Exxon Valdez Captain’s Conviction Is Overturned : Environment: An Alaska court rules that tainted evidence was used against Joseph Hazelwood in the oil spill case. The state plans to appeal.

The Alaska Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a misdemeanor conviction against the captain of an Exxon Corp. tanker that ran aground in the spring of 1989, causing the nation’s worst oil spill.

The state used tainted evidence against Joseph Hazelwood, who was immune from prosecution under federal law, the court ruled in throwing out his conviction on a charge of negligent discharge of oil.

The state said it will appeal the ruling to the Alaska Supreme Court.

Hazelwood was the captain of the 987-foot Exxon Valdez but was not on the bridge when it rammed Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound early on the morning of March 24, 1989, while outbound from Alaska’s oil port at Valdez.

The jagged reef ripped the ship’s hull open, releasing nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into the water. The spill killed birds, fish, otters and other wildlife. The oil coated hundreds of miles of rocky shoreline.

Defense attorneys had said going into Hazelwood’s trial in 1990 that he should be immune from any charges stemming from the spill because he had reported to the Coast Guard that the tanker was dead in the water and spilling oil.

The appeals court agreed.

“Congress has barred prosecution in this case because the state obtained its evidence by the exploitation of Hazelwood’s report of an oil spill,” the court said.

“The federal statute’s prescription of immunity will undoubtedly be a bitter pill for many Alaskans to swallow. . . . Yet, by requiring immunity today, the federal statute encourages immediate reporting in the event of a spill tomorrow.”

Hazelwood’s attorney, Michael Chalos, said Hazelwood radioed him a vessel in the Atlantic, where he is training students from the State University of New York Maritime College.

Chalos said Hazelwood said: “I am relieved.” He said Hazelwood added that he was delighted with the decision and “feels vindicated.”

Chalos and fellow lawyer Thomas Russo of New York called the reversal a tremendous victory for their client.

“He was a scapegoat,” Chalos said. “We hope this will make people realize that he was not responsible for the grounding and that this will clear the way for him to regain employment back at sea.”

Douglas Baily, an Anchorage lawyer who was state attorney general during the Hazelwood trial, said immunity should not apply in this case.

“This is not an oil spill that would go unreported,” Baily said. “It was no secret. You had this massive tanker sitting there on a rock.

“Federal law tends toward people who drop a bucket of oil into the water and then run off because they don’t want to report it. That wasn’t the case here.”

Anchorage Dist. Atty. Edward McNally said the state would appeal.

Ann Rothe, Alaska representative for the National Wildlife Federation, said Exxon was more responsible for what occurred than Hazelwood.

“Joe Hazelwood seems to be a minor player now that we can look back at the entire incident. I guess I feel the way Exxon handled it was the greater crime,” Rothe said.

Les Rogers, an Exxon spokesman in Houston, said he was talking with the company’s lawyers before responding to questions about the case.

The jury that convicted Hazelwood, of Huntington, N.Y., of the misdemeanor in March, 1990, acquitted him of three more serious charges, including operating a vessel while intoxicated.

Jurors said they rejected the state’s claim that Hazelwood was drunk because a blood alcohol test was not performed until 10 1/2 hours after the tanker hit the reef.

Superior Court Judge Karl Johnstone had sentenced Hazelwood to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, suspending both on the condition that the fired Exxon captain complete one year of probation, perform 1,000 hours of community work--beach cleanup--and pay $50,000 in restitution.

Exxon reported spending some $2.5 billion during three summers of cleanup. Exxon also reached a civil settlement with the state and federal governments in 1991--the largest of its kind on record--to provide $1 billion over the next decade to rehabilitate and enhance the region.