Feather-Light Penalties Abound As Freedom Industries MCHM Spill Trials Near End
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On Monday, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that the fourth former executive of Freedom Industries was sentenced for his role in the spill. Federal Judge Thomas Johnston sentenced William E. Tis, a former Freedom director and co-owner, to three years' probation and a $20,000 fine. Tis had pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of causing an unlawful discharge of refuse matter. The maximum sentence was a year in prison.
Tis was the fourth Freedom executive to escape jail time under the gavel of Johnston, who pronounced him "hardly a criminal." Johnston last week fined the company itself $900,000 but acknowledged that "there’s no way the fine will ever be paid," since the company is bankrupt. A settlement of local claims last year illustrates the scale of the injustice: About $2.3 million exists in company assets and contributions from its offers to pay claims totaling $56 million.
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To be sure, the sentencings on the West Virginia spill aren't over: Former Freedom President Gary Southern will be sentenced next week and former CEO Dennis Farrell on Thursday. Like their compatriots, both pleaded guilty to federal charges. Southern, who faces a minimum 30 days and a maximum three years in prison and a possible fine of $300,000, became the face of corporate insensitivity after the spill was discovered when, armed with bottled water at a news conference, he complained that he had had "a long day" and asked reporters to "wrap things up." As part of his plea deal, he received back several assets the feds had seized, including a Bentley auto and more than $7 million in savings. Federal prosecutors also dropped charges that he had lied to them about his assets and the circumstances of Freedom's bankruptcy.
Federal prosecutors had moved for minimum sentences for Tis and the other already-sentenced Freedom executives, arguing that they had helped with the prosecutions of their colleagues. In fact, they were all turning on one another. Former plant manager Michael Burdette, for instance, got off with probation and a $2,500 fine after fingering Tis and others, who he said knew full well that a dike designed to contain the MCHM was leaky and in desperate need of repair. Tis and the others then fingered Southern and Farrell. The latter two may have had no one higher up to finger, so perhaps they'll be "It."
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http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-another-executive-gets-his-wrist-slapped-20160210-column.html
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