Company, owner sentenced in illegal waste storage case
MADISON HEIGHTS (AP) — A Detroit-area company has been ordered to pay roughly $1.5 million and its owner one year in prison for illegally storing hazardous waste.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that federal Judge Stephen Murphy issued the sentence after accepting guilty pleas in February from Madison Heights-based Electro-Plating Services Inc. and company President Gary Sayers.
Authorities say chemicals used in the plating process, such as cyanide, chromium, nickel and others, were stored in drums and other containers, including a pit dug into the ground.
By law, such waste must be transported to licensed hazardous waste facilities.
A federal release says Sayers “stonewalled” efforts and warnings for years to properly deal with the wastes.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program spent what the company was fined to clean up and dispose of the wastes.
Supreme Court rejects officer’s appeal in wife’s slaying
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court says it won’t consider an appeal filed by a former Ohio police officer who is seeking a new trial for the 1997 slaying of his ex-wife.
The court’s decision last week marked the latest setback for former Akron officer Douglas Prade, who is serving life in prison.
His ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade, was shot and killed.
The Ohio Supreme Court last year upheld a court ruling overturning a judge’s decision that led to Prade’s release from prison.
That judge exonerated Prade in 2013 after experts testified that male DNA from a bite mark found on Dr. Prade’s lab coat wasn’t his.
Prade was sent back to prison after prosecutors successfully appealed the ruling.
Prade’s attorneys told the Akron Beacon Journal they’re considering other appeal options and continue to believe in Prade’s innocence.
USOPC to add athlete reps in wake of Nassar sex abuse
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee will add athletes to its board and enhance its oversight of individual sports organizations in a package of reforms stemming from the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal.
The reforms were approved Thursday and go into effect in January.
They come with Congress proposing its own, harsher, set of changes , after the scandal exposed the USOPC as deficient when it came to protecting and ensuring the safety of Olympic athletes.
Athletes will hold 33 percent of the board seats.
The U.S. Olympians and Paralympians Association and Athletes Advisory Council will collaborate to choose the leaders.
The USOPC will have more power of policing national governing bodies.
An issue in the Nassar case was whether the USOPC was directly responsible for gymnasts or if responsibility was solely within USA Gymnastics, which is where Nassar worked as a volunteer doctor.
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