OAKLAND — A West Oakland metallic crushing plant with a troubled historical past and two of its workers are not dealing with prison expenses and probably hundreds of thousands in fines after Alameda County District Legal professional Ursula Jones Dickson’s workplace quietly dismissed a case in opposition to Radius Recycling.
The DA’s determination on Friday ends one of many hallmark prosecutions introduced by her predecessor, Pamela Value, over a 2023 fireplace that allegedly spewed poisonous smoke over the East Bay. It comes simply weeks after an Alameda County decide booted a number of prosecutors from the case in a searing recusal order the place he chided the lead prosecutor being negligent and “disingenuous.”
The transfer means Radius — previously often called Schnitzer Metal — will not face the specter of as much as $33 million in fines in a case that former District Legal professional Pamela Value as soon as heralded as “historic.” At a July 2024 press convention asserting a 10-count grand jury indictment, Value lampooned the corporate for having a “terrible legacy of environmental racism and poison in Alameda County that has had a deleterious impact on West Oakland.”
“We believe that Radius has often shrugged off the regulations when it was convenient to them, treating minor administrative fines and civil penalties a cost of doing business,” Value, who voters recalled final fall, mentioned on the the time.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Jones Dickson mentioned the choice had little to do with the decide’s recusal order, however fairly the workplace’s potential to show the case at trial.
“We took a deep dive in the case, and after a thorough review of all the facts and evidence, we determined there was insufficient evidence to proceed further with the case,” mentioned Casey Bates, a longtime prosecutor with the workplace.
The prosecution was centered on a fireplace that sparked on the property of Radius Recycling on Aug. 9, 2023, in a big particles pile on the firm’s plant at 1101 Embarcadero West, close to Jack London Sq.. The pile contained aluminum, tin, mild iron and metal and burned uncontrolled for greater than three hours, earlier than persevering with to smolder and put up smoke properly into the next day.
The blaze prompted practically 50 air pollution complaints to the Bay Space Air High quality Administration District, which issued an advisory urging residents to remain inside with their home windows shut.
The following grand jury indictment claimed Radius had a behavior of permitting fires to begin on its West Oakland plant, whereas suggesting its workers uncared for security protocols within the days earlier than the fireplace, then destroyed proof from the ashen “tin pile” as a solution to conceal how the fireplace began. Along with the corporate, Radius Normal Supervisor Daniel Woltmann and Terminal Supervisor Dane Morales had been additionally indicted.
The transfer to dismiss the case drew speedy pushback from Ms. Margaret Gordon, a longtime advocate in opposition to air air pollution in West Oakland. She criticized Jones Dickson for not being extra aggressive in searching for to carry Radius Recycling accountable.
“I’m not understanding why the DA wants to give them a slap on the hand,” Gordon mentioned Tuesday. “The health of West Oakland residents should be at the forefront of the DA office’s concern.”
Air pollution and fires have lengthy been a priority on the metallic crushing plant which dates again to the early 1900s. As just lately as 2021, Radius agreed to pay $4.1 million to settle allegations by the California Division of Poisonous Substances Management, the state Legal professional Normal’s Workplace and the Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace that the corporate broke state environmental legal guidelines by releasing particles of hazardous metals — similar to lead, cadmium and zinc — into the air.
On Tuesday afternoon, Bates confused that “the DA’s office is committed to protecting the environment and the safety of our citizens.”
“This case isn’t a departure from those values,” Bates mentioned. “Rather, we’re guided by the principle that we can only proceed in cases where we have sufficient evidence to proceed to trial, and in this case, we didn’t have it.”
Makes an attempt by this newspaper to succeed in Radius Recycling’s spokesperson Tuesday had been unsuccessful. A name by this newspaper to Value was not returned.
The ashen 40-ton “tin pile” left behind by the August 2023 fireplace performed an outsized function within the monthslong authorized battle.
Particularly, the 2 sides sparred over whether or not Radius had been allowed to scrub up the pile within the days following the blaze, or whether or not it ought to have been stored intact whereas prosecutors constructed their case in opposition to the corporate.
Prosecutors initially argued that the corporate’s determination to put off the smoldering heap amounted to destruction of proof — notably since Gabriel Markoff, the lead prosecutor within the case, despatched Radius’ leaders an eight-page letter simply two days after the fireplace sparked ordering them to protect proof from the blaze. The indictment famous textual content messages despatched between workers referencing how at “this point, we’re all in it together,” whereas workers additionally spoke of “just keeping everything off record lol.”
But Radius’ attorneys later that the corporate allowed authorities to “inspect the burned scrap metal and other fire debris and take photographs and samples.” Radius’ leaders additionally knowledgeable authorities they’d “start shredding the burned material later that day to eliminate any risk of further fire – a practice routinely used and approved by the government and fire authorities.”
Alameda County Superior Courtroom Choose Scott Patton recommended Markoff’s letter by no means as soon as particularly talked about the burn pile by identify, and the one point out of “physical and electronic evidence” within the letter was in reference to “writings,” not particularly the fireplace scene. Patton known as it “incredulous” to counsel Markoff’s preliminary letter “unequivocally directed them to maintain the 40-ton burn pile.”
“I find Markoff’s continued insistence on the contrary to be disingenuous,” Patton wrote in his order, dated April 30.
The decide additionally mentioned that if prosecutors’ allegations had been true, then permitting a burn pile to stay unmoved for longer than a couple of days “created an unacceptable public health hazard.” As an alternative, Patton wrote, prosecutors ought to have finished extra to “act immediately” to protect any proof that the pile could have contained poisonous chemical substances.
Whereas Patton’s recusal order particularly focused Markoff, the decide additionally barred three different prosecutors from the case: Michael Fox, Simona Farrise Greatest and Dana Drusinsky. Two weeks earlier than Patton issued his order, Markoff gave discover to the court docket that he deliberate to depart the Alameda County DA’s workplace on Might 9. Farrise Greatest was not employed by the workplace on the time of Patton’s order, and Drusinsky had beforehand been assigned elsewhere.
