Contractor Sentenced in Residential Asbestos Case : Contamination: The Cathedral City man pleads no contest to the emission of the hazardous fibers while removing the ceiling of a Northridge house.

A contractor has been sentenced to 30 days either in jail or on a Caltrans crew for remodeling work that resulted in the “total contamination” of a Northridge house with asbestos, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said Thursday.

Terry Allen Strayhorn, 42, a Cathedral City resident who owns Palm Springs-based Terry Allen Designs, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading no contest in Los Angeles Municipal Court to negligently causing the emission of asbestos fibers while removing a ceiling.

Also pleading no contest--the equivalent of a guilty plea--to the same misdemeanor offense was Richard William Verhoef, 45, of San Bernardino, a subcontractor who prosecutors say dry-scraped the house’s cottage-cheese ceiling, sending asbestos fibers throughout the dwelling.

After the remodeling was completed 17 months ago, homeowner Marcia Grad continued living for nearly a year in her 3,100-square-foot contemporary house in an affluent neighborhood near Cal State Northridge, Deputy City Atty. Donald J. Kass said.

But after reading a newspaper article in December about houses contaminated during remodeling, Grad called the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which sent an inspector, said Kass, who handled the case.

The contamination “even extended to her refrigerator and kitchen range,” said Hahn, adding that “all the new furniture she had purchased through Strayhorn as part of the redesign and remodeling project will have to be removed and destroyed due to the contamination.”

According to Hahn, Strayhorn assured Grad that there was no chance of asbestos in her house, which property records indicate was built in 1976.

Deputy Public Defender Gregory McCambridge, who represented Strayhorn, did not return telephone calls on Thursday. Attorney Vincent K. Carroll, who represented Verhoef, declined comment.

Grad, who was inside her home Thursday, declined to discuss the case or say whether she had completed decontamination and was living in the house.

Asbestos was widely used in insulation, floor tiles and roofing through the 1970s, when the federal government established a link between the fibrous mineral and severe respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, and began limiting some its most dangerous applications.

Asbestos materials are safe when intact, but when broken or pulverized can release fibers that are hazardous when inhaled, health officials say.

Health effects typically do not show up for a decade or more, experts say.

Larry Hopkins, AQMD supervising investigator, said that in the past 12 months his staff has referred 17 cases to prosecutors in the district’s four counties--Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside.

Although Hopkins could not immediately produce figures for earlier years, he said, “I know it’s been tapering off, most likely because the word has been getting out” from newspaper and television coverage.

Hopkins said federal rules for handling asbestos require that the material be contained in plastic sheeting and be wetted down, and that workers wear respirators and protective clothing.

In addition to giving Strayhorn a choice between 30 days in jail or on a Caltrans work crew, Court Commissioner Barry Kohn ordered the contractor to perform 200 hours of community service and placed him on three years unsupervised probation.

Verhoef was sentenced by Kohn to 500 hours of community service and also placed on three years unsupervised probation.

Kohn ordered the two men to pay restitution to Grad and set an Aug. 7 hearing to determine how much they owe her.

Hahn said the cost of decontamination “could approach six figures.”

BACKGROUND

Experts say asbestos can be released when an older home is remodeled or damaged, perhaps freeing dangerous dust and fibers. Experts estimate that asbestos removal can cost from $4,000 for a modest-sized house to $10,000 for a larger one. State law requires that homeowners disclose whether their property contains asbestos. Experts say it poses no danger when left intact. An alternative to removal is encapsulating the material, such as covering vinyl-asbestos floor tiles with new flooring.