Prison Time In Asbestos Crime At 103rd Pct.

Prison Time In Asbestos Crime At 103rd Pct.

A former licensed asbestos investigator has been sentenced to 27 months in Federal prison for improperly removing asbestos during 2001 from the 103rd Precinct stationhouse in Jamaica, Queens and an apartment building in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach section.

Peter Ward, who in addition to his investigative duties ran companies that were licensed to handle asbestos abatement work, admitted that his employees did not wet the asbestos-containing material before removing it from both the police precinct and the apartment building.

His employees also failed to ensure that the material remained wet until it was sealed in leak-tight containers to protect the workers and those who worked or lived in the two buildings from asbestos exposure through dust particles.

Mr. Ward failed to notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in advance of the removal work, as he was required to do under the Clean Air Act, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Michael J. Garcia. In pleading guilty before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, Mr. Ward admitted he didn't notify the EPA because he wanted to conceal the fact that the work would not comply with the law.

Spokespersons for Mr. Garcia and the NYPD said that no employees assigned to the 103rd Precinct over the past five years had contracted asbestos-related illnesses.

Mr. Ward and his companies had previously been cited for asbestos violations at 29 other locations around the city. He has been incarcerated since early March while awaiting sentencing following his January guilty plea to the charges pertaining to the 103rd Precinct.