3 Officials Guilty of Murder in Cyanide Death at Plant

In a landmark decision, three corporate officials were found guilty of murder Friday for the cyanide poisoning death of an industrial worker in a silver recovery plant they managed and operated in suburban Chicago.

They are the first corporate officials to be charged with, and convicted of, murder for management actions and inactions that contributed to the death of a worker. Under Illinois law each faces a minimum of 20 years in prison. Their bail bonds were immediately revoked after the verdict was read and they were taken into custody to await sentencing later this month.

The three were also found guilty of 14 counts of reckless conduct and their two now-defunct corporations were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.

Cook County Circuit Judge Ronald J. P. Banks, who presided over the two-month-long non-jury trial, said the death of Stefan Golab, 61, “was not accidental, but in fact murder.”

Golab, a Polish immigrant who neither spoke nor read English, died on Feb. 10, 1983, after collapsing in the plant, where used X-ray film was processed to recover silver from the film’s emulsion. This process involved using large quantities of sodium cyanide. When mixed with water, the cyanide forms a poison gas. Golab died after inhaling that gas, Judge Banks said in his decision.

Both defense attorneys and Cook County State’s Atty. Richard M. Daley called the convictions “unprecedented.”

Defense attorney Thomas Royce, a veteran criminal lawyer, said that, if upheld by higher courts during planned appeals, the convictions would result in an extension of criminal statutes to the workplace, making corporate officials personally culpable in cases of death and injury to workers.

Those convicted were Steven J. O’Neil, 31, former president of Film Recovery Systems Inc.; Charles Kirschbaum, 37, the plant manager; and Daniel Rodriguez, 28, the plant foreman. The convicted corporations were Film Recovery Systems Inc. and Metallic Marketing Inc.

A fourth person accused in the death, Gerald Pett, a vice president and manager of Film Recovery Systems, was acquitted earlier.

Fifth Defendant

A fifth, Michael T. MacKay, 44, of Salt Lake City has so far successfully fought extradition from Utah despite two appeals by Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson to former Utah Gov. Scott Matheson. Illinois is expected to renew its attempts to extradite MacKay as a result of Friday’s convictions.

MacKay’s Utah lawyer, David Watkiss, told the Associated Press Friday that other than reacting with “incredulity,” he had nothing else to say. Aides to current Utah Gov. Norman Bangerter refused to comment on the case, the AP reported.

Reading his decision to a hushed courtroom crowded with relatives of the defendants, court employees and reporters, Judge Banks said the three were guilty because of “acts of commission and omission.”

‘Conditions Totally Unsafe’

“I find the conditions under which the workers performed their duties totally unsafe,” Banks said.

The judge, in his verdict, cited a lack of sufficient safety equipment, insufficient precautions to safeguard the health of workers and noted that warning labels on drums of dangerous substances were written in Spanish and English, both languages that Golab and others working in the plant could not read or understand.

The three company officials were visibly stunned by their convictions. Kirschbaum pounded his forehead with his hand while his wife wept uncontrollably in the courtroom as the judge declared the defendants guilty of murder.

“My boys, my poor boys. It’s so unfair. He didn’t do nothing,” she kept repeating.

Complaints of Workers

The judge, in his decision, said workers had complained to all three defendants about feeling ill while working with cyanide compounds and that the defendants knew that workers were vomiting, a symptom specifically cited as a danger sign on warning labels attached to the drums containing cyanide compounds.

Cook County State’s Atty. Daley, who advocated the unique prosecution, called Film Recovery and its officers greedy.

“We’re talking about an operation that made a lot of money and took advantage of undocumented workers,” Daley said Friday.