Ex-Cemetery Boss Acquitted in Waste Burial

The former manager of the city-owned Mt. Hope Cemetery was found not guilty Wednesday of burying what prosecutors contended was hazardous waste next to graves.

George Stelter, 67, was fired last year after officials unearthed a flattened oil drum that he had ordered buried alongside the graves of indigents to keep those graves from caving in on each another.

In a three-day trial in San Diego Municipal Court, Stelter’s attorney, Everett Bobbitt, said there was no proof that the flattened drum ever contained used oil, which would have been hazardous, or any remnants of oil.

“An empty barrel is not a crime,” he said.

In closing arguments before the seven-woman, five-man jury, Bobbitt argued that none of the expert witnesses positively stated that material from the barrel was hazardous.

However, Anthony Lovett, a deputy district attorney, reminded the jurors that cemetery workers noticed a small “oil slick” or a “mixed sludge” on the ground and inside the hole where the drum was buried.

“This is not the Exxon Valdez case,” Lovett said. “This is not an oil slick as long as the state of California. But that doesn’t matter. The man who throws a piece of trash on the ground is as guilty of littering as the garbage truck driver who dumps his load out on the street.”

After deliberating for less than an hour, the jury found Stelter not guilty of the two misdemeanor charges--unlawfully disposing of used oil on land and failing to manage used oil as a hazardous waste.

After the verdict, Stelter said he believes he was the victim of age discrimination, because the city wanted an excuse to fire him to promote a younger worker.