Oil spill trial focus: What does ‘immediate’ mean?

SANTA BARBARA -- The definition of "immediately" was the focus of tussling between the prosecution and witnesses Thursday in the trial of pipeline company charged with criminal negligence for its actions before and after a 2015 spill of 142,000 gallons of oil on a state beach and into the ocean.

"You've spoken English your entire life, yes? Do you know what 'immediately' means?" Deputy Attorney General Brett Morris asked James Buchanan, an environmental and regulatory compliance specialist for the defendant, Plains All American Pipeline.

Buchanan answered yes to both questions but after Morris asked about policies and procedures relating to pipeline regulations, Buchanan said, "Mr. Morris, I don't believe we're speaking the same technical language."

Buchanan was the only person originally indicted along with the company on allegations of mishandling of the spill at Refugio State Beach. People v. Plains All American Pipeline LP, 1495091 (Santa Barbara Super. Ct., filed May 16, 2016). Before the trial began a motion was filed alleging the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence when it obtained a grand jury indictment of Buchanan and all criminal charges against him were subsequently dropped.

Throughout the examination of Buchanan and Nigabi Giuchi, the western director of environmental and regulatory compliance at Plains, the prosecution team led by Morris and Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Weichbrod repeatedly debated the definition of the word "immediately" as it pertained to the required time to report the spill to federal agencies.

Giuchi testified that the term "immediate" as defined by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reporting requirements meant within two hours.

After myriad objections from the defense counsel for Plains on the grounds that his questions were argumentative or lacked relevance, and after multiple sidebars, Morris seemed visibly frustrated when he examined Buchanan and asked him if he spoke English.

Roughly an hour into defense questioning of Giuchi, in which he was asked to review multiple documents page by page, Superior Court Judge James Herman stopped defense counsel Naeun Rim of Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow PC in the middle of her sentence and said, "Move on." The judge had issued similar repeated instructions to the prosecution in previous weeks.

After another warning from the judge to hurry up and a 352 objection from the prosecution on the grounds the probative value of the evidence is outweighed by the undo amount of time needed to elicit it, Rim finally relinquished the podium to Weichbrod.

The deputy district attorney then presented a 27-page document to the court. Weichbrod argued that because the pipeline was located near the ocean, it should be classified as a marine facility and therefore the spill should have been reported within 30 minutes as the regulations stated. Weichbrod then raised the document in the air and said, "I request that the court take Judicial notice of Title 14 California Code of Regulations."

Trial continues Friday.

Earlier in the week the defense filed documents formally seeking dismissal of the case or an evidentiary hearing into Morris' questioning of the company's CEO or admonition of the jury regarding the questions. The judge has denied the motions. A deputy district attorney from the office's civil division has been banned from the presence of the jury for talking to a juror. That juror and four others have been dismissed since the trial began in May. It was scheduled to end in September.