CAPTAIN SLIPS TOWN

By GEORGE FROST and DAVID POSTMAN
Daily News reporters

VALDEZ- Capt. Joseph Hazelwood slipped out of town days before state troopers could question or detain him on charges he was drunk when the tanker Exxon Valdez impaled itself on Bligh Reef, Alaska Attorney General Doug Baily said Friday.

"I understand he is out of state," Baily said. Hazelwood may be hiding out with his wife or family in Huntington, N.Y., he said.

An Exxon official said he had just learned that Hazelwood flew out of Valdez Tuesday after talking with his lawyer.

"We don't know where he is now. But Exxon certainly did not move Hazelwood out of the state or anywhere," said company spokesman Tom Cirigliano.

"We have had nothing to do with him since the investigation began Monday."

Cirigliano said that Exxon attorneys are as anxious as anyone to find the former captain and question him further.

"If you find out let us know," he added.

Hazelwood was taken off the crippled tanker March 24 when he was relieved of duty hours after the accident. On Tuesday, after consulting with his lawyer, he refused to cooperate in an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, which two days later released blood tests showing his alcohol level above that set by Coast Guard regulations. Exxon fired him Thursday.

According to information obtained by Alaska State Troopers, Hazelwood left Valdez to elude a spotlight of national publicity that began illuminating the bars, waterfront and oil facilities here. Reporters, and later state investigators, spent hours flashing a fuzzy picture of the bearded captain to cab drivers, people sitting on bar stools and other townspeople likely to have seen Hazelwood.

But until Friday morning, state investigators didn't know if Hazelwood was still in Valdez much less where he was staying and they worried that too much publicity would spook him.

In Valdez's small trooper office, normally home to just one trooper, a group of investigators, lawyers and other state officials kept a hectic pace Friday, although no one would say exactly what they were doing.

All questions about the investigation were forwarded to Public Safety Commissioner Art English. He could not be reached Friday.

According to Baily, the state has prepared criminal charges against Hazelwood, but no one has said when they will be filed. Chief Prosecutor Larry Weeks said Wednesday the charges under consideration pertain to three areas: operation of a vessel with a fraudulent license, being under the influence of alcohol, and environmental violations.

All are misdemeanors, charges rarely pursued when a suspect leaves a state's jurisdiction. Baily insisted that Hazelwood's departure would not stop prosecution. But preparing enough evidence to convince a judge in another state involves far more preparation than simply picking up a suspect within the state.

Baily said the state could not act sooner to detain Hazelwood because its investigators had not yet interviewed the captain or key witnesses, and the results of blood alcohol tests were not then known.

"With respect to Hazelwood, we couldn't do anything to him at the time he left," Baily said. "We just didn't have anything."

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