Legal News

An ?Uncivil Action?: Criminal Asbestos Trial Set to Begin in Montana

By Ashby Jones

A fascinating federal criminal trial is slated to begin on Thursday out in Missoula, Mont., where five former executives of W.R. Grace & Company stand accused of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and violations of the Clean Air Act. Federal prosecutors allege that the executives knew that workers at a Grace-owned vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont. (pictured), were exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos, but continued to release it into the air and misrepresented the danger. Click here for Thursday’s NYT article; here for coverage from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has followed the case extensively.

At least 200 deaths and thousands of illnesses are known to be related to the town’s exposure to the mine’s dust clouds of vermiculite, which was layered with naturally occurring asbestos.

The judge in the case has barred lawyers on both sides from commenting publicly. But Grace, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001, has said in the past that its managers acted in good faith. Grace, which bought the mine in 1963 and shut it in 1990, has been paying medical bills here for years and agreed in 2008 to spend $250 million for environmental cleanup of the town.

According to the NYT, legal experts say that some of the prosecution’s case could be particularly hard to prove, especially the charges that Grace executives obstructed justice by obfuscating in interviews with investigators at the Environmental Protection Agency, and then conspired to cover up their knowledge of the asbestos risks. And to prove conspiracy, the government will have to show not just that the Grace executives considered hiding the consequences of the activity in Libby, but also that they actually pursued doing so.

If convicted, they face as much as 15 years in prison on each of three counts of endangering Libby through Clean Air Act violations, and lesser time on each of the other charges, plus fines that could amount to several million dollars.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 19, 2009 (boomark / email).