A juror wept as a clerk stood before Judge Donald Molloy’s bench and reported that W.R. Grace and Co. and three of its former executives were not guilty of charges brought by the government in the nation’s largest environmental crime trial in history.
I’d love to know why she was crying. She wasn’t alone.
The trial took [...]

It took an hour for Judge Donald Molloy to give the jury its instructions.
Most sounded like a straight lecture on the eight criminal charges in the indictment, and he asked both the defense and prosecution to object or accept each of the 50-plus instructions. Grace’s side objected to many of them to reserve a right [...]

Cutting two expert witnesses they had earlier said were vital to their case, the defense in the W.R. Grace criminal trial rested today at 3:10 p.m. and judge Donald Molloy quickly headed to chambers with the lead lawyers to discuss the upcoming public debate over the final instructions to the jury.
The last witness in the [...]

The last day of testimony in the W.R. Grace criminal trial began with the defense calling a former Libby city attorney and an ex-Grace accountant. Both were quickly questioned and dismissed.
But drama surfaced soon after Defense Attorney Thomas Frongillo began questioning Melvin Parker, the owner of the nursery he built on the site of the [...]

There is a slight lingering stench in the Missoula courtroom where the criminal trial of W.R. Grace is two days from going to the jury.
Many blame it on the odorous performance of Grace’s star lawyer David Bernick and his repeated assertions that a Robert Marsden, an EPA criminal investigator had a “special relationship” with discredited [...]

For me, it was surreal to see W.R. Grace Vice President William Corcoran on the witness stand in the Missoula courtroom in the criminal trial last week.
He is the boss of public and regulatory affairs for the world wide company, which means he deals with the press and congress and he’s well suited to do [...]

Two workdays and counting until the jury in the W.R. Grace criminal case is presented closing argument and then huddles to render its justice.
The past week was a kaleidoscope of colors and emotions as the defense rushed to wrap up its arguments of innocence to the jury.
Charges were dropped against two Grace executives because the [...]

It’s a bit bizarre to me to be sitting in the back row of a Montana courtroom listening to another day of testimony in the criminal trial of W.R. Grace, while at the same time writing about reported cleanup problems of the lethal mess the same company made in the town of Libby.
Just to keep [...]

After two years of refusing repeated requests for its release, the Environmental Protection Agency freed up some information on a preliminary report on alleged criminal actions involving government contractors cleaning up asbestos in Libby, Mont.
Last week, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed suit in federal court requesting the release of the report under the Freedom [...]

A lot happened in the Missoula courtroom of Judge Donald Molloy Tuesday. I’m just not sure what it all means.
I’m going to bow to learned lawyers, reporters smarter that I am and just about anyone else to try to sort out the winners and losers in the criminal trial of W.R. Grace.
Here’s what I do [...]