Trash Firm’s Offices Are Searched; Worker Arrested

An employee of Waste Management Inc. was arrested Friday after search warrants were served at the Irvine offices of the huge trash company, as well as at the San Bernardino County planning office, in what tight-lipped authorities said was part of “an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Franklin Glen O’Dell, 55, of Irvine, was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy, wiretapping and accessing and copying proprietary computer data, said Sgt. Paul Cappitelli of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Cappitelli said he could not disclose any additional information about O’Dell or the circumstances leading to his arrest. Reached by telephone, O’Dell’s wife declined comment except to confirm that he is employed by Rail-Cycle, a partnership between Waste Management and the Santa Fe Railroad. Rail-Cycle has been thwarted in attempts to build a huge garbage dump in the high desert of San Bernardino County.

Waste Management officials, contacted before O’Dell’s arrest was made public, said they did not know why their Irvine offices were searched. Phone calls to the company late Friday went unanswered.

Documents were seized “but we haven’t been officially apprised of the nature of the investigation,” said Avis LaVelle, vice president of communications at the company’s corporate offices in Oakbrook, Ill.

Five years ago, then-San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller warned public agencies to use “extreme caution” in dealing with Waste Management because of its attempts to “gain undue influence over government officials.”

Friday’s searches were mounted by the Sheriff’s Department in San Bernardino County, where Waste Management has long hoped to construct a 400-foot-high landfill between Barstow and Needles to accommodate trash from the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rail-Cycle proposal was rejected by San Bernardino County voters a year ago, but LaVelle said the company is still trying to pursue the $100-million project.

Paul Mordy, a deputy county counsel for San Bernardino County, said county planning records were turned over to investigators, but no county employees were arrested.

“We’ve cooperated with the investigation,” Mordy said, declining further comment.

Cappitelli said sheriff’s investigators are looking “into various criminal allegations.”

“We are heavily involved in this investigation. It is highly confidential and highly sensitive to the point where releasing any detailed information would jeopardize the future of the investigation,” he said.

The affidavit supporting the search warrants was sealed.

The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office provided legal advice but is not otherwise involved in the probe, said its chief investigator, Barry Bruins.

Waste Management, a subsidiary of WMX Technologies, is the nation’s largest trash hauling and disposal company.

LaVelle said the company “is cooperating to the fullest extent possible.” Prior to news of O’Dell’s arrest, she said the investigation might be associated with the Rail-Cycle project, “but we’re certain our employees have acted appropriately in our efforts and any investigation will confirm that. We don’t think this is something that necessarily involves us directly.”