Ben Lupo brine-dumping plea set Monday in federal court

YOUNGSTOWN — Ben Lupo, who is charged with violating the Clean Water Act in the dumping of oilfield waste into a Mahoning River tributary, is scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing in federal court in Cleveland on Monday.

The court docket entry, posted Tuesday, did not specify whether Lupo, 62, of Poland, will plead guilty or no contest.

Meanwhile, co-defendant Michael P. Guesman, 34, of Cortland, who pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and said he dumped the brine and drilling mud down a storm drain and into the waterway on 24 nights at Lupo’s direction, is to be sentenced at 10 a.m. today.

Guesman’s lawyer, Carolyn M. Kucharski, a Cleveland-based assistant federal public defender, has filed a sealed sentencing memorandum.

She had asked for and received permission from Judge Donald C. Nugent to file that document permanently under seal because she said, without elaboration, that it “contains sensitive information that should not be disclosed to the public.”

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