Charges Filed Over Removal, Dumping of Asbestos Tiles

Prosecutors charged a Ventura attorney Wednesday with illegally removing and dumping asbestos-laden ceiling tiles that may have exposed as many as 60 county employees and hundreds of recovering drug users to the cancer-causing fiber.

Marvin Jacobs faces seven misdemeanor counts of disposing of the hazardous material in a dumpster and releasing asbestos fibers into the air while repairing a rain-damaged ceiling in a building he owns and leases to the county for a drug-counseling program.

“This activity posed an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death,” said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. David Fairweather, who filed the charges Wednesday.

Robert McCord, an attorney representing Jacobs, said his client didn’t know the ceiling contained asbestos.

“The roof leaked, all of the ceilings on the second floor sagged and collapsed, and he had to get in there and do something quickly,” McCord said. “The test is whether a person knows or reasonably should have known, and my client simply didn’t know.”

After discovering the problem last March, county officials ordered 60 employees and 500 clients of a drug-counseling program out of the leased two-story building at 739 E. Main St.

Workers were allowed back into the building last month, said Denny Higginbotham, who heads the county drug program.

“They cleaned it up very promptly, restored order and we moved back in,” said Higginbotham of the wood-frame building sandwiched between an attorney’s office and a funeral chapel.

Higginbotham said she was unaware of any employees who had become ill from asbestos exposure.

But Fairweather said some employees have filed workers compensation claims as a result of the incident. And Robi Klein, the county’s risk manager, confirmed that some employees have enrolled in a voluntary program in which they are regularly screened for asbestos exposure.

The ongoing screening includes X-rays and pulmonary exams, Klein said.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” Klein said. “When someone lets asbestos flow freely into the air, we have a real problem with that.”

Klein said he is uncertain of the level of danger to employees and others potentially exposed to asbestos at the Main Street building. “I think it’s real dangerous,” he said. “But you never know. Asbestos is a tricky business.”

Asbestos was widely used in construction materials until the late 1970s, when it was banned for its role in causing a number of lung diseases.

Jacobs ordered the removal of the ceiling material last March without the help of a licensed asbestos contractor. Federal and state laws require licensed specialists for asbestos removal.

County officials learned of the presence of asbestos at the Ventura building after a client in an alcohol counseling program reported the potential violation.

Air samples taken at the site showed that the concentration of asbestos fibers exceeded state standards.

Fairweather said Jacobs faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $100,000 fine for each violation. Jacobs was not arrested and is scheduled for arraignment Aug. 17.