A former metal salvage and recycling yard adjacent to Jordan High School in Watts was ordered Tuesday to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution after its no contest plea to five felony counts of disposal of hazardous waste without a permit, while the company's owners were each ordered to pay a $10,500 fine and perform 200 hours of community service.
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The sentence handed down by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Bork comes about five months after S&W Atlas Iron and Metal Co. Inc. and the company's owners, Gary Weisenberg, 79, of Encino, and his 37-year-old son Matthew reached a plea deal with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office that permanently closed the site for use as a recycling facility.
The company and its owners will be on probation for two years, with the judge ordering quarterly progress reports to see if any problems arise.
The company must pay $1 million in restitution to the Los Angeles Unified School District for its losses and $850,000 to the District Attorney's Office, which will be distributed for costs incurred by that office, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, Los Angeles County Fire Health Hazmat and other agencies or organizations that monitor or mitigate pollution or its health impacts or otherwise improve the quality of life in Watts, according to the plea agreement.
The company -- which has already paid $350,000 in restitution and was set to make another $350,000 payment Tuesday -- must also pay a $25,000 fine along with penalty assessments.
The charges against the company involved the disposal of lead, nickel, zinc, selenium and antimony in August 2022.
The company's owners each pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of disposal of hazardous waste at a site having no permit -- one involving lead and the other involving zinc in May 2022 -- and one misdemeanor count of willfully and unlawfully maintaining a public nuisance.
Attorney Benjamin Gluck, representing the company and Matthew Weisenberg, told the judge that they are "gathering assets" and "expect to make more payments before they're due."
He noted that "our clients don't want this hanging over their heads."
Attorney Barry Groveman, representing the LAUSD, told the judge that it is a "fundamental environmental justice issue."
Carlos Torres, the director of the LAUSD's Office of Environmental Health & Safety, told reporters outside court that the Jordan High School community, students and staff have "borne the consequences of Atlas' actions for far too many years." He said there should have never been a metal recycling facility next to a school, adding that he feels "this is a situation of environmental injustice that occurred here."
He said the district is "very pleased that the court is holding them accountable," while noting that there is still clean-up work to be done.
Torres told reporters that the district will remain vigilant to "ensure that property does not become an orphan Superfund site and we have to make sure that Atlas remains financially viable to clean up their mess."
Timothy Watkins Sr., president and chief executive officer of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee and the founder of the Better Watts Initiative, said outside court that a "perpetrator of environmental crimes has been shut down." But he said the area "will continue to live with the harm this company has produced beyond the sliver of land Jordan High School constitutes."
"... This isn't, you know, `Oops, we made a mistake. We won't do that again.' This is a long history of this going on," Watkins said.
Former Jordan High School student Genesis Cruz told reporters that the court process has been "really slow," and said she was "not really content with the outcome."
She noted that students were often disturbed by loud noise from the plant when it was operating and that the school's softball games often had to be canceled or relocated because of sharp objects that needed to be cleared from the field. She said she realized in visiting other communities that "what the community of Watts was going through was not normal at all."
Shortly after the plea agreement was announced in May, District Attorney Nathan Hochman called it "one of the most significant environmental criminal prosecutions in the last number of years here in Los Angeles County."
The criminal case was initially filed in 2023 under then-District Attorney George Gascón, with a grand jury indictment being handed up last year shortly after an Aug. 12 explosion occurred at the property as students arrived at the nearby school for their first day of classes. No one was injured in the fiery blast, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Soil samples taken from an area at the high school adjacent to the Atlas facility "showed excessive concentrations of lead and zinc," according to the DA's Office, which alleged that samples taken at Atlas found excessive concentrations of seven metals.
Prosecutors also contended that metal debris believed to have originated from the Atlas facility was found on the school grounds -- with Hochman holding up some of the debris at a news conference.
In a statement released on behalf of the company, Gluck said, "Founded in 1949 by the Weisenberg family, Atlas has been a cornerstone of the Watts business community for 75 years. While it is with great sadness that Atlas has agreed to close its doors, this decision reflects the evolving land use along the Alameda Corridor. Our clients hope that the outcome of this case and the financial contributions Atlas has committed to will help support and uplift the Watts community."
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told reporters in May that the LAUSD has been "fighting this" for years, saying that the case expedited "at an exponential level" after Hochman was elected and took office and that the solution came within months.
The superintendent cited "noxious fumes, noise pollution and projectiles (that) have flown over the containers onto Jordan High School, presenting imminent danger to our children and our workforce."
"On the very first day of this school year, an explosion ... rattled this school, sending students and staff for cover," Carvalho said. "No community of students or parents, no residential community should be under that level of threat and fear. So today, beyond the immediate closure of Atlas ... we are celebrating a huge, consequential win on behalf of environmental justice for our children, our workforce, our school and the entire community of Watts."
The criminal case marked the latest legal entanglement for the company, which was sued in 2020 by the LAUSD. The federal lawsuit alleges hazardous substances, waste and fumes from the salvage yard were endangering students and faculty at Jordan High. The suit contended that a pair of explosions in 2002 sent metal shrapnel raining onto the campus.
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