New indictment issued against Grace

A grand jury has issued a new indictment against W.R. Grace and several company officials that reinstates charges dismissed by a federal court judge last month.

In a June 8 order, Judge Donald Molloy dismissed a portion of a conspiracy charge against the company and seven individual defendants under the statute of limitations. Molloy dismissed the portion of the charge that alleged Grace and individual defendants Alan Stringer, Henry Eschenbach, Jack Wolter, William McCaig, Robert Bettachi, Mario Favorito and Robert Walsh conspired to violate the Clean Air Act and endanger others by knowingly releasing asbestos into the air. The defendants remained charged with conspiring to defraud the federal government by impeding the efforts of regulatory agencies.

Molloy sided with the defendants, who argued in a motion to dismiss that the "knowing endangerment" portion of the original indictment, handed down in early 2005, did not allege the necessary overt acts within the five-year statute of limitations. Federal prosecutors had countered that acts of concealment after 1999 furthered both the defrauding and endangerment portions of the conspiracy.

The new indictment directly alleges that the defendants' actions to obstruct federal agencies in 1999 and 2000 resulted in additional releases of asbestos into the air. In a motion filed on June 30, four days after the filing of the new indictment, defense attorneys asked again that the charges be dismissed. The motion notes that Molloy dismissed the previous charge with prejudice, which bars prosecution on the same offense. According to the defense, the charges in the new indictment are essentially the same as those thrown out by Molloy last month and are therefore invalid.

The case is scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 11. Molloy recently rejected a defense motion to delay the start of trial for four to six months. The defendants argued that they needed the additional time because delays by federal prosecutors in supplying copies of various documents had hindered their ability to prepare their defense.

While Molloy founded that government prosecutors had "dawdled," he ruled that the year and a half the parties had been given to prepare had provided ample time to adjust deadlines as necessary.

The charges against Grace and the seven current and former company officials stem from Grace's operation of a vermiculite mine near Libby from 1963 until 1990, during which time the company is accused of withholding evidence regarding asbestos contamination in the vermiculite ore.