DA drops case against Radius Recycling

The district attorney for Alameda County in California has dropped the case against Radius Recycling (formerly Schnitzer Steel) that stemmed from a two-day scrap metal fire Aug. 9-10, 2023, at the company’s West Oakland metal-shedding facility.

In the summer of 2024, then Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced that the Alameda County Criminal Grand Jury had issued a 10-count indictment against Radius Recycling Inc. and company managers Daniel Woltmann and Dane Morales, alleging that that Radius/Schnitzer, Woltmann and Morales committed numerous felony health and safety code violations, including recklessly emitting an air contaminant that caused great bodily injury or death and knowing or reckless treatment, handling, disposal or storage of hazardous waste in a manner causing an unreasonable risk of fire, explosion, serious injury or death.

However, according to local press reports, Price’s successor, Ursula Jones Dickson, who took office Feb. 18 after being selected by the county Board of Supervisors to replace Price, whom voters recalled in November 2024, decided to withdraw the case because she was uncertain she could prove the case and convict the defendants.

Radius and the two managers who were indicted will no longer face criminal charges and millions of dollars in fines as a result of the decision.

Speaking to KQED, Casey Bates, an assistant district attorney in Jones Dickson’s office, said, “This isn’t a question of us standing with polluters—we’re not. But we can only proceed where we can proceed.”

He added that the decision does not prevent the district attorney from seeking criminal charges against the company and its employees in the future or from pursuing a civil case against them.

Price told KQED her successor’s decision to dismiss the case was “outrageous” and disconcerting.

“It was grounded in the evidence and the experience of the residents of West Oakland, of the firefighters who were called to fight this very dangerous and toxic fire and who risked their lives to protect the community,” she said. ”And for the district attorney to step back from enforcing the rights of the people and holding this corporation and its corporate managers accountable is absolutely disgraceful.”

At the time of the indictment, Radius Recycling’s lawyer, Aaron Dyer, global co-chair of white collar and government investigations at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Los Angeles and a former assistant U.S. attorney, told Recycling Today, “These charges are false. Radius does not store or treat hazardous waste and did not hide or destroy any evidence. The District Attorney’s Office was at Radius the day the fire was extinguished, along with almost every state and local regulator, and they found no evidence of hazardous waste. Radius let them inspect the burned scrap metal and other fire debris and take photographs and samples. Radius then told them the company would start shredding the burned material later that day to eliminate any risk of further fire—a practice routinely used and approved by the government and fire authorities. Not once did the district attorney or any regulator object to the processing of the burned material. We are fully confident that the company’s actions will be proven to have prioritized public safety and compliance with the law.”

Recycling Today has contacted Dyer regarding the dropping of the case and will update this story once he responds.