An official with a San Marcos-based provider of portable outhouses has been convicted by a federal jury of two counts of perjury relating to his testimony before a grand jury, authorities announced Thursday.
Ronald B. Fabor, operations safety and compliance manager of Diamond Environmental Services, was found guilty Wednesday of falsely testifying that he had never seen the company’s trucks hooked up to illegal sewer connections at Diamond facilities.
The case involved allegations that the firm had unlawfully discharged trucked portable toilet waste into municipal sewer systems at their facilities in violation of federal law.
Jurors found that Fabor falsely testified that the first time he learned that the illegal dumping was happening was when federal search warrants were executed at the company’s facilities in San Diego and San Marcos.
“Mr. Fabor delivered false testimony to a grand jury about illegal pollution that put public health and safety at risk,” said Jay Green, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency‘s criminal-enforcement program in California. “Providing honest testimony is a fundamental necessity of our legal system and is critical to EPA’s ability to protect public health and the environment.”
Fabor, 55, will face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 8.
In June, Diamond Environmental Services pleaded guilty to defrauding municipalities out of revenue related to fees for disposal the company avoided via the unlawful discharges. On the same day, Diamond owner Eric De Jong pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the federal Clean Water Act for his role in the dumping.
Warren Van Dam, chief operating officer of the company, pleaded guilty in May to participating in the conspiracy. Diamond, De Jong and Van Dam are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 13.
–City News Service
