Rockwell Agrees to Record Fine in Fatal Blast : Chronology of Rocketdyne’s Legal Woes

1989: Cal/OSHA and the federal EPA forbid Rocketdyne to dispose of toxic waste by burning or blowing it up, a practice the company engaged in unfettered at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory for almost 30 years.

1990: Rocketdyne continues the illegal disposal into 1990, leading to a state complaint against the firm.

1992: Rockwell agrees to pay a $650,000 settlement of the complaint for waste-disposal and other violations at the field lab and Rockwell sites in Palmdale and El Segundo.

July 26, 1994: An explosion at the field kills physicists Otto K. Heiney and Larry A. Pugh and injures technician Lee Wells.

Jan. 20, 1995: The state job-safety agency Cal/OSHA seeks $202,500 in penalties against Rocketdyne for violations of work safety rules in the deaths of Heiney and Pugh. The company later appeals the citations and fines.

June 9, 1995: Cal/OSHA delivers its reports on the blast to the Ventura County District Attorney’s office. Prosecutors briefly look into the case as a homicide.

June 21, 1995: The district attorney passes the case on to the U.S. Department of Justice, after determining that federal statutes on manslaughter and environmental violations would make a stronger case than state law.

July 13, 1995: About 20 federal agents from the FBI, NASA, EPA and the U.S. departments of Defense, Energy, Air Force and Navy raid the field lab and Rocketdyne’s Canoga Park headquarters. They seize environmental files and begin building a case.

July 25, 1995: Judith Heiney files a $100-million wrongful-death lawsuit against Rocketdyne, Rockwell and a host of company officials. It is one day before the anniversary of the explosion.

* That same day, Antoinette Pugh files a $25-million wrongful-death lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court over her husband’s death. She names the same defendants as Heiney’s suit, plus Hercules, the Delaware company that the suit alleges provided the nitrocellulose.

January, 1996: A Rockwell shareholder sues Rockwell and Rocketdyne directors in Orange County Superior Court, alleging they recklessly disregarded environmental laws in events leading to the fatal explosion, and thus exposed the company to millions of dollars in potential damages.

April 8: Rockwell officials agree to plead guilty to three federal felony counts: two of illegal disposal, and one of illegal storage of hazardous waste. They also agree to pay a $6.5 million fine. It is the largest fine ever levied in a hazardous waste case in California.

April 11: Rockwell officials are scheduled to enter their guilty pleas and write a check to the U.S. government for $6.5 million. Investigators for the FBI, U.S. defense department and U.S. Attorney’s Office continue their probe into possible criminal charges against current and former Rocketdyne employees.