March 23, 2009
Below are all the posts for March 23, 2009, in reverse chronological order. Read from the bottom up.
Locke called as witness
The day started with Judge Molloy’s announcements prior to the jury being seated in the courtroom. Grace moved to limit the testimony of Robert Locke and made two motions to exclude exhibits. Giving the prosecution a chance to respond, Molloy said he would be willing to wait for the government’s brief over the lunch hour in lieu of oral arguments this morning. The prosecution reassured Molloy by noting that most of the contested content would surface later in the day after the judge had time to review both positions.
With the jury now present, government attorney Kris McLean called Robert Locke as a witness. Locke had been employed with Grace in various capacities since 1974. A Harvard educated man who studied industrial engineering, finance, and technology commercialization, Locke worked his way up through Grace through years of company commitment and amplified responsibility. He bitterly left Grace in 1999, and filed suit against the company that same year. The suit is still pending, and any further mention of it was strongly objected to by Grace attorneys.
While the government’s interest in Locke wasn’t overtly clear at first, as direct ticked on through the first hour Locke’s professional history started to illuminate his ability to share Grace’s internal operating procedures with the jury. Locke had worked in ten different positions throughout Grace, and though he stated his efforts to stay away from the construction division, he ended up in upper level management positions dealing directly with tremolite and vermiculite. Assured that he was the best person for the job, Locke reluctantly accepted the Director of Marketing for Building Products position in 1986, and continued on to ultimately head the construction division as the Global Vice President and Chief Technical Officer for all construction in 1992. It was in this position that he worked with Mr. Bettacchi to oversee the health, safety, and environmental issues of Grace at that time.
Mr. Locke then went on to explain the vermiculite and tremolite business to the jury. He detailed the different uses for the products as well as the way the raw materials were mined, used, transported and converted into usable products. He recounted how one of his responsibilities during his employment was to supervise the required OSHA step down in asbestos exposure. Locke was responsible for determining what data existed in the past regarding exposure levels, and what changes in operating conditions needed to be effectuated to comply with the lower exposure levels.
At that point Mr. McLean guided Mr. Locke through a summary to establish how he knew each Grace defendant and the approximate time period he worked with each person. Locke easily identified and spoke of his professional relationships with Mr. Eschenbach, Mr. Wolter, Mr. Walsh, Mr. McCaig, Mr. Bettacchi, and Mr. Favorito. Each defendant’s attorney stood to stipulate as to the identity of their client in order to save time and effort.
Locke became engaged in this case when a group of government agents came to his home in 2004 and interviewed him regarding the environmental investigation of Libby. While Locke said he was not surprised by the nature of the investigation in Libby, he was surprised by the magnitude of it. He decided to cooperate with the government’s investigation despite his fears that he would be implicated as a conspirator. He was aware that he was on the short list for criminal liability, but declined a letter of immunity against his attorney’s advice.
Instead, Locke provided the government with testimony and documents. Locke had several boxes full of files he had stored in his basement, and offered them to the prosecution. Foreshadowing what will no doubt be the subject of later testimony, Locke said he got possession of the documents by taking them from the office when he was about to leave Grace permanently. While Grace normally stores the files for themselves, Locke feared liability for his involvement with Grace and decided it would be best to keep the documents for himself.
– Kathryn Mazurek (10:55 a.m.)
Posted: March 23rd, 2009 under Law.
Tags: Locke
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Former Grace employee takes the stand
When a black Crown Victoria rolled to a stop in front of Robert Locke’s house and three government officials stepped out, he knew it was serious.
It was the first time Locke, a former W.R. Grace employee, had heard about the criminal case against the chemical company and seven of its top jobholders.
“I was surprised by the magnitude of the case, but not by the nature of the case,” he said.
Locke began testifying in the Grace case Monday morning, five years after his initial meeting with government employees, including Kevin M. Cassidy, an attorney for the United States.
Locke, who has been trying to sue Grace for more than a decade, has met with Cassidy and fellow government attorney Kris A. McLean multiple times since then.
However, McLean tried to show the jurors that Locke isn’t biased against Grace, nor is he receiving a reward from the government for testifying in the case.
“Have you been granted a benefit for your testimony in this case by the government?” McLean asked him.
Locke said no, adding that he refused the government’s offer to protect him from criminal charges if he testified.
“You ignored the advice of your lawyer?” McLean said.
“I paid him and ignored him,” Locke said.
Locke held a variety of jobs with Grace from 1974 until 1998. During his last years with the company, Robert Bettacchi supervised Locke’s work. Locke felt he had been treated unfairly when he left his job, and sued Bettacchi and Grace. That case is still pending.
When he left his job, Locke recalled saving some of the company’s documents with his name in them. Another employee had suggested he destroy them, but he took them home and kept them in his basement.
“I was concerned about my own criminal liability from my involvement with the company,” Locke said.
Locke also kept one of his old diaries in the basement, tucked away in a cigar box with canceled checks from 1976.
It was a diary he wrote in daily, recording Grace meetings and discussions. McLean asked Locke if the diary had been altered since 1976.
“It doesn’t smell mildewy anymore,” Locke said. “Otherwise, it’s the same.”
The jury was excused for a break, and Molloy and the attorneys discussed whether the diary could be used as evidence.
Defense attorneys argued that it was a personal document, and McLean said he wanted to admit it as a business document. Locke couldn’t remember some of the things that he had written about in the past, McLean said. Molloy decided not to admit the diary.
“It seems to me it’s not a business record of Grace,” he said. “If it gets to the point where (Locke) is unable to recall something, the page may be read to the jury, but not the whole document.”
During his testimony, Locke, a Harvard graduate, described his positions with Grace. Many of his jobs involved work with vermiculite products and their associated tremolite contamination. In 1992, Locke became the global vice president of Grace. Locke worked with or knew all of the five defendants who are currently on trial.
– Carly Flandro (posted 10:25)
Posted: March 23rd, 2009 under News.
Tags: Bettacchi, Flandro, Locke
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