MISSOULA – The jury will receive its instructions Wednesday and lawyers for the defense and the prosecution will present their final arguments in the environmental crimes trial of W.R. Grace & Co. and three former executives.
Defense layers rested their case Tuesday and lawyers for both sides spent the afternoon behind closed doors with U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to discuss instructions to be given to jurors.
Molloy said court would reconvene at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, at which time he would give the jury its instructions. The prosecution was then to give its closing arguments, followed by the defense, with the jury expected to get the case sometime Wednesday afternoon.
The government alleges that Columbia, Md.-based Grace and three former executives conspired to hide health risks posed by asbestos in vermiculite extracted from the company’s mine in Libby, in northwestern Montana. The mine closed in 1990.
Lawyers for some Libby residents blame asbestos from the mine for sickening about 2,000 people in and around the community, and for the deaths of about 225.
Molloy has dismissed charges against two of the five former Grace executives originally charged after the government said it lacked sufficient evidence to convict them.
Molloy previously ruled there were insufficient grounds to dismiss the trial due to prosecutorial misconduct. And with a motion to acquit pending, Molloy said he would reserve his ruling until after the jury reaches a verdict.
If Molloy decides to acquit, the prosecution could appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit.