A metal salvage and recycling yard adjacent to Jordan High School in Watts pleaded no contest Tuesday to five felony counts of disposal of hazardous waste without a permit, while the company’s owners each pleaded no contest to three misdemeanors in a deal authorities say will permanently close the site for use as a recycling facility.
S&W Atlas Iron and Metal Co. Inc. will be ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the Los Angeles Unified School District for its losses and $850,000 to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which will be distributed for costs incurred by that office, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, Los Angeles County Fire Health Hazmat and other agencies or organizations that monitor or mitigate pollution or its health impacts or otherwise improve the quality of life in Watts, according to the plea agreement.
The company must also pay a $25,000 fine plus penalty assessments and be on probation for two years.
The charges involved the disposal of lead, nickel, zinc, selenium and antimony in August 2022.
The company’s owners, Gary Weisenberg, 78, of Encino, and Matthew Weisenberg, 37, of Los Angeles, each pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of disposal of hazardous waste at a site having no permit — one involving lead and the other involving zinc in May 2022 — and one misdemeanor count of willfully and unlawfully maintaining a public nuisance.
The two are expected to be ordered to serve two years probation, perform 200 hours of community service and to each pay a $10,500 fine plus penalty assessment.
Sentencing is set Oct. 21 before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Bork.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman — who was in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom for the early stages of Tuesday’s hearing — told reporters afterward that it is “one of the most significant environmental criminal prosecutions in the last number of years here in Los Angeles County.”
The criminal case was initially filed in 2023 under then-District Attorney George Gascón, with a grand jury indictment being handed up last year shortly after an Aug. 12 explosion occurred at the property as students arrived at the nearby school for their first day of classes. No one was injured in the fiery blast, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Soil samples taken from an area at the high school adjacent to the Atlas facility “showed excessive concentrations of lead and zinc,” according to the DA’s Office, which alleged that samples taken at Atlas found excessive concentrations of seven metals.
Prosecutors also contended that metal debris believed to have originated from the Atlas facility was found on the school grounds — with Hochman holding up some of the debris as he spoke during a news conference at the high school shortly after the pleas.
In a statement released on behalf of the company and the Weisenbergs in 2023, attorney Jacob Gluck said they were “disappointed to see the charges.”
“Atlas is actively working with the many public agencies involved and is actually moving close to a global resolution,” Gluck said then. “The district attorney declined to engage with us and chose instead to file charges … We will defend this case vigorously.”
The criminal case marked the latest legal entanglement for the company, which was sued in 2020 by the LAUSD. The federal lawsuit alleges hazardous substances, waste and fumes from the salvage yard were endangering students and faculty at Jordan High. The suit even contended that a pair of explosions in 2002 sent metal shrapnel raining onto the campus.