Something to think about...
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_3pipe.6864891apr21,0,6878900.story
OSHA said manager hid violations from inspectors. A worker died in one incident.
Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company plant manager John Prisque, left, leaves the Federal courthouse with an unidentified attorney. (Brian Branch-Price, AP / December 15, 2003)
TRENTON, N.J. | - A federal judge Monday sentenced the former manager of a Phillipsburg pipe foundry to nearly six years in prison for violating environmental laws and covering up accidents that included the death of a worker crushed by a faulty forklift.
After a daylong hearing, the judge rejected defense arguments that John Prisque, 59, of Bethlehem be sentenced to house arrest so he can take care of his ailing wife and daughter. Instead, U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper handed him a 70-month sentence.
Prisque was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy, violating the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act and obstructing federal safety investigators at the Atlantic States Cast Iron Co.
His lawyer, Michael Critchley, portrayed him Monday as a loyal underling who was doing the best he could with no training and limited funds to correct problems at the aging plant, where scrap metal is melted and cast into pipe.
''[Federal prosecutors] went hunting for whales and came up with minnows,'' Critchley said, adding the prosecutors ''basically have a jihad against Atlantic States.''
Critchley gave the judge 126 letters he said describe Prisque as a hard-working, honest and fair man. Showing excerpts on a screen, he tried to counter the government's portrayal of Prisque as a callous manager.
The lawyer talked about Prisque's service as an Army paratrooper in Vietnam, his success in overcoming a heroin addiction, his family ties and strong work ethic.
Prisque, his hands shaking, read a statement saying he grew up in Fountain Hill and started working when he was 12. He volunteered to join the Army in 1969 and got hooked on heroin near the end of his tour in Vietnam. He broke the addiction after he met the woman he would marry, and he started at Atlantic States in 1985.
Prosecutors said Prisque misled safety investigators and that on his watch, the plant jeopardized workers' safety for increased pipe production.
The seven-month trial of Prisque, three other managers and the company in 2006 was the longest environmental crimes trial ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department.
Prosecutors pointed to an incident in July 1999 when a saw blade broke and a worker lost an eye and suffered a fractured skull. A steel wire safety shield was added to the unit afterward, but Prisque told an inspector from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that nothing had been changed since the accident.
The prosecutors said Prisque also had a hand in a false report given to OSHA about a worker whose leg was broken in April 1999 when he was struck by a forklift.
In March 2000, a worker named Alfred Coxe was crushed by a forklift. Prosecutors said the plant failed to obtain the parts required to fix forklifts it knew were unsafe and faulty. Prosecutors said Prisque and others had the brakes on the forklift repaired before the OSHA inspector arrived.
Another cover-up happened in December 2000, prosecutors said, when Prisque directed an employee to file a false report stating a worker whose finger was partially cut off at the plant had cut it off in an accident at home.
In December 2002, prosecutors said, a worker lost three fingers in a cement mixer whose safety device had been disabled because it slowed pipe production.
When the OSHA inspector arrived at the plant, the prosecutors said, Prisque and others directed that ''the safety device be concealed from OSHA,'' telling the investigator the mixer ''had originally arrived from the manufacturer without a safety device for its doors.''
Besides the obstruction charges involving OSHA's investigations, Prisque was convicted of violating the Clean Water Act in a 1999 incident that caused an 8.5-mile oil sheen on the Delaware River, and a 2001 violation of the Clear Air Act involving burning drums containing more than 100 pounds of black asphalt-based paint.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_3pipe.6864891apr21,0,6878900.story
OSHA said manager hid violations from inspectors. A worker died in one incident.
Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company plant manager John Prisque, left, leaves the Federal courthouse with an unidentified attorney. (Brian Branch-Price, AP / December 15, 2003)
TRENTON, N.J. | - A federal judge Monday sentenced the former manager of a Phillipsburg pipe foundry to nearly six years in prison for violating environmental laws and covering up accidents that included the death of a worker crushed by a faulty forklift.
After a daylong hearing, the judge rejected defense arguments that John Prisque, 59, of Bethlehem be sentenced to house arrest so he can take care of his ailing wife and daughter. Instead, U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper handed him a 70-month sentence.
Prisque was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy, violating the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act and obstructing federal safety investigators at the Atlantic States Cast Iron Co.
His lawyer, Michael Critchley, portrayed him Monday as a loyal underling who was doing the best he could with no training and limited funds to correct problems at the aging plant, where scrap metal is melted and cast into pipe.
''[Federal prosecutors] went hunting for whales and came up with minnows,'' Critchley said, adding the prosecutors ''basically have a jihad against Atlantic States.''
Critchley gave the judge 126 letters he said describe Prisque as a hard-working, honest and fair man. Showing excerpts on a screen, he tried to counter the government's portrayal of Prisque as a callous manager.
The lawyer talked about Prisque's service as an Army paratrooper in Vietnam, his success in overcoming a heroin addiction, his family ties and strong work ethic.
Prisque, his hands shaking, read a statement saying he grew up in Fountain Hill and started working when he was 12. He volunteered to join the Army in 1969 and got hooked on heroin near the end of his tour in Vietnam. He broke the addiction after he met the woman he would marry, and he started at Atlantic States in 1985.
Prosecutors said Prisque misled safety investigators and that on his watch, the plant jeopardized workers' safety for increased pipe production.
The seven-month trial of Prisque, three other managers and the company in 2006 was the longest environmental crimes trial ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department.
Prosecutors pointed to an incident in July 1999 when a saw blade broke and a worker lost an eye and suffered a fractured skull. A steel wire safety shield was added to the unit afterward, but Prisque told an inspector from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that nothing had been changed since the accident.
The prosecutors said Prisque also had a hand in a false report given to OSHA about a worker whose leg was broken in April 1999 when he was struck by a forklift.
In March 2000, a worker named Alfred Coxe was crushed by a forklift. Prosecutors said the plant failed to obtain the parts required to fix forklifts it knew were unsafe and faulty. Prosecutors said Prisque and others had the brakes on the forklift repaired before the OSHA inspector arrived.
Another cover-up happened in December 2000, prosecutors said, when Prisque directed an employee to file a false report stating a worker whose finger was partially cut off at the plant had cut it off in an accident at home.
In December 2002, prosecutors said, a worker lost three fingers in a cement mixer whose safety device had been disabled because it slowed pipe production.
When the OSHA inspector arrived at the plant, the prosecutors said, Prisque and others directed that ''the safety device be concealed from OSHA,'' telling the investigator the mixer ''had originally arrived from the manufacturer without a safety device for its doors.''
Besides the obstruction charges involving OSHA's investigations, Prisque was convicted of violating the Clean Water Act in a 1999 incident that caused an 8.5-mile oil sheen on the Delaware River, and a 2001 violation of the Clear Air Act involving burning drums containing more than 100 pounds of black asphalt-based paint.
