STATE CHARGES HAZELWOOD BUT POLICE CAN'T FIND HIM

By GEORGE FROST and RICHARD MAUER
Daily News reporters

VALDEZ- Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, who left here before state authorities could charge him Friday, avoided police Saturday in his home state of New York.

Hazelwood was in command of the Exxon Valdez when it ran aground in Prince William Sound March 24, causing the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Assistant District Attorney Bob Linton filed three misdemeanor charges against Hazelwood late Friday night: operating a vessel while intoxicated, reckless endangerment, and negligent discharge of oil. The maximum penalties upon conviction are one year in jail and $5,000 for each of the first two charges, and 90 days and $1,000 for the third.

But Hazelwood had flown out of Valdez Tuesday, and Alaska authorities could not find him to take him into custody.

Neither could New York authorities.

Suffolk County police first tried to serve a threecount Alaska arrest warrant at 10:45 a.m. Alaska time Saturday. But they found no one home at 48 Crescent Beach Drive, Huntington, Long Island. The police were accompanied by almost a dozen media people.

They made two more attempts during the day, also unsuccessful.

"As you know, the Alaska authorities requested the Suffolk County Police Department to help them locate and arrest the suspect Hazelwood," said police department spokeswoman Susan Romann. "This is top priority" because of all the national interest.

She said the entire Suffolk County fugitive squad was searching for Hazelwood, through any leads it could develop.

However, they may not have much luck. One neighbor in the upper middle class residential area said he hasn't seen anyone home since around Wednesday.

And two teenage boys at another house, Ian and Ben Ritcey, last saw Hazelwood's wife, Suzanne, at home on Sunday.

Other neighbors reacted to questions with hostility and wouldn't answer them. A reporter from Alaska was twice threatened with arrest.

Hazelwood's father, Joseph Sr., who lives less than a mile away, just said "No comment," when a reporter knocked on his door.

Hazelwood left Valdez Tuesday after consulting with his attorney in the Westmark Valdez, a waterfront hotel that has since become the command center for Exxon officials attempting to deal with the oil spill. Upon his attorney's advice, Hazelwood refused to cooperate with an investigative team from the National Transportation Safety Board that is trying to determine the causes of the wreck.

Alaska Attorney General Doug Baily on Friday said the state is fully prepared to press for Hazelwood's extradition from New York or wherever he may go. Although extradition on misdemeanor charges is highly unusual, considering the enormity of the disaster the state would do all it could to bring Hazelwood to justice here, he said.

The information filed in support of the state's charges is based on evidence from various witnesses and Fish and Game Trooper Mike Fox, who boarded the vessel after the accident. It gives the following version of events:

Starting at about 7 p.m. on March 21, Hazelwood downed three or four drinks in a local bar popular with tanker crews, according to two crewmen who accompanied the captain. Another witness said the captain later had difficulty keeping his balance at the helm.

During his interview with Fox, Hazelwood said he drank a single beer before his return to the ship about 9 p.m. He denied being drunk.

But the state contends Hazelwood was probably drunk when the tanker, with its nearly 53 million gallons of North Slope crude oil, left Valdez at 9:21 p.m. bound for Long Beach, Calif. A local harbor pilot was on board to guide the vessel through the tricky Valdez Narrows to the tip of Rocky Point, where he left the ship about 11:30 p.m.

Hazelwood said he took over from the pilot and spotted floating ice in the southbound lane of the shipping channel. He asked permission from the Coast Guard in Valdez to maneuver around it, Hazelwood told Fox.

The Coast Guard gave the approval to change from the northern, outbound lane of the tanker channel to the southern, inbound lane. Hazelwood ordered Third Mate Gregory Cousins to veer from the southbound channel.

Then, Hazelwood told Fox, he left the bridge to "do some paperwork." Hazelwood said he drank "a couple" of bottles of Moussy, a mildly alcoholic beverage, as he sat in his cabin doing paperwork.

The Exxon Valdez hit the reef just before midnight. According to an account later given by William Woody, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board's investigative team, Hazelwood returned to the bridge and tried to save his ship.

"The captain gave a series of right and left rudder," Woody said Wednesday. "We do not know the purpose of these orders."

The ship ran hard aground at 12:04 a.m.

Fox, the only state law enforcement officer in Valdez at the time, was asked to come to the ship at about 4:30 a.m. by the Coast Guard because two officers who had interviewed Hazelwood said they had smelled alcohol on his breath. He went aboard at about 7 a.m. to "find out what the problem was."

"I think you are looking at it," Hazelwood told him, according to the state.

A test of Hazelwood's blood, based on a sample taken at least 91|2 hours after the accident, showed an alcohol content of .061 percent, according to the NTSB, well above the Coast Guard limit of .04. A urine test revealed a .09 reading.

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