PG&E trial delayed again
Criminal proceedings set for Tuesday pushed back at utility’s request
SAN BRUNO — Families and friends of the victims of a fatal explosion in San Bruno caused by PG&E must wait longer than expected for the embattled utility to go on trial on federal charges linked to the deadly blast after PG&E on Thursday won a fresh delay.
The criminal trial was due to begin Tuesday, but U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson granted a delay for an unspecified amount of time in the start of the case.
“The families in San Bruno need closure, but these delays by PG&E prevent that closure,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, whose San Mateo County district includes San Bruno.
San Francisco-based PG&E had requested a delay of up to two months from the most recent trial date of April 26. The utility’s defense team said it would need six to eight weeks to scour about 110,000 pages of documents that it had received from federal prosecutors.
“We cannot adequately represent our client without the opportunity to review the documents,” said Kate Dyer, one of PG&E’s defense attorneys, during a hearing Thursday at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. “This is at the core of our defense. We cannot review the documents in less than the seven weeks we have requested.”
Federal prosecutors had requested that the judge not delay the start of the case further. The trial date has been postponed several times.
“The government is very respectful that it has just turned over a large amount of documents,” said Hallie Hoffman, an assistant U.S. attorney who is prosecuting the case.
PG&E faces 13 criminal counts, including 12 claims that it violated pipeline safety regulations and one that it obstructed a probe into the explosion by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Prosecutors intend to call 42 witnesses against PG&E, according to disclosures made in court Thursday. Some of those who will be summoned to the witness stand are former or current PG&E employees.
It wasn’t immediately clear after the court proceeding when the trial will begin.
“I will vacate the present trial date without necessarily allowing the requested continuance” by PG&E, Henderson said. “I will be issuing an order in due time.”
If convicted on all counts, PG&E faces fines of up to $562 million. PG&E has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The jury in the trial, when it begins, will be allowed to hear an array of evidence to support charges that the utility violated rules for safe pipeline operations, emphasized profits at the expense of safety and obstructed a federal investigation into the blast, according to a series of court rulings this week.
Prosecutors will be allowed to present evidence about: the explosion, which killed eight people and leveled much of a San Bruno neighborhood; PG&E’s record-keeping deficiencies; PG&E’s interference with a National Transportation Safety Board probe into the blast; PG&E’s flawed record-keeping and maintenance connected to the pressure on Line 147 beneath San Carlos; and PG&E’s focus on profits at the expense of safety.
PG&E had sought to exclude all evidence and testimony about the fatal explosion in September 2010, arguing that the explosion wasn’t connected to the criminal charges that the utility violated pipeline safety regulations. Henderson disagreed with PG&E.
“It is outrageous that PG&E keeps playing this game of delays and objections,” Hill said. “It’s a tragedy that this is happening. Justice delayed is justice denied.”