HAZELWOOD LAWYERS WILL SEEK DISMISSAL
EX-CAPTAIN EXPECTED TO RETURN FOR HEARING

By SUSAN GALLAGHER
The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE- Lawyers for the skipper accused in the nation's worst oil spill will try to get his case thrown out on claims of immunity, a flawed sobriety test and other grounds in a hearing that begins in Anchorage Monday.

Joseph Hazelwood is expected to return to Alaska for the Anchorage Superior Court proceeding that could last as long as two weeks. His trial is set for Jan. 22.

The 43yearold mariner from Huntington, N.Y., was fired by Exxon soon after the tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef on March 24 and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound.

The crude oil blackened hundreds of miles of Alaska shoreline, killed tens of thousands of birds and marine mammals and disrupted lucrative fishing seasons. Exxon said it spent more than $1 billion on oil spill claims and attempts to clean up the damage, attempts state officials say are not finished.

Hazelwood faces misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, operating a vessel while intoxicated and negligent discharge of oil and three felony counts of criminal mischief. If convicted of the three felonies, he faces a possible maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

Defense motions include claims that Hazelwood made himself immune to prosecution when he reported his ship's grounding and oil spill the morning it happened. A law designed to encourage selfreporting of environmental calamities such as oil spills provides protection against selfincrimination, lawyers contend. They say virtually every piece of evidence in the case against Hazelwood grew from his report to the Coast Guard that the Exxon Valdez was aground and leaking oil.

"We've fetched up hard aground north of Goose Island off Bligh Reef and evidently we're leaking some oil and we're going to be here for awhile," Hazelwood told the Coast Guard in Valdez, where the tanker had taken on its oil.

State lawyers say in their response that discovery of the spill was inevitable because of its size and location. The evidence against Hazelwood does not flow from his report to the Coast Guard, prosecutors say.

In Fairbanks last month, Hazelwood's lawyers went to federal court in an effort to have his state trial blocked. They argued that sweeping federal immunity laws precluded prosecution by the state. U.S. District Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said it would be inappropriate for him to take that action.

Another defense motion asserts that the sobriety test that Hazelwood failed about 10 hours after the ship struck Bligh Reef was administered improperly, and that the results cannot be used as evidence.

Defense lawyers say the sample was obtained so long after the grounding that the blood test is not a sound measure of Hazelwood's condition at the time of the wreck. They also say state requirements for a blood test were not met, but prosecutors say compliance with federal requirements is sufficient.

Hazelwood's trial was moved from Valdez to Anchorage because of concerns that strong feelings about the spill and the cleanup would make it too hard to find an impartial jury there. The southcentral Alaska port town relies heavily on the oil industry for jobs and also has commercial fishing interests.

---

Story Index: Main | The Captain	Overall: story 167 of 380 The Captain story 25 of 56