Merchant to stand trial
The owner of a Santa Monica furniture-stripping shop pleaded not guilty Monday to illegally storing hazardous waste and dumping toxic chemicals into the sewer.
A trial date has not been set for Michael Miller, 40, owner of Stripper Herk Inc., located at 2015 1/2 Main Street. But Alan Rubin, his Santa Monica lawyer, said Monday his client will be proven innocent.
“He’s absolutely not guilty of anything,” said Alan, who will review this month the evidence that has been compiled by the United States Attorney’s office against his client. “He had no criminal intent.”
Federal charges were levied in May against Miller, of Playa Del Rey, after a sewer worker fell into cardiac arrest and suffered third-degree burns from crawling through a diluted form of methylene chloride, a chemical commonly used to remove paint. The worker, Vincente Valenzuela, was working on the Main Street sewer project earlier this year when the incident happened.
FBI investigators linked the chemical to Miller’s nearby shop, where they discovered a runoff drain with a broken seal.
“Everything has been fixed and settled and done,” Miller said Monday. “As soon as they’ve said, ‘do this’ — I’ve done it, immediately.”
Miller doesn’t think the charges will hold up in criminal court because he didn’t mean to let the chemical run into the sewer.
Miller faces two counts of dumping toxic chemicals and one count of illegally storing hazardous waste barrels. If convicted on all three counts, Miller faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, who added that no determination has been set on what penalty to push for.
Mrozek characterized the charges as uncommon and said the violation is severe. He said the leak almost killed Valenzuela, who came in contact with the chemical while crawling through the 36-inch sewer.
Valenzuela was revived by paramedics and transferred to UCLA Medical Center and later to the Grossman Burn Center, where he was treated for third-degree burns covering 60 percent of his body.
Miller questioned Valenzuela’s injuries, saying the substance that ran into the drain was heavily diluted rinse water. Miller’s five employees, who work with the substance in a more concentrated form, testified in May they have never had a bad reaction to it.
As to the 20 barrels, Miller said the waste came mostly from the byproduct of one large paint-stripping job. He delayed having the 50-gallon drums hauled away because it costs $500 per barrel, he said.
“Generating waste is what I do,” Miller said Monday. “I strip stuff. It looks bad, but that’s what I do. Every piece of furniture I strip, the waste has gone into those drums.”
The case will be heard by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner at the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney Carol Kurtz said the city may also pursue Miller to recover some of the costs it incurred when investigating the leak.
In the meantime, Miller said prosecutors had not made a plea offer. But even if there was one, Miller said he probably wouldn’t accept it.
“I can discount 95 percent of it before we even get started,” he said. “But I’ve got to put the whole thing in a pile on my coffee table, see what they’ve got and talk to them about it.
“I want to get this over with,” he added. “I don’t like living with the FBI up my butt.”
“I want to get this over with. I don’t like living with the FBI up my butt.” — — MICHAEL MILLER Owner, Stripper Herk Inc
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 1, 2003. Read the original PDF.