Hospital, Engineer Named in Felony Waste Dumping

The chief engineer for Los Angeles Doctors Hospital is scheduled to surrender Friday on a felony charge that he dumped diesel fuel from a hospital generator into open storm drains.

County prosecutors say the wastes endangered nearby school children, some of whom were forced to step over the flammable fuel on their way to school.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office filed felony charges Tuesday against Doctors Hospital, its chief engineer, Abraham Vajitano Nasoordeen, and Robert Smallwood, a hospital contractor who was arrested Tuesday.

Left Over From Cleanup

The hospital and the two men each were charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with one count of illegal disposal of 150 to 375 gallons of hazardous waste. Prosecutors allege that they poured the waste into a driveway grate from which it entered nearby gutters.

The sludgy, flammable diesel waste was left over after Smallwood cleaned the hospital’s emergency power generator on June 3, prosecutors said. It was discovered the next day by a school bus driver who was discharging children at 24th Street Elementary School, located about 100 yards behind the hospital. The waste flowed across the children’s path to the school.

“The children had to step over the flow of this stuff,” said Carmen Trutanich, a deputy district attorney. “With a flash point of less than 140 degrees and with that much material . . . the risk was substantial. It was in close proximity to the school and a nursing home is located right across the street. It’s a heavy traffic place. I felt the whole area was in danger.

‘Goes Into Ocean’

“The immediate effect was the potential endangerment of human life,” Trutanich said. “The long-term effect is going to be felt in the environment through the ocean. That waste went directly into the storm drain, where it eventually goes into the ocean.”

If convicted, Nasoordeen and Smallwood each face up to three years in state prison and fines of up to $100,000. The 196-bed hospital, formally known as Jupiter Hospital Corp., also could be assessed a fine of up to $100,000.

Robert J. Gerst, attorney for the hospital and Nasoordeen, said he was shocked by the charges because the dumping was “clearly a single incident that was not any practice on the part of the hospital.” Gerst said the hospital assumed that Smallwood, the private contractor, “had the experience to do what was legal.”

Smallwood, in jail Wednesday in lieu of $100,000 bail, could not be reached for comment.