3 Ex-Executives Get 25 Years in Worker’s Death

Three former executives of a silver-recycling plant were sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison and fined $10,000 each for their landmark murder convictions in the job-related cyanide death of a worker.

Cook County Circuit Judge Ronald J. P. Banks compared the actions of the three executives of the defunct Film Recovery Systems Inc. to someone who would leave “a time bomb . . . ticking off” in an airplane.

“What happened is a gross injustice,” Banks said. “A man is dead.”

Banks found the three men guilty on June 14 of murder and reckless conduct after an eight-week non-jury trial.

The murder convictions were believed to be the first in the nation of corporate officers in a job-related death.

Worker Inhaled Fumes

The convictions stemmed from the Feb. 10, 1983, death of Stefan Golab, a 61-year-old Polish immigrant who died after inhaling cyanide fumes at the plant in north suburban Elk Grove Village. Cyanide was used to recover silver from used X-ray film.

Banks said at the sentencing that the defendants were clearly aware of hazardous plant conditions and did not post appropriate warning signs for the workers, many of whom were illegal aliens and could not speak English.

He said it was as if someone would “take a bomb and put it in an airliner (and run away while) . . . the time bomb is ticking off. Every day people worked there; it kept ticking, it kept ticking.

“All of the defendants are going to pay for it harshly,” he said.

In arguments Monday, Tom Tucker, assistant state’s attorney, said that plant workers regularly suffered from nausea, headaches and vomiting. “They (the defendants) had knowledge of the workers’ becoming ill on a daily basis,” he said. “They were motivated by greed, and greed alone.”