SEATTLE — A federal jury on Friday acquitted W.R. Grace & Co. and three of its former officials of charges that they knowingly exposed residents of Libby, Mont., to asbestos poisoning associated with a mining operation and conspired to hide it.
The verdict brings to an ignominious end one of the most significant criminal prosecutions the government had ever filed against a corporate polluter. The acquittals raise new questions about prosecutorial failings in the Justice Department, which already was reeling from the dismissal of its corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, May 10, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 54 words Type of Material: Correction
Asbestos verdict: In Saturday's Section A, in an article about the acquittal of W.R. Grace & Co. and three former executives accused of knowingly exposing a Montana town to asbestos, the last name of former Justice Department environmental prosecutor Kevin Holewinski was misspelled Holewinsky. He is a lawyer for the Jones Day law firm.
In Libby, where an estimated 1,200 residents have died or developed cancer or lung disease, the judgment dashed hopes that someone would be held accountable for decades of suffering.
"We never expected restitution on this," said Libby resident Gayla Benefield, who has seen dozens of family members become sick from asbestos exposure. "How can you give someone restitution when you've taken their life? This was about closure, to finally say, 'Yes, this company did this to us, and we can finally get on with our lives.' But that didn't happen, did it?"
W.R. Grace still faces civil cases in which residents are seeking compensation for health claims.
For nearly three decades, the Columbia, Md.-based company operated a vermiculite mine in Libby, producing the puffy granules used to insulate attics and aerate gardens. The vermiculite contained cancer-causing asbestos fibers that could lodge in the lungs. The material posed a risk for not just the mine workers and their families, but the entire town: The high school running track and community ice-skating rink both were built with asbestos-laden mine tailings.
And prosecutors said that Grace executives should be held accountable for continuing to expose residents to a substance the company knew could kill them in order to keep making money.
It took the jury little more than a day to reach its verdict, after an 11-week trial during which U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy told the prosecution that he found one of its star witnesses to be not believable. The government, he suggested, had brought a case whose scope was far larger than what prosecutors were prepared to pursue and prove at trial.
