HUNTINGTON BEACH : Renewed Bid to Halt Aerial Spraying Fails

Scrambling to breathe life into its legal challenge against malathion spraying, the city of Huntington Beach on Thursday tried but failed to have a Sacramento County Superior Court judge disqualified from the case because he admitted to using the pesticide to eradicate gnats, mosquitoes and fleas from his own back yard.

Huntington Beach Deputy City Atty. Arthur Delaloza argued that Judge Anthony DeCristoforo Jr. improperly relied on his own knowledge of malathion when ruling against the city’s request for an injunction against the aerial spraying in February.

During that hearing, DeCristoforo said: “I used malathion for years and years and years. . . . We have a fairly large back yard, and I spray that all over. I don’t use a mask; it’s never occurred to me. . . .”

Delaloza asserted that the judge’s personal knowledge of malathion “permeated the entire hearings” and that “this was the underpinning to the conclusion that using malathion was safe.”

But Superior Court Judge Michael J. Virga refused to remove DeCristoforo from the case, saying a review of the February hearing yielded the opposite conclusion--that DeCristoforo “conscientiously and impartially decided the case” based on the word of experts, and not his own experience as a gardener.