Cops and Courts

Having absorbed 11 weeks of evidence and heard testimony from scores of witnesses, jurors began deliberations Wednesday evening in the sprawling environmental crimes case of W.R. Grace & Co.

Hotly contested by a determined fleet of defense lawyers, the motion-a-day trial plodded along arrhythmically at times, and the presentation of evidence hardly emerged as a single, neat narrative. But on the final day of proceedings, attorneys from both sides endeavored to sum up their cases with lengthy closing arguments.

For 10 hours, jurors scribbled on legal pads, listening as prosecutors described an environmental tragedy that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Libby residents, and which continues to sicken community members with asbestos-related disease.

Defense lawyers agreed that a tragedy had indeed occurred in Libby, but urged jurors not to confuse tragedy with criminal actions. Moreover, the defense attorneys said government prosecutors had compounded the tragedy through numerous instances of misconduct and accused them of carrying a “political prosecution” too far.

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