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SENTENCING FOR ILLEGAL ASBESTOS REMOVAL IN ILLINOIS
Release Date: 02/03/2000
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2000
SENTENCING FOR ILLEGAL ASBESTOS REMOVAL IN ILLINOIS
Curry Environmental Services Inc. of Milan, Ill., CES’s President, Teresa Lynn Cook, and two former CES employees, Darren Wright and Timothy Coutts, were each sentenced on Jan. 21, in U.S. District Court in Rock Island, Ill. for illegal asbestos removal. The defendants violated the Clean Air Act by failing to follow required procedures for the removal of material containing asbestos. The company was fined $1 million and was placed on five years probation. Cook was sentenced to six months home confinement, a $20,000 fine and three years probation. Wright was sentenced to five months imprisonment and five months home confinement. Coutts was sentenced to four months imprisonment, two months community service and two months home confinement. All defendants except Cook were convicted of not adhering to regulations which require that material containing asbestos be wetted before it is removed so that dust containing asbestos fibers will not become airborne. Cook was convicted of conspiracy to negligently endanger others. Inhaling asbestos fibers can cause a lung cancer disease known as asbestosis or mesothelioma, a chest and abdominal cavities cancer. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division; the Illinois Attorney General’s Office; the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency; the Illinois State Police; the Moline, Illinois Police Department; the Milan, Illinois Police Department; the Marion, Iowa Police Department; and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center. This case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois.
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