U.S. Chemical Safety Board Issues Final Report on Arkema Crosby Incident- Epilogue 2

[drwebb]

Link

"Visiting Judge Belinda Hill ended the case against the company and former Crosby plant manager Leslie Comardelle, finding not enough legal evidence for a reasonable jury to reach a different conclusion. They had faced felony charges for reckless emission of air pollutants."

Original thread here (closed)

 

[bimr]

As a famous lawyer once said, “don’t tell me what the law is; tell me who the judge is.”

The Harris County DA’s Office said it was disappointed the case did not make it to a jury verdict.

“Today’s ruling by a judge doesn’t change the fact that dangerous chemicals on Arkema property ignited and were belched in a cloud of toxic smoke over the surrounding communities, and a first responder there protecting people is now on a lung-transplant list,” spokesman Dane Schiller said in a statement.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Civil trials do not require the same level of proof as do criminal trials so I suspect that that will be best route to go to get satisfaction for the "reckless emission of air pollutants".

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
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The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
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[drwebb]

"it’s rare for a judge to issue a directed verdict, especially in a high-profile prosecution involving an environmental indictment . . . The last piece fell off the jalopy today." Evidently it wasn't just the judge that saw this case as a bit of overreach. I can understand some folks may be disappointed no one was held personally responsible, but an unintended consequence of criminally 'making an example' of the plant manager would be a chilling effect on their cooperation with authorities during actual incident management going forward. Such would be counterproductive to the objective of overall public safety, but perhaps not disadvantageous longer term to opponents of industrial chemical manufacture in general.