Rockwell May Face Federal Felony Charge
Federal prosecutors are preparing to file felony charges against Rockwell International over the 1994 chemical blast that killed two scientists at the firm’s Santa Susana Field Lab, sources have told The Times.
Assistant U.S. Atty. William Carter, who is leading the investigation, declined to comment on the case, as did Gary Auer, agent in charge of the FBI’s Ventura County office.
But sources close to the investigation said this week that Rockwell’s Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne Division is negotiating with U.S. prosecutors to settle the charges without trial by admitting guilt and paying fines for the July 26, 1994, explosion deaths of physicists Otto K. Heiney and Larry A. Pugh.
In addition, the sources said, U.S. Justice Department officials will continue to show a federal grand jury evidence that could bring additional civil and criminal indictments against Rocketdyne officials who oversaw the laboratory where the men died.
Rocketdyne declined to comment Friday.
“The only thing I can give you is a one-sentence statement from the company,” said Paul Sewell, a Rocketdyne spokesman. “We’re cooperating fully with this investigation, and we believe the process will best be served by our not discussing it while it’s ongoing.”
A source close to the investigation said, “They’re negotiating the case against the company because the only thing they can get from the company is money. [Then] they’re going to go after the individuals.”
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So far, Rockwell has forbidden employees who are targeted by the investigation to talk with the FBI, the source said.
Heiney and Pugh were killed when the highly explosive nitrocellulose and glycidal azide polymer they were working with--chemicals used in making solid rocket propellant--blew up.
After the accident, Rocketdyne President Paul Smith said the two were igniting highly explosive chemicals and measuring the blast waves as part of a legitimate experiment at Rocketdyne’s rugged field lab midway between Simi Valley and the Canoga Park headquarters.
But Cal/OSHA investigators said in a report that the physicists appeared to be burning the chemicals to get rid of them, not running valid tests.
An investigative source confirmed that the explosion experiments were nothing more than “bucket tests,” company slang for tests of no real scientific value designed merely to get rid of hazardous waste.
Cal/OSHA fined Rocketdyne $202,500 for violating work-safety laws and for failing to notify the agency where and when the explosives were being used. The company has appealed the citations.
In July, about 20 federal agents from the FBI, NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy, and the Air Force and Navy raided Rocketdyne’s headquarters and field lab, seizing environmental records relating to the lab’s operations.
Sources have said it centers around apparent violations of environmental and work-safety laws, and on whether Rocketdyne defrauded the U.S. government of millions of dollars over the past several years by simply burning hazardous waste that it was paid to dispose of properly.
