District Attorney Dismisses Scrap Metal Fire Case Against Recycling Company

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Less than a year ago, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced a “historic” criminal case against a West Oakland scrap metal recycler for its role in a massive fire that sent a plume of acrid smoke drifting across the Bay Area. 

Last week, Price’s successor gave up on the case.

District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson dismissed the case against Radius Recycling on May 23, according to court records. The DA’s office had been pursuing a 10-count indictment against Radius and two of its employees and up to $33 million in penalties.

The DA’s office decided to terminate the case after determining there was insufficient evidence to proceed, according to the East Bay Times, which first reported this development. 

According to court filings, the DA’s office under Price collected the testimony of 50 witnesses and presented hundreds of exhibits. The case was presented to a grand jury last year, which recommended charging Radius.

The fire at Radius Recycling’s plant in West Oakland on Aug. 9, 2023, erupted in a pile of metal that contained aluminum, tin, light iron, and steel, burning for several hours, triggering dozens of complaints to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Environmental regulators later fined Radius $575,000 for failing to control emissions. 

Price’s office accused Radius of habitually letting fires happen at its facility. Prosecutors also claimed Radius employees neglected safety protocols and destroyed evidence after the August 2023 blaze.

Price told The Oaklandside on Wednesday that Jones Dickson’s decision to dismiss the case is “outrageous.”

“This is the danger of not having an elected district attorney,” said Price. “I came from this community, and I take very seriously the harm to the community. I ran on a platform of no more double standards. You can’t just prosecute the lowest level of criminal activity. You’ve got to protect people from corporate conduct as vigorously as you protect people from street crime.”

Radius’ attorneys argued the case was politically motivated because Price was facing a recall election and wanted to score a win with the electorate. They also accused her of making statements at press conferences that painted Radius as engaging in “environmental racism” that tainted the pool of potential jurors. 

The company also denied destroying evidence, noting that it let officials inspect the debris from the fire and take photos and samples, and informed authorities in advance about the plans to shred the metal as part of its routine procedure for reducing fire risk.

This last point appears to be the issue that caused the most trouble for Alameda County Superior Court Judge Scott Patton, who recused several Alameda County prosecutors from the case on April 30. In his order, Patton noted that the lead prosecutor, Gabriel Markoff, didn’t specifically mention the burn pile in his notice to the company about what kinds of evidence to preserve. He wrote that prosecutors should have acted “immediately” to preserve any evidence from the pile. 

Radius did not immediately respond to an interview request. 

 Courtesy: www.oaklandside.org