Benjamin Franklin once said, “He that lieth down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.” If modern chemicals were around during the days of Silence Dogood, he might have said something along the lines of, “He that wades in toxic waste shall soon swimmeth with tumors.”
The only thing involving Ben Franklin that this month’s Brown Eyes are interested in is copious amounts of C-notes from taxpayers. The widow and children of Edward W. McCrary III allege that the federal government is responsible for the cancer that killed him early last year at the age of 76, despite the fact that he was one of Louisiana’s most notorious polluters and worked with hazardous materials for decades.
The suit, filed on December 1 in federal court, claims that McCrary inhaled asbestos fibers while serving time at the former Federal Medical Center at Carville. McCrary, a former Baker resident who operated Louisiana Oil Recycle/Reuse on Scenic Highway, served less than 2 years of a 27-month prison sentence there in 1993 and 1994 after pleading guilty to federal charges that he conspired to dump industrial wastes into city-parish storm and sanitary sewers.
Before being indicted by the state and the feds in the early 1990s, state officials claimed McCrary’s firm was the source of oily, caustic wastes that polluted Capitol Lake. He was also fined by state and local authorities for a series of spills.
Residents who lived near his Louisiana Oil site sued McCrary. In 1992, state investigators reported finding high levels of toxic lead and a suspected carcinogen, chromium, in its soil even though the site had no permits to handle hazardous wastes.
Later in 1997, while on supervised release, federal officials allege McCrary was the middleman in a sale of toluene, which is – what else – a hazardous substance. While sentencing him to an additional 10 months in prison, District Judge Frank Polozola added that the toluene had somehow found its way into a batch of gasoline, resulting in 442 damage claims from automobile owners.
Incidentally, after Polozola announced that sentence, McCrary’s wife Henrietta reportedly shouted at his honor, “You’ve just signed his death sentence!” Eleven years later, guess which randomly assigned judge is handling Henrietta McCrary’s suit. That’s right, it’s Judge Polozola.
It seems that if the McCrary family wants to hold the entity truly responsible for Edward McCrary’s ultimate fate accountable, they should file suit against karma.
However, his heirs insist he died of metastatic non-small-lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos that “was falling out of the walls, ceiling, and other areas, and onto the inmates’ beds and surrounding areas” at the prison.
“I blame the government for it,” McCrary’s widow said after filing the suit. “That’s where the cancer came from.”
When asked how she knows the asbestos at the Carville facility caused Mr. McCrary’s cancer, she said that a doctor “told me it was asbestos cancer.” With underwhelming proof like that, she better hope that her husband’s livelihood sufficiently brain-damaged the jurors hearing the case so they’ll buy that argument.
Heirs of Edward W. McCrary III
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