HAZELWOOD DOES NOT TESTIFY
VALDEZ SKIPPER DECLINES CHANCE TO TELL HIS STORY AT SPILL TRIAL

By DON HUNTER
Daily News reporter

ANCHORAGE- Joseph Hazelwood's defense concluded Thursday with the captain of the Exxon Valdez declining the chance to speak for himself.

After marine salvage experts testified that Hazelwood made prudent decisions on the night his ship ran aground, attorney Dick Madson announced the defense had finished.

At the request of Assistant District Attorney Brent Cole, and with the jury out of the room, Superior Court Judge Karl Johnstone asked Hazelwood if he understood he has the right to take the stand to refute the state's charges against him.

"Yes, sir," Hazelwood said in a low voice.

Johnstone asked if Hazelwood waived his right.

"That's correct," Hazelwood said.

Have you discussed this decision with your attorneys? Johnstone asked.

"I have," Hazelwood said.

With Hazelwood below in his cabin and a third mate in charge, the Exxon Valdez slammed into Bligh Reef shortly after midnight March 24 and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil. Hazelwood is charged with a felony, criminal mischief, and three misdemeanors, reckless endangerment, negligent discharge of oil, and operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol.

Legal arguments are scheduled for today. Attorneys will make closing statements to the jury Tuesday.

Hazelwood's case ended with a pair of marine salvage experts testifying that only a magician could have gotten the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez off Bligh Reef on March 24, when the state says Hazelwood was recklessly endangering his crew and ship by trying to do just that.

"There's no way in the world that ship was going to get off that night," said marine salvage expert Julius Leitz, who was hired by Exxon to refloat the tanker. "It would have taken levitation."

On that point, most defense and prosecution experts agree. But the state also claims the ship would have sunk within 90 minutes had Hazelwood somehow succeeded in freeing her.

But Leitz and Donald Hudson, a naval architect, said Hazelwood and his crew could have kept the tanker afloat, even if Hazelwood had managed to free her.

Hudson and Leitz also said prosecution experts assumed the tanker's crew either could not or would not do anything to prevent her sinking.

"The hypothesis (of prosecution experts) assumes that the crew would just stand idly by and watch their vessel sink," Hudson said.

"Do you have an opinion as to the likelihood of that?" asked defense attorney Michael Chalos.

"I think it's rather ridiculous to think they would not respond to the aspect of the vessel if she came off the reef," said Hudson.

He and Leitz agreed that Hazelwood and his crew could have stabilized the ship by pumping water from a starboard ballast tank to a port tank and taking on water in an aft tank.

Cole called one rebuttal witness. Captain Robert Mackintire, master of the tanker Texaco Brooklyn, bolstered the state's argument that prudent tanker captains stay on the bridge and keep their ships under manual control when sailing through Prince William Sound. But Mackintire demonstrated he, too, has a few gaps in his understanding of Coast Guard regulations.

During crossexamination by Madson, Mackintire said he was unaware of restrictions preventing tankers from traveling in the area of Bligh Reef when visibility is less than two miles.

Mackintire, however, told Madson he doesn't count on Coast Guard radar monitors to warn him when the Brooklyn strays into danger. Madson said the Coast Guard should have tracked the Valdez and warned Hazelwood the vessel was heading for trouble.

"I don't believe they could tell us soon enough . . . if they were plotting us," Mackintire said. "I wouldn't rely on them warning us.

"Primarily, the service of the VTC (vessel traffic center) is informational," he said. "We still have to navigate the vessel."

The Texaco Brooklyn departed Valdez at 8:30 a.m. March 23, about 12 hours before the Exxon Valdez cast off lines for its last voyage.

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