According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, a federal judge in upstate New York has sentenced two operators of asbestos abatement companies to prison for environmental crimes related to the illegal removal and disposal of asbestos.
The guilty parties are John Wood of Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Curtis Collins, of Willsboro, N.Y. Both were sentenced on Feb. 6, 2009, to four years and two years in prison, respectively, by U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd for the Northern District of New York.
Not only were they sentenced to jail, Wood was ordered to pay restitution of $854,166.06 and placed on supervised release for three years following the completion of his prison term. Collins was ordered to pay $114, 902.89 in restitution to victims and ordered to serve three years of supervised release.
The men pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act. Mr. Wood apparently was also held in contempt of court for asbestos crimes committed while awaiting trial on the original charges.
Mr. Wood ran an asbestos abatement company known as J & W Construction, Inc. Wood and instead of removing all asbestos on a job, left some asbestos behind and contaminated surrounding areas. The EPA had to pay for cleanup.
Aiding in his deception was Mark Desnoyers, a licensed air monitor from Plattsburgh. Desnoyers magically made it look like all air samples were clean.
Mr. Collins worked for Wood and also ran his own asbestos abatement (or perhaps partial abatement in this case) business. Collins pleaded guilty and cooperated with the United States by testifying against Desnoyers at trial.
