MAN TESTIFIES HE SAW WHISKEY IN HAZELWOOD'S CABIN

The Associated Press

SEATTLE- A Coast Guard medical technician has said in a sworn deposition that he saw a partly empty bottle of whiskey in the captain's cabin aboard the stranded Exxon Valdez 10 hours after the ship went aground in March 1988. The statement surprised attorneys who questioned the man in San Francisco last month in connection with a spill-related civil suit.

No one, including crew members and investigators who questioned Capt. Joseph Hazelwood aboard the ship after the accident, reported seeing a whiskey bottle. Nor did the bottle come up in a National Transportation Safety Board hearing or in a criminal trial after the March 1989 spill.

Tom Russo, an attorney for Hazelwood, said he does not believe the man, but his eyewitness account throws an unexpected twist into the case.

Scott Conner, a Coast Guard chief health-services technician and 17-year veteran, took blood samples from Hazelwood and other crew members 10 hours after the accident.

The samples were used to determine whether anyone had been drinking or using drugs during the grounding on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound.

Conner, 35, said during the deposition that when he entered Hazelwood's quarters he saw a partly empty bottle with a black label that appeared to be Jack Daniels whiskey, a brand said to be Hazelwood's favorite. It was on a shelf, fully visible, Conner said.

"What came to mind when I saw this on the shelf was, oh-oh, somebody's butt is in a wringer," Conner said.

"I did not ask where it was from; I didn't care, it wasn't my business," he said.

The Dec. 10 deposition was taken for a civil trial in which hundreds of fishermen, Native Alaskans and others are seeking damages from Hazelwood, the Exxon Corp. and third Mate Gregory Cousins for their role in the 11 million gallon spill.

The Coast Guard's handling of Hazelwood's blood test is important to the case because Hazelwood's condition at the time of the grounding is still in contention.

A jury in a 1990 criminal trial acquitted Hazelwood on charges he was intoxicated at the time of the accident partly because the blood sample was taken so much later.

But the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Hazelwood had been under the influence of alcohol because an analysis of his radio transmissions shows his voice was slightly affected and some witnesses said they smelled alcohol on his breath immediately after the accident.

Robert Richmond, the Anchorage attorney who questioned Conner last month, was taken aback at the mention of the whiskey bottle. He pressed Conner regarding the accuracy of his memory with such vehemence that a federal attorney, representing Conner, objected.

Under cross-examination, Conner wavered a little in his recollection, saying, "At this point it could have been a lava lamp, but for some reason I just recall seeing a bottle of Jack Daniels sitting there. You know, I just hope I don't have this superimposed with some other event in my life."

Conner said he didn't mention the bottle to a state trooper who interviewed him after he took the blood sample because he figured someone else had seen the bottle and because he was not specifically asked about it.

He said, though, that the bottle made a strong impression on him. "There is a ship on a rock and oil is bubbling out the side," he recalled. "And I'm brought into the captain's quarters and there is a bottle of whiskey, bourbon, on the shelf. . . "

Brent Cole, a former Alaska district attorney who prosecuted Hazelwood in a criminal case in 1990, said Hazelwood's trial might have gone either direction if the jury heard Conner's testimony.

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