BRONX WASTE HAULER ACCUSEDOF ILLEGALLY DUMPING
CONTAMINATED REFUSE IN CLERMONT SITE


Jamie Larson
ccSCOOP News

12-10-10 - The State Attorney General's Office's case against Bronx based waste hauler Salvatore Cascino and Bronx County Recycling LLC over alleged illegal dumping in the town of Clermont continued Thursday in Columbia County Supreme Court with the first full day of testimony.

Witness credibility appeared to be as much on trial before Judge Johnathon Nichols (and the jury), as the charges that Cascino, a 70 year old Larchmont resident, was responsible the dumping of over 70 cubic yards of contaminated fill on a property off 9G near Firehouse Road.

Assistant Attorneys General for the Prosecution James Woods and Christine Leahy Scott aimed to prove that Cascino knowingly allowed truckers coming from BRC to dump hundreds of truck loads of material contaminated with household trash, petroleum and even human waste on the lands owned by local contractor William Cole.

In seemingly incongruous testimony, Cole said he never saw any undesirable material in the piles he accepted from Cascino between 2007 and 2009, ostensibly to level off some low land to the north of his shop, while former Cascino truck driver Charles Spadaccini said he remembered personally delivering as many as 70 truck loads of “rough stuff” and “dirty dirt” to the Clermont site.

Spadaccini testified through direct and cross-examination that he could remember specific pieces of garbage in pictures taken by the prosecution, but could not remember the general time of year he testified before the grand jury.  He described “rough stuff” as construction and demolition debris ("C & D") that had not been filtered at BCR to remove garbage and “dirty dirt” as dirt that had a strong odor of gas, petroleum or sewage.

Spadaccini also testified that he was directly instructed by Cascino to get to BCR early in the morning to “beat the scales,” a practice where drivers would enter and leave the BCR yard early enough in the morning that the load weighing scale had not yet been turned on, allowing them to over-fill (the trucks).

BCR is a co-defendant in the trial along with Cascino.  It had been established in previous legal battles that Cascino is the owner of BCR.  Attorney for the waste station, Donald Kinsella, attempted to question the company's ownership Thursday, by asking witnesses if they had ever seen documentation that proved Cascino was actually the owner.

Spadaccini testified that he knew Cascino was the owner, as he had seen checks with his signature, but denied seeing any business paperwork. The truck driver, who has technically worked for another Cascino enterprise - Copake Valley Farm LLC, in Copake - for nearly eight years, said he quit Monday over conflicts with his boss. “I just can't take his mouth and his attitude,” Spadaccini said.

Cascino has been in litigation with the town of Copake since 1999 over allegations of illegal dumping and building at Copake Valley Farm.  Only months ago he was found guilty by Judge Nichols on a number of related charges. The dumping in Copake is not a part of the current trial.

Though it has not yet been introduced in court, Spadaccini confirmed that he recorded a telephone conversation with William Cole because, he said, he thought that Cascino and the land owner may have been "trying to set him up". Spadaccini stated that he knowingly gave Cole false information on that tape in an attempt to get information.

Cole maintained on the stand that while "smoothing out the piles" of fill with a bulldozer over the years, he never once saw evidence of the (contaminated) materials extracted from test holes by the Department of Environmental Conservation. He affirmed that "he thought he was getting clean fill".  Cole stated that he was acquiring the fill to level out the land on the north end of the property; he claimed his intention was for future development of the land as storage or residential property.

Cole said that when notified by the AG's office and the DEC that they had found contaminants on his property, he became irate and demanded to meet with Cascino in Waterbury, Connecticut.  Cascino reportedly told him he had "nothing to worry about".

Cascino Attorney Denis Schlenker said there was no way of knowing that the waste taken from the site was put there by Cascino, or on his orders, noting that the land adjacent to the south end of the property (where Cole's shop is located) was formerly a dump site, and the trash could potentially have come from there. He also pointed out that fill was brought to the site by other suppliers in the years before Cascino began bringing in loads.

The trial resumes today at 9 am and is expected to continue well into next week.