Torrance Claims Bias, Has Judge Taken Off 3rd Case Against Mobil

Torrance City Prosecutor J. D. Lord, who has seen two cases he filed against Mobil Oil Corp. thrown out by Municipal Court Judge Thomas P. Allen Jr., has forced the judge off a third case against the oil company.

Lord alleged in a motion he filed Monday that Allen is prejudiced and cannot be impartial in the case. Such motions cannot be opposed and are routinely granted.

Allen was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

“I gave Allen his walking papers,” Lord said. “This is the first time this office has done it in the five years I have been here.”

Mobil spokesman Jim Carbonetti said: “I was surprised.”

In the case, Mobil was cited for 170 misdemeanor counts of violating the state safety code. The alleged violations were uncovered during an intensive safety audit of the refinery in 1988 performed by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Lord based his case on the federal investigation.

In an interview Tuesday, Lord pointed to the most recently dismissed case against Mobil. He said the judge had already made up his mind about misdemeanor cases stemming from an OSHA investigation.

Last week, Allen dismissed a case against Mobil and one of its contractors on the grounds that the case stemmed from an OSHA investigation. A worker was burned over 40% of his body and another was injured when flammable hydrocarbon liquids spilled onto hot pipes Aug. 5, 1988.

Explaining his decision at the time, Allen said that “once OSHA has jurisdiction, that’s it. Nobody else has jurisdiction.”

Referring to Allen’s dismissal, Lord said: “Mobil’s lawyers made a good presentation in court. They talk very eloquently and they sound good. They have the top lawyers in the state.

“To some small degree, (Allen) may have been assuming that what they were saying . . . should be given more credence than what I say. Allen was persuaded to their position even though, I think, the law is clear.

“Rather than going back to Allen, I figured it would be better to put it before a judge who doesn’t already have a preconceived notion of what the decision should be.”

Lord said he will appeal Allen’s decision involving the August, 1988, accident, adding that legal decisions favor the position that a federal safety investigation does not preempt state misdemeanor charges.

“If there is a misdemeanor in the city of Torrance, I have authority and jurisdiction to prosecute it,” Lord said. “This is the first time someone has come into court and advanced a serious argument that I don’t.”

David Guthman, chief of the environmental crimes unit of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, agreed with Lord’s assessment.

Guthman’s office has filed an appeal in the other case against Mobil that Allen dismissed.

Originally brought by Lord, the case named Mobil, refinery manager Wyman Robb and then second-in-command Tom Gregory as well as three officials of Cal Cat Chemical Co., a Mobil contractor based in Benicia.

The case concerned an explosion July 15, 1988, that killed a man and injured two others. The three were part of a Cal Cat Chemical crew cleaning sludge from storage tanks.

Shortly after Lord filed the case July 15, the district attorney took it over to pursue the possibility that felony manslaughter charges would be filed. The city prosecutor’s office handles only misdemeanor charges.

Allen dismissed that case Oct. 30, saying the state law applied only to the employer of the dead or injured employees--Cal Cat Chemical--and not to Mobil.

PIPELINE PROJECT: Replacement plan opposed. B5

TAINTED GROUND WATER: Mobil agrees to cleanup. B5