Late last week, a federal judge said he’s sticking to his original ruling ordering a new criminal trial for San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and two of its employees. The utility company faces charges of violating asbestos safety standards.

According to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw to reconsider his ruling last month ordering a new trial for the utility and David Williamson, an SDG&E environmental specialist, and Kyle Rheubottom, a contractor who worked for the company on a project to remove asbestos from a Lemon Grove site more than seven years ago. Sabraw refused.

“The Court is persuaded a serious miscarriage of justice occurred,” U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw wrote in his ruling last December, which served to overturn the original convictions.

The judge criticized the evidence federal prosecutors had presented to the jury, saying that tests on the pipes had been conducted under “methods of debatable validity.” The way the evidence was presented to the jury “caused unfair prejudice and confusion of issues,” the judge wrote.

Last July, the utility company was convicted on three counts of improper asbestos removal and one count of making false statements. The two workers were convicted of one count of improper disposal of asbestos-containing materials.

While prosecutors aren’t very happy about the judge’s decision, attorneys for SDG&E couldn’t be more delighted. Christy Heiser, an SDG&E spokeswoman, said this afternoon the company is “thrilled” about the new trial and noted that the company still believes that the case is without merit.

In the meantime, citizens in the Lemon Grove neighborhood, who say they were exposed to asbestos due to SDG&E’s actions, are attempting to bond together to create a class action civil suit of their own. One of those individuals, John Gonzalez, wasn’t happy about the new trial, which could essentially let SDG&E off the hook.

“I’m really pretty numb about it right now, I don’t really have a reaction,” he said. “We’re still looking at suing. To us, it’s pretty plain.”

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.