Firm, Officer Admit Using Site to Dump Toxic Waste

A downtown San Diego metal-plating firm and two of its executives pleaded guilty Monday to charges that they illegally disposed of toxic wastes, contaminating a site earmarked for a major redevelopment project.

Super Plating Works Inc. and its general manager, Sandra Lazovich, pleaded guilty in Municipal Court to one felony count of knowingly disposing of acid and metal sludge in a trash bin. Thomas Nerat, the firm’s chief financial officer, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of improperly storing metal sludge in an unlicensed facility.

The defendants entered the guilty pleas as part of a plea bargain in which Deputy Dist. Atty. Josephine Kiernan agreed to drop three other felony charges and a misdemeanor count against the firm. Kiernan also agreed not to seek more than six months in jail for Lazovich and Nerat.

Kiernan said she will ask Municipal Court Judge Robert Stahl to order at least some jail time when Lazovich and Nerat appear for sentencing Jan. 14.

“The people will be asking for custody--that’s a given,” Kiernan said, though under the terms of the plea bargain, Lazovich may be able to serve her time in a work-furlough program. The offense for which she was convicted carries a maximum sentence of three years in state prison. Lazovich’s felony conviction can be reduced to a misdemeanor if she successfully completes 18 months of probation.

In return for dropping the other charges, Kiernan will ask Stahl to order the company to clean up the site. The defendants had previously asked Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayes for court-appointed counsel, claiming they were indigent. Kiernan said the firm may be able to have its insurance company pay for the cleanup.

The corporation and Lazovich also face maximum fines of $50,000 each. Nerat could be fined $2,000 to $25,000.

Lazovich was charged with a felony because she supervised the company’s day-to-day operations, Kiernan said. Nerat, who also owns United Bumper Service--one of Super Plating’s main customers--was charged with a misdemeanor because he spent only about 1 1/2 hours a day at the site, but he knew of the company’s activities, she said.

The charges stemmed from an investigation begun in March by the county Department of Health Services’ hazardous materials management unit into allegations by a former employee that Super Plating improperly stored and dumped corrosive materials, copper, lead, nickel and cyanide into a pit on the property at 106 W. Martin Luther King Way.

Independent tests by Hydrotech Consultants Inc. in September confirmed the presence of toxic wastes and further uncovered gasoline contamination in ground water beneath the site. Some of the contamination was attributed to Superior Plating Works, which occupied the site before Super Plating opened its shop in 1980.

The tests were ordered by the Centre City Development Corp., the city agency that oversees downtown redevelopment, which plans to acquire the property through condemnation proceedings. Shapell Housing Inc. and Goldrich Kest & Associates have been negotiating with CCDC to build a mixed-use, high-rise development on the site, CCDC spokeswoman Kathy Kalland said.

CCDC has commissioned Hydrotech to study the cost of cleaning the site and to report its findings by Dec. 31, Kalland said. If Super Plating or its insurer do not pay for the cleanup, those costs may be deducted from the price CCDC pays for the property.

“The toxics on the site is seen as a solvable problem,” Kalland said, adding that the cleanup should not delay development of the property. “It takes awhile to hammer out an arrangement (with the developer) anyway.”

In addition to the criminal charges, Super Plating, Lazovich and Nerat are also named in a civil suit filed by the property’s owner, Starr Children Trust, which contends that the plating firm violated its lease by contaminating the land with toxic waste. The suit seeks unspecified damages for the cost of cleaning the hazardous substances and for loss of property value.

Thomas Monson, attorney for the property’s owner, said Monday that the criminal convictions will have little or no bearing on the civil action because the charges alleging that the company actually dumped hazardous substances into the ground were dropped.

“It doesn’t admit that they were dumping contaminated stuff into the soil, but I do think the search warrant affidavit signed by the former employee indicates what was really going on there,” Monson said.

Starr Children Trust is also suing Super Plating for unlawful detainer, claiming that the company has not paid rent since July and has refused to vacate the property, Monson said. Attorney John Reaves, who is representing the firm in both its criminal and civil trials, was not available for comment Monday.

Times staff writer Jim Schachter contributed to this story.