UM Grace Case

The case against W.R. Grace and five of its former executives – now excluding William McCaig and Robert Walsh who were recently acquitted – was handed over to the jury Wednesday evening after nearly 10 hours of closing arguments from five separate attorneys. The trial, which began on Feb. 19, has been ongoing for nearly [...]

In a jury trial, the attorneys are allowed two opportunities to speak directly to the seated jury, during the opening and closing arguments. Closing arguments are generally limited to reviewing the evidence admitted at trial, go over jury instructions, or emphasize important points in the case which may have been missed or forgotten. It is [...]

Wednesday morning, the prosecution packaged its entire case into three hours for the jury, connecting specific evidence with each of the eight counts against W.R. Grace and the remaining three defendants. Government attorney Kris McLean covered the conspiracy count, followed by attorney Kevin Cassidy outlining the remaining counts of knowing endangerment and obstruction of [...]

Defense attorney Walter Lancaster continued questioning of former W.R. Grace employee Randy Geiger.  Mr. Geiger was in charge of pollution control and conducted air quality sampling at Libby from 1976 to the mid 1980s.  Mr. Lancaster’s questioning focused on how air samples were taken and the results of those tests.  A number of pollution control [...]

Following the afternoon recess, Bernick resumed his cross of Lockey, attempting to undermine his testimony on direct. He began the cross by attempting to show that the correlation between dosages and diseases may not be as significant as Lockey, or the prosecution, would have the jury and/or public believe. The entire cross-examination consisted largely of [...]

Kathleen Kennedy, an epidemiologist who served on a federal research team looking at occupational vermiculite exposure, said that her agency’s requests to undertake a study at the Grace’s Libby facilities met initial resistance followed by attempts to completely cancel the study.
Kennedy worked for NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a part [...]

    Defense Attorney David M. Bernick concluded his cross-examination of former Grace employee Robert Locke this morning.   
Through a series of statements to which Locke replied, “yes,” Bernick constructed an alternative explanation for Grace’s purposeful delay of the NIOSH study.  Bernick stated that Grace executive vice president Elwood “Chip” Wood and W.R. Grace had opposed [...]

After learning that NIOSH intended to conduct a study on worker asbestos exposure at their Libby, Mont., facilities, W.R. Grace officials scrambled to delay the agency’s efforts, said former employee Robert Locke. Locke said there was a general consensus at Grace that such a study would adversely affect the chemical company.
“We did not know [...]