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Libby people blame judge, prosecutors

by CANDACE CHASE/Daily Inter Lake
| May 9, 2009 1:00 AM

Norita Skramstad of Libby blames U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy for the acquittal Friday of W.R. Grace & Co. and three former executives.

"I think the judge did a good job of being Grace's best defense," Skramstad said shortly after the verdict. "He won it for them."

Skramstad's husband, Les,s died a little over two years ago of mesothelioma, a lung cancer associated with exposure to asbestos. He had worked at the Zonolite mine operated by Grace near Libby that contaminated the community with tremolite asbestos.

Skramstad and two of the three children she had with Les also have been diagnosed with asbestos-related disease.

"My husband said before he died that they got away with murder," she said. "This 'verdict] proves he was right."

Skramstad said she went to the opening day and a few other days of the trial that began about 11 weeks ago. She called the proceedings under Molloy's gavel a "kangaroo court."

"That's the way it was from the start - it was a fiasco," she said. "It was so disgusting that I never went back."

Skramstad referred to the rulings made by Molloy that threw out a substantial amount of evidence and disqualified some people from testifying in the case. She said the prosecutors did the best they could with the fraction of evidence allowed in the trial.

Had the jury convicted the executives, Skramstad said that Molloy could have - and no doubt would have -overruled the verdict. She said the criminal trial represented the last hope for justice for the many people who have died from or been sickened by asbestos contamination.

"People now just have to lick their wounds and forget it," she said.

Lincoln County Commissioner Tony Berget said Friday that he was disappointed but not surprised by the not-guilty verdicts. He said he has been closely following the news coverage of the prosecution of the defendants.

"It didn't sound like they were able to present a very good case," he said. "It didn't sound very encouraging from the start."

Berget said that the criminal case had distracted the attention from the Environmental Protection Agency and the cleanup efforts in Libby.

"Now the EPA can focus on finishing the cleanup and making our community whole again," he said.

Libby Mayor Doug Roll said he was very disappointed but, like Berget, he was not taken by surprise. He said the news coverage of the trial indicated that the prosecutors were not very well prepared and dropped the ball.

He mentioned how the defense lawyers managed to discredit the prosecution's star witness.

"It just shows how big money can buy the best lawyers," Roll said.

He said the memos, letters and other piles of evidence implicating the Grace executives convinced him before the trial that conviction was a foregone conclusion.

A good portion of that evidence was declared inadmissible and thrown out by Molloy.

"I didn't think there was any problem, but there sure was a problem," he said.

Roll said Libby will pick up the pieces and continue on. He said the community has some positive developments such as the reconstruction of a block of Main Street and Stinger Welding, a new business expected to create 25 jobs immediately.

Located on the former site of the International Paper mill, Stinger Welding manufactures structures for bridges. The site was a double Superfund site - first for creosote cleanup and then for asbestos abatement.

According to earlier news stories, Stinger Welding could expand to employ up to 200 people.

Roll said these prospects give the residents something to look forward to in the aftermath of the disappointing acquittal of W.R. Grace executives.

"There are very positive things appearing in Libby this summer," Roll said. "It's about time."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.