Sentencing in Champion environmental hazard case delayed for 16th time

Staff report

WARREN

Sentencing for a 66-year-old Maryland man charged in 2009 with creating an environmental hazard in Champion Township has been delayed four more months.

Ed Knieriem Jr. did not personally appear in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday for his sentencing — the 16th try at sentencing him since May 2012 — but his attorney gave Judge Andrew Logan an update.

Atty. Michael Bowler of Akron said Knieriem, who has knee trouble and is confined to his home, signed a contract to have steel material called swarf — about 8,000 to 10,000 tons of it — hauled to New York and then shipped overseas. Swarf is the grinding leftover of certain manufacturing operations.

The material used to be under roof at his Diversified Resources factory at the end of Folsom Drive. But Knieriem started demolishing the building in 2008, exposing the material to the weather and creating potential groundwater and fire hazards, prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty to six counts of opening burning and dumping in March 2012 and agreed to remove the material before sentencing.

Judge Logan said he would give Knieriem until April 22, 2014, to carry out the swarf removal, but he demanded that Bowler fax him a copy of the contract to verify that the cleanup is in the works.

Bowler noted that Sergio DiPaolo of Girard, who carried out much of the demolition at Diversified Resources, will work with a New York company to get rid of the material. The first load will leave the propety Jan. 6, Bowler said.

Judge Logan told Bowler he’ll have to drive Knieriem to Warren from Maryland himself if necessary to ensure that he appears for his April 22 sentencing.

“He’s not ducking you,” Bowler said. “He’ll be here.”