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FOUR CONVICTED IN LOUISIANA METHYL BROMIDE CASE THAT KILLED MOTHER AND SICKENED CHILD

Release Date: 08/10/2000
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2000

FOUR CONVICTED IN LOUISIANA METHYL BROMIDE
CASE THAT KILLED MOTHER AND SICKENED CHILD

Amtek of La. Inc., and its president Robert Case, both of Baton Rouge, La., and Sims Brothers Construction Inc. and its site superintendent, Mark Jerkins, both of Pensacola, Fla., were convicted on July 31, in the U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge for violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In May 1997, Sims Brothers hired Amtek to demolish buildings on a construction site in Baton Rouge. During the demolition, two 200-pound cylinders marked “poison,” containing the highly poisonous rodenticide methyl bromide, were found at the site. Case and Jerkins removed the cylinders from the building and then stored them in an open area at the construction site. An Amtek employee removed the cylinders believing that they contained butane or propane and gave them to his cousin Edith Rome in Albany, La. to be stored in her home. Ms. Rome, 32 years of age, died of methyl bromide poisoning from leaky valve. Her son Christopher became seriously ill and required emergency medical treatment. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture with assistance from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the La. State Police. It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District in Baton Rouge.

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