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The owner of a recycling plant, accused of exposing Southern L.A. High School students to toxic waste and metal projectiles for decades, will spend several days in prison after a judge finds they violated a court order.
S&W Atlas Iron & Metal owners Matthew Weisenberg and Gary Weisenberg were handcuffed and separated from downtown LA courtroom Thursday morning after Superior Court Judge Terry Bork discovered they were accepting cans holding explosive ingredients and continuing to pose a risk to the community. The bail hearing is set for Monday.
Weisenberg awaits a 25-count trial for failing to properly dispose of dangerous waste, which fails to minimize the risk of exposure and fire at the Watts factory, which has been operating for about 70 years next to Jordan High School.
The charges came after years of protests from community activists, students and lawsuits by the LA Unified School District. “We have permitted the sale or release of dangerous, sharp metal projectiles, fine metal dust and other objects from the property.
Former Dist in June 2023. Atty. George Gascon has announced felony charges against the company and Weisenberg, claiming that the plants exposed Jordanian students to a dangerous explosion, and were found to be 75 times higher than what is deemed safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The explosion on the Atlas property caused Jordanian students to be jared on the first day of school last year, officials said.
Weisenberg has been putting out prisons in his own perception since the charges were filed, but prosecutors filed an allegation earlier this month that he violated the terms of his release after an investigation by the state Department of Toxic Substances.
LA Superior Court Judge Ricardo Ocampo ordered Atlas not to accept gas containers that have not been cut or punctured to avoid potential future explosions. Weisenberg’s defense attorneys Vicki Podbereski and Benjamin Gulak claimed that the client had isolated the problematic acetylene canister as soon as it was discovered, as they were keeping the client away from a machine that could cause an explosion.
“There is evidence of a real effort to follow. I understand it broke down. I understand that the courts don’t want the canister to be stopped completely,” Gluck said. “I would like guidance on what we can do if someone drives a canister on our property.”
Gluck said it is illegal for Atlas employees to remove canisters from their property on their own, and the company specializing in removing hazardous waste has yet to pick up on a March 6 visit from investigators.
The volk did not shake.
“The problem is that they’re not in the middle of the desert, they’re on the walls of hundreds of high school students,” Bolk said.
“It was ordered when Judge Ocampo decided not to assign bail or to detain the defendant, and something fell apart with the protocol he relied on,” he continued, adding that “the protocol is ineffective to resolve the risk of harm.”
A spokesman for Atlas did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Volk ordered Weisenbergs, who was incarcerated on Monday until he could hold a hearing to determine the appropriate bail amount.
“Today, this is the first time Atlas Metal owners have felt that decades of damage to the Watts community have been affected,” Genesis Cruz, a former student at Jordan High School, said in a statement. “We hope that this step will mark the end of their reckless and dangerous operations and the harm caused to generations of students.”
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
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