Federal Jury Acquits Lab Technician Inel Employee Was Charged With Lying About Waste Disposal

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory technician Steve Garcia has been found innocent of charges that he helped conceal the improper disposal of radioactive and hazardous waste samples at the INEL.

A 12-member federal jury acquitted the Pocatello man Wednesday after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill and almost four hours of deliberation. Garcia, 35, could have faced up to five years in prison if convicted.

“Steve wasn’t guilty. He just didn’t do it,” said David Nevin, Garcia’s Boise lawyer. “My experience is the truth will come out.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Breitsameter accused Garcia of helping his supervisor at the INEL’s Environmental Monitoring Unit, Jay A. Johnson, prepare a Dec. 8, 1994, company memo containing lies about how the two disposed of 145 roughly pint-sized containers of hazardous, low-level radioactive and mixed waste from the U.S. Department of Energy site.

Johnson, 37, formerly of Shelley, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of illegal disposal of waste samples. In one count, Johnson admitted lying in the Dec. 8 memo. He faces sentencing Nov. 25.

During Garcia’s trial, Johnson testified that he and Garcia both illegally put waste samples down a sink and at waste cleanup sites at the INEL. He also testified that Garcia helped him prepare the memo containing false information about where the waste samples were disposed.

But Johnson did not indicate whether he knew if Garcia knew the two were placing samples in the wrong locations, or writing false entries into the memo.

In his closing argument, Breitsameter tried to persuade jurors that Garcia must have known he and Johnson were violating. But Nevin said it was reasonable to believe Garcia was unaware of Johnson’s actions.