SOS Asks Court to Move Trial Out of Area

The trial of Space Ordnance Systems and three of its executives on hazardous-waste charges should be moved from the Santa Clarita Valley because “extensive hostile publicity” there has precluded a fair trial, defense lawyers said.

A motion for a venue change, filed in Newhall Municipal Court late Friday, said that, during the last year and a half, newspapers that cover the Santa Clarita Valley have published at least 186 articles about the criminal case or about waste disposal problems at SOS--making the defense and aerospace firm “a pariah in the community.” A stack of the articles two inches thick was attached to the motion as an exhibit.

47% Believe Charges

According to the defense pleadings, a public attitude survey commissioned by SOS has shown that 38% of 400 persons recently interviewed in the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding areas were aware of the criminal case.

Of those aware of the case, more than half had an opinion about the validity of the charges, with 47% believing the allegations and only 5% believing that SOS and the three executives are innocent.

Most respondents from the Santa Clarita Valley also have a “high concern about hazardous waste” and may be inclined to side with prosecutors, the defense brief said.

“The pervasiveness and intensity of pretrial publicity and the documented predisposition of the local community against the defendants militate strongly in favor of a change of venue,” it concluded.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled Dec. 16 in Newhall Municipal Court.

Opposition to Request

Deputy Dist. Atty. John P. Bernardi said Friday that prosecutors will oppose the request to move the trial to another municipal court.

“Based upon what I’ve read of the motion, I’m not convinced that they can’t get a fair trial in Newhall,” Bernardi said.

Bernardi pointed out that not all potential jurors would come from the Santa Clarita Valley.

Moreover, he said, the attitude survey itself showed that, even in the area, a “substantial percentage have not heard of this case.”

3 Face 87 Counts

SOS, a division of TransTechnology Corp. of Sherman Oaks, makes explosive and pyrotechnic devices for the military and space programs. SOS and company executives Joseph Cabaret, James Smith and Michael Murphy are charged with 87 counts of violating state and county laws governing disposal, transport and storage of hazardous waste.

The charges stem from coordinated raids in March 1984, of the company’s Mint Canyon and Sand Canyon production plants by a small army of state and county law-enforcement and health officials. Officials said they uncovered evidence that SOS had stored and transported hazardous waste without required permits and had illegally disposed of chemically contaminated waste water by spraying it on the ground and dumping it along creek beds.

Charges against the company and three men were filed in August, 1984, by then Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian, but the case has been snarled by legal disputes and no date for a trial has been set.