Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Federal agents investigating whether hazardous waste was burned illegally at a secret military base in Southern Nevada can interview the former workers who blew the whistle on the toxic fumes, a judge ruled.
Monday's decision by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro is a victory for the federal government, which was prohibited from interviewing the workers under a 1994 civil court order.
The workers, after alerting authorities to what they said was illegal burning at the Area 51 base, sued the government. They claimed, unsuccessfully, that repeated contact with the chemicals throughout the 1980s caused health problems ranging from skin lesions to cancer.
One suit was dismissed and the other compromised national security, Pro ruled. The cases have been appealed.
Although the government fought the workers' civil allegations, in 1994 it launched a criminal investigation into those claims, according to a Justice Department document inadvertently filed in open court.
In an effort to wrap up the investigation, Justice Department attorney James Morgulec sought the clarification of the court order, originally given to protect workers from possible government harassment.
The workers' attorney, Jonathan Turley, fought Morgulac's effort, arguing that it was a veiled effort to retaliate against his clients for blowing the whistle. Turley fears the government wants to indict the workers for breaching national security.
He could not be reached for comment.
Area 51, also called Groom Lake, is 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It housed the top-secret Stealth fighter and U-2 spy planes.
Pro made an effort to continue to protect the workers by modifying, not lifting the court order.
The judge prohibited investigators from asking any of the workers they interview if they were among those who sued the government, or if they knew the identities of the plaintiffs.
Should the investigators inadvertently learn the identity of one of the plaintiffs, agents are prohibited from giving the name to federal prosecutors without first receiving permission from the worker, Pro said.
Only one of the workers' names is known, that of Robert Frost. The sheet metal worker died in 1989. His wife, Helen, represented him in the lawsuits.
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