Las Vegans draw prison time for illegal dumping

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Two Las Vegas residents have been sentenced to prison for illegally dumping toxic industrial waste into the East Mojave National Preserve.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Timlin sentenced Gene LeFave, president of Fluid Polymers Inc., to three years and 10 months in prison and a year's supervised release.

LeFave was also ordered to pay $25,793 to the National Park Service and $14,105 to the Bureau of Land Management.

LeFave begins his sentence Jan. 2. His son, Louise Alphonse LeFave, 31, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on Sept. 16. In addition, he was ordered to pay $25,793 to the National Park Service and $14,105 to the BLM. He began his sentence Monday.

The corporation was fined $10,000.

The two men and the company pleaded guilty to illegally dumping about 100 drums of toxic wastes, including solvents, adhesive glues and rubber, said assistant U.S. attorney William Carter.

Most of the drums, scattered at a dozen locations in the Southern California desert, had their labels scraped off. But a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer discovered a 55-gallon drum with its label intact.

Federal and state investigators began surveilling the company in Las Vegas on Aug. 15, 1995. The LeFaves would wait until after dark and then haul the containers into the Mojave Desert, Carter said.

The LeFaves admitted dumping the wastes from April 1, 1995, to Aug. 16, 1995.

"We caught them, we caught them red-handed," he said.

U.S. Attorney Nora M. Manella prosecuted the case. The LeFaves pleaded guilty in December 1995.

Judge Timlin ruled that the waste dumped by the LeFaves was hazardous and that illegal dumping occurred. The defendants did not have a permit to transport or dump the waste.

"Properly disposing of industrial and hazardous waste is extremely important, and my office is committed to prosecuting those who violate our nation's environmental protection laws," Manella said.

Chase Corp. of Pennsylvania bought Fluid Polymers, Inc.

Federal and state agencies participating in the case included the U.S. Interior Department, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Protection Agency, FBI, the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Highway Patrol, the San Bernardino County district attorney's office and the San Bernardino County Department of Environmental Health Services.