Chemical Company Pleads No Contest in Mobil Explosion

Defendants in a three-week criminal trial stemming from a 1988 explosion at Mobil Oil’s Torrance refinery abruptly pleaded no contest Tuesday, just as the judge in the case prepared to instruct jurors on how to conduct their deliberations.

Attorneys for Cal Cat Chemical Co., a Benecia-based contract company, and its president, Paul Taylor, entered the no contest pleas to misdemeanor charges after both sides had rested in the trial.

Municipal Judge Josh Fredricks ordered the company to pay $26,500 in fines and penalty assessments and ordered Taylor to pay $14,750.

He also placed the company and Taylor on three years’ summary probation, which would allow the judge to sentence Taylor to jail time in this case if he is convicted of any violations of the state Labor Code or Health and Safety Code during that time.

The pleas brought a sudden end to what prosecutors had said was a rare jury trial on industrial safety violations.

The case revolved around the July 15, 1988, explosion of a tank at the refinery as three Cal Cat employees attempted to treat sludge on the tank’s bottom.

Cal Cat employee Winston Jones, 30, was standing on top of the tank when it exploded. He died instantly. One of his co-workers, David Moustafi, suffered burns over three-quarters of his body. Another co-worker, Jerry Lekberg, lost hearing in one ear, and, his doctors testified, has experienced frequent flashbacks to that day.

Taylor, the company and two other Cal Cat employees had been charged with failing to follow state labor codes that required they inform their workers about the dangers of the chemicals they were using. Charges against on-site supervisor James Hernandez and company Vice President Frank Straw were dismissed after their attorneys argued that the state labor codes under which the charges had been filed apply only to employers, not supervising employees.

Prosecutors said the failure to educate the workers properly caused them to inadvertently create an explosive mix inside the tank.

Defense attorney Warren Ettinger, who represented the company, said he decided to offer the no contest plea to avoid a guilty verdict, which could be used against Cal Cat in any civil litigation stemming from the explosion. But he said company officials have not changed their opinion that they did not cause the accident, which he said was “tragic, unavoidable and unpredictable.”

“We started out with the premise that we did not commit any criminal wrongdoing . . . and we stand by that premise,” Ettinger said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony Patchett expressed disappointment about the abrupt end to the trial, saying he believed jurors were leaning toward conviction.

Patchett said he talked to all of the jurors after the case was finished. “There wasn’t any doubt in any of their minds, and I think that the defense attorneys saw the writing on the wall,” Patchett said. “They were a very intent, very dedicated jury . . . and I wish they could have made a statement to the community regarding what they felt in this case.”