Last week, federal prosecutors moved to drop charges against the final defendant in the W.R. Grace trial. Most of Libby likely shrugged. After a decade, nearly 2,000 sickened townspeople and hundreds dead from asbestos exposure, Libby is accustomed to bad breaks. This, an anticlimactic end to a federal case that made national headlines, was just the latest.
There was plenty of blame to go around following a trial that many thought would finally bring justice to Grace executives accused of knowingly exposing the mountain town to a silent killer.
Some blamed the prosecutors. Andrew Schneider, who first drew nationwide attention to the case in a series of stories he reported for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1999, wrote on his blog following the verdict:
“We can talk about the prosecution being heavily outnumbered.
“It had fewer than a dozen lawyers, investigators and support personnel. Grace fielded 50 or more and almost daily swamped the court with motions and briefs cranked out by their paralegals and junior lawyers. The prosecution had most of its team working to midnight and beyond almost every night just to respond to the avalanche of paper.”
Others blamed U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Andrea Peacock, in the Missoula Independent:
“Molloy allowed the tenor of the case to be debased. Defense attorneys mocked their opponents outright, and called the government’s attorneys and witnesses alike liars (including a particularly merciless attack by Bettacchi attorney Frongillo on the character of nursery owner Mel Parker, who if defense lawyers were to be believed, cared more about having waterfront property than his family’s health). Molloy called the prosecutors ‘bullheaded,’ and berated them for putting Locke on the stand, parroting the defense’s accusations against their witnesses and tactics.”
Following the verdict, Dean Herreid, a Libby resident who has long suffered from asbestosis, told the Beacon, “We’ve got to get on with life,” Herreid said. “Justice was attempted.”
It was a belated attempt at best. The government had blatantly ignored Libby’s plight. Just last year, Sen. Max Baucus announced that internal documents showed that the Environmental Protection Agency orchestrated a “conspiracy” by failing to declare a public health emergency years ago. According to Baucus, the agency didn’t want to make the declaration, fearing that it would lead to a costly national effort to clean up asbestos.
Last week, just two days after the federal prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against the final Grace defendant, Baucus got the declaration he had long sought. He and fellow Montana Sen. Jon Tester held a conference call with reporters where the new EPA administrator joined them in making the announcement.
It was then, when Baucus was perhaps the most blunt in what he thought of the W.R. Grace verdict.
“The company W.R. Grace, in my judgment, knew what it was doing. It knew it was contaminating the town,” Baucus said. “The trial didn’t conclude like it should have.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, also on the call, said she was committed “to doing our part to right a wrong.”
It was the first public health declaration of its kind in America’s history, delivered by some of the most powerful people in the country. Now, there will be reportedly more money and resources to clean up the town and treat the sickened.
There are already those who are skeptical, including Asbestos Watch, which at once questions the validity of the dollar amount provided by the government and the timing of the declaration.
Either way, I doubt Libby will ever forgive the federal government for abandoning it. A full decade of ineptitude, a “conspiracy” and a court unable to hold those to blame accountable will do that.