted Grace as a greedy mine operator, cognizant of the risks of its mining operations — and the dust plumes that once famously wafted through town — and then callously, criminally covering up the crime.
At the heart of the case were two tangled, inter-related questions: What did the company and its executives know about the dusty detritus from its mine, just outside Libby, and when did they act or not, upon that knowledge?
The prosecution presented evidence, from internal company memos dating back to the 1970’s, that the dangers were well known inside Grace about the naturally occurring asbestos, which was intermixed by geological fate with vermiculite in northwestern Montana. Vermiculite, an odd mineral that puffs up like popcorn when heated and is used for insulation and the leavening of garden soil, was mined commercially in Libby beginning in 1923. Grace bought the mine in 1963 and closed it in 1990.
But that same pattern of facts and dates was also the bulwark of the defense case. Yes, Grace was aware the dangers, defense lawyers told the jury, and the company was also, they said, taking steps to mitigate those dangers and follow federal health and safety rules, even as the body of research grew about the particular kind of asbestos in Libby.
That left the jury to ponder some gray areas of corporate behavior. Were efforts to control dust and ban smoking at the mine property — smoking greatly compounds asbestos health risks — cynical and half-hearted stage-props of legal or public-relations posturing, as the prosecution contended, or genuine efforts to make a dangerous work place safer, as the defense argued?
But by the time the jury actually began its deliberations on Wednesday, another set of perhaps even thornier questions had emerged regarding credibility and trust. As the prosecution ended its case in late April, jurors saw the star prosecution witness, Robert H. Locke, denounced in court by Judge Molloy, who also raised doubts in front of the jurors about the tactics and practices of the prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s office.
Mr. Locke, a former Grace executive, testified that Grace executives knew that asbestos was sickening and killing people in Libby and that they actively worked to hide that knowledge or evade responsibility. But after his testimony, evidence turned over by the prosecution showed that, while on the witness stand, Mr. Locke had grossly understated his relationship with prosecutors and government investigators. Judge Molloy told the jurors that the government had concealed that knowledge — in not providing in a timely fashion material to the defense about Mr. Locke’s relationship — and so committed what the judge called an, “inexcusable dereliction of duty.” He ordered the panel not to consider Mr. Locke’s testimony in considering the fate of one defendant, Robert J. Bettacchi, and to use “great skepticism,” in evaluating Mr. Locke’s testimony about the case as a whole.
Of the eight defendants in the original indictment, only four were left for the jury to consider by the end — the company and three executives, Mr. Bettacchi, Henry A. Eschenbach and Jack W. Wolter.
One former manager, Alan Stringer, died in 2007, and the case against two men, Robert C. Walsh and William J. McCaig, were thrown out in last days of the trial at the request of the prosecution. Another executive, O. Mario Favorito, was granted a separate trial that is still pending.
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Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/us/09grace.html?hpw
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See also:
Judge Says Asbestos Case Can Proceed
http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/judge-says-asbestos-case-can-proceed/
Prosecution in Asbestos Poisoning of Montana Town Is Forced to Go on Defense
There are many sources for possible asbestos exposure, from dangers at the workplace to under your own roof. There is a packet of information available at MesotheliomaHelp.Net that does a good job of explaining the causes and treatments for malignant Mesothelioma. It also includes a medical dictionary, journal and record book to help you keep track of appointments and treatments.