Owner of Firm Sentenced for Toxics Violation
The owner of a Lincoln Heights battery-rebuilding firm pleaded no contest Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of illegally dumping hazardous waste and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Joseph Spada also fined Victor Torres Pena $11,750 and put him on three years’ probation for disposing of sulfuric acid, lead and other wastes in an open pit, which flowed into a city street and sewer.
Pena, 65, of Pasadena, was arrested Jan. 9 at his business, Victor Industrial Batteries, 138 N. San Fernando Road, after investigators found that the acid used to rebuild batteries was leaking from the facility into a city gutter. The charges were filed after Pena failed to clean up the contamination, said City Atty. James Hahn.
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