OAKLAND — An Oakland-based newspaper group with publications geared to African Americans is being criminally prosecuted for dumping hazardous printing ink in a black community in San Francisco.
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris characterized the alleged crime as “outrageous” this week when she announced that her office filed felony charges against Alameda Publishing Corp., Victor Martinez and William Araujo for the illegal transportation and disposal of hazardous waste.
Alameda Publishing does business as Post Newspaper Group and El Mundo and distributes free publications in Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and San Francisco.
Martinez, a 61-year-old Oakland resident, was manager of the Post’s printing plant on Thomas Berkley Way in Oakland. Araujo, 50, was hired in the summer of 2003 to get rid of scores of buckets of ink being cleaned out of the plant, which was being shut down because the Post switched to contracting out printing jobs.
About 40 5-gallon buckets of ink, some overturned and leaking, were found dumpedOakland publisher accused of
dumping hazardous ink in S.F.
along Cargo Way in San Francisco’s Bay View neighborhood in February. The buckets had apparently been there about six months.
Investigators traced the ink back to Post’s former printing site in Oakland. An affidavit filed by an investigator on the case indicated Martinez, and newspaper operators got an estimate from a hazardous material disposal company, Safety Clean, but thought the price too high for proper removal of the waste ink.
The company arranged for Araujo to take the ink away for $500, according to the filing. By the time Araujo and another man arrived to pick up the hazardous cargo, the identifying labels had been scraped off the buckets, the charges contend.
“They didn’t want to pay the price of properly disposing of a hazardous substance,” Assistant District Attorney Davina Pujari, the prosecutor on the case, said Friday. “Instead, they had it brought to San Francisco to an African-American community already struggling with environmental and quality-of-life issues.”
Post Publisher Paul Cobb, who bought the newspaper operation Dec. 6, said word of the criminal charges came as a surprise to him.
“I had no knowledge at all and would not condone anything like that,” Cobb said Friday when asked about the dumping charges. “I agree with the district attorney — it is something that should not be done.”
Cobb is a former Oakland Tribune columnist and longtime Oakland community activist who lauded the Post as a vital forum for news about issues important to Bay Area blacks.
Cobb said he plans to be “cooperative and optimistic.” He is to meet with a lawyer Monday to discuss the situation.
The Post could be fined $100,000 for each day the buckets of ink were at the dump site. Araujo and Martinez each face sentences of up to three years in prison if convicted as charged.
“This is one Christmas I will always remember,” Cobb quipped.
The Post was founded in 1963 by the late businessman and attorney Thomas Berkley. Berkley’s daughter, Gail, remains executive editor.
Martinez, Araujo and the Post corporation were each charged with unlawful disposal and transportation of hazardous waste and with depositing of hazardous substances on a road or highway.
Araujo was arraigned Friday and pleaded innocent to the charges. He remains jailed pending $20,000 bail. A hearing to reconsider his bail amount is scheduled for Monday.
Martinez, who is free on $20,000 bail, is to return to court with a lawyer and someone representing the Post on Thursday to be arraigned and enter pleas.
