Local News in Brief : Prison in Asbestos Case

An asbestos worker who admitted blinding his brother-in-law in one eye in a fight over safety violations on an asbestos cleanup job has been sentenced to nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Curtis Mark Nelson of San Pedro had also pleaded guilty to submitting phony air samples and false worker-training certificates in an attempt to cover up violations on his company’s contract to remove dangerous asbestos fibers from the Veterans Administration hospital in Long Beach.

Nelson, 27, foreman for American Combustion & Industrial Service Corp., said he acted at the direction of the company’s owners when he certified that the untrained workers whom he was supervising had been trained in asbestos removal.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David Katz said that the workers were paid much less than the $25 an hour required for asbestos workers and that company officials covered up the shoddy work the firm was doing by submitting false air samples. The samples did not show the dangerous asbestos fibers that were swirling around the job site.

The violations for which Nelson was sentenced in federal court Monday came to light when his brother-in-law, Donald Davis, approached authorities after a fight with Nelson in which Nelson jabbed his thumb in his eye for about 15 seconds, leaving him blind in that eye.