A man in Frederick, Maryland, who tossed waste in pits at a foreclosed residential property to avoid landfill fees has pleaded guilty in court to illegal solid waste disposal and water pollution, reports The Frederick News-Post.
Jack LaForce Jr., 53, was charged with four counts related to the excavation and disposal of solid waste at a rural residential property in Myersville and the resulting water pollution, according to a news release from the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.
LaForce was sentenced to four years incarceration, all suspended, and three years of probation as part of a plea agreement. The sentence includes paying fines totaling $80,000, suspending all but $30,000 owed to the Maryland Clean Water Fund and about $14,500 in restitution.
According to The Frederick News-Post, when LaForce owned a fire and flood restoration business he told his employees to excavate large pits at the Myersville property to dispose of waste.
From approximately January 2013 through December 2015, Frederick Fire and Flood Inc. employees dug pits that were then filled with waste, including carpet and carpet padding, wood and burnt wood, trash bags of domestic waste, plastic sheeting, and insulation.
The pits were covered to hide the illegal disposal, according to the attorney general’s office. The property was later resold.
“LaForce used foreclosed property to dispose of dangerous solid waste merely to save money,” Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a prepared statement. “This criminal conduct endangered the environment and put at risk the safety of citizens. Punishment for these crimes is unquestionably warranted.”
In April 2019, the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General excavated multiple areas of the property after an “extensive investigation that included interviews with former employees and a geophysical survey of the area,” the release states.
In addition to the solid waste found, investigators discovered the presence of leachate at the site.