Auburn, New York – John Chick, the Cayuga County carpenter who was sentenced to fifteen months in prison after pleading guilty to illegal asbestos removal, will begin serving his sentence this week at a minimum security prison in Allenwood, PA.

The sentence was announced on Thursday March 6, 2008. Presiding Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. gave Chick a further sentence of three years supervision following his release from prison, as well as ordering him to pay a total of $108,000 restitution.

The illegal asbestos removal took place at the Cayuga County Board of Elections building during February 2006. The incident occurred following the breakdown of the building’s boiler. During the work carried out in the building, -containing materials were displaced. Pieces of the materials were taken to the Auburn landfill.

The building was closed in August 2006 when air quality tests revealed the presence of airborne asbestos fibers. The building was closed for several weeks for asbestos abatement and removal, at a cost of $134,000.

During 2006 and 2007 around thirty county employees and members of the public filed claims against the county due to possible asbestos exposure.

In January 2007, John Chick pled guilty to one charge of conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Air Act, and agreed to cooperate with the investigation of the incident.

In court, Chick claimed he had not acted alone, but had been told to illegally remove the asbestos by supervisors. Chick’s defense attorney named two other people who, he said, should have taken some measure of responsibility for the incident.

One of these was former Building and Grounds Superintendent Ernie DeCaro, who had testified to knowing about the illegal asbestos removal. DeCaro claimed to have told Cayuga County Legislator George Fearon, who had denied any knowledge of the activities.

Fearon also claimed Chick had acted alone and out of greed, alleging that Chick removed 600 feet of copper pipe without authorization, and planned to sell the material for personal profit.

In June 2007, a federal prosecutor said that because Chick lied about the involvement of his supervisors during the early part of the investigation it was too late to connect county officials to the incident. During several interviews, Chick denied receiving orders to remove the asbestos. Chick’s defense attorney later said that Chick had lied out of a sense of loyalty to his supervisors.

During the trial, Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. said it was clear that Chick knew what he was doing, knew he was illegally removing asbestos, and knew others might be exposed. However, Scullin seemed to agree that Chick had not acted alone, saying it was clear the former carpenter was acting on the orders of others.

Chick still maintains that he was not the only County employee involved in the incident, and still says Fearon and DiCaro should also be held partially responsible.

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